Hi new here and a few questions

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LesleyA

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Hello :)

I just joined this forum. It looks very informative! We just bought two sow piggies for our little girl, who has always wanted some Guinea Pigs. We have not kept them before. They are quite obviously a mother and daughter, and the mother is obviously heavily pregnant. The mother shows dominant behaviour in the hutch (indoors) and chases the little girl away from the water bottle and forces her to sleep in the hay rack. When they are in the grazing run in the day they "rumblestrut" (have I got that right lol) and chase around the run, also they nibble the grass and dandelions, so I'm not sure if they are happy and just posturing or if they should be split? We do have another hutch, and we put the baby in it last night but she was calling for the other piggy. My worry is that when the babies are born it might get worse? Could anyone advise? Maybe the pregnancy/babies changes the dynamics? Thanks!
 
Welcome and congratulation on your piggies!

Don't split until you are worried they might injure each other. Piggies often bicker without serious results, it's just a way of hanging out, it seems :)

Another sow can help with babies, but sometimes she tries to take over and then maybe you yould split the group off somehow. Hopefully this won't happen! If you get a boy pup you can keep him and have him neutered. Boars are great peace keepers!
 
Hi! Welcome to the forum!

It is a difficult situation because the daughter will put up with anything in order to not be alone; however mummy obviously doesn't want her around, which is not unusual for heavily pregnant sows.

With the birth not far away, of course, you do not want to make any definite arrangements, as you have to see how many and which sex babies mummy will get.

If you keep the daughter separate, make sure that she has a cuddly toy to curl up with and company during the day; you can try to reintroduce her on neutral ground a few days after the birth and see how that goes.

Make sure that you give mummy plenty of vitamin C (extra slice of pepper or more borccoli is enough if mummy eats veg) and alfalfa hay during pregnancy and nursing (extra calcium for the pups' bones).

You will need to separate any baby boys at three weeks old in order to avoid "accidents", as boys can start the next generation even before they stop nursing! Look out for any signs of mum being suddenly very listless and off food - you need to see a vet asap for pregnancy toxaemia (blood poisoning); a sow can go downhill very quickly.

Here is more info on pregnancy and birth:
http://www.guinealynx.info/reproduction.html, also look up link labor and faq

Sexing babies:
http://www.cavyspirit.com/sexing.htm

Please do not hesitate to ask any questions you may have.
 
Hi, I have 2 females together too I got them from a petshop and one was pregnant. Mine did the usual dominance thing but there was no real issue as Cuddles (pregnant one) seemed to accept being the "underpig".

However near the birth she did seem irritated by Fudge's dominance and I did have a bit of scuffling but again no serious damage. After the babies were born I had to put Fudge into another cage as she was bullying the babies, some "Aunties" are happier than others but Fudge wasn't one of them!

After 2½ weeks I separated the 3 babies (all boys) away from Cuddles (Mum) because they were starting to rumblestrut and hump her. I then reintroduced Fudge and Cuddles on mutual ground, scrubbed out the cage and put them back and have had no problems since, they went back together straight away with no issues whatsoever.

So it could just be that your pregnant sow doesn't want any other pigs around at the moment but might be ok once the birth and the babies are separated.

Are you planning to keep any of the babies, I wasn't planning to keep ours but unfortunately I fell in love....
 
Thanks everyone for the advice :) I think we may keep one or possibly two babies but we will have to see. We have family who would like one or two so it depends on how many she has. She is not huge like some photos I have seen so maybe she will have two or three babies? She is definitely pregnant as today we gently put our hands on her sides and we could feel the babies kicking around! Amazing! We have put the baby girl in with mum tonight. They spend all day out in the grazing run and seem to enjoy themselves and we bring them indoors in the evening. They have been squeaking and chasing again and the little one is in the hay rack! The funny thing is that it is the little one who "rumblestruts" even though the mum chases her away from the water bottle. Also the mum keeps mounting the baby too.
 
Congratulations on getting guinea pigs and welcome to the forum. You're going to have a busy time. :)

Can I just ask if you're sure your baby is a girl. I notice you said you hadn't had guinea pigs before.
 
Mum mounting baby is another display of dominance the same as the rumblestrutting, i'd not separate them unless physical wounds are inflicted :)
 
Well...they have settled down fine. They are a mum/daughter and were already together so maybe it was the new surroundings making them compete? Anyway they snuggle together now and "popcorn" in the runs so all is well:) Thanks everyone for your quick advice!
 
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