How old was your guinea pig when it passed away?

I’m sure you didn’t mean it that way but I find this post is a little…dismissive, demanding (the exclamation mark) and somewhat light-hearted. I don’t feel that a vote is suited to this kind of question. If you read the posts in this section, you can probably find out how old a lot of piggies are when they toddled off to the rainbow.

Others of course may think otherwise. But on this occasion I will have to decline voting. 🙂
 
Hi

Can you please tell us why/for which purpose you want to hold a poll?

Sorry, with around 70 Rainbow Bridge piggies in 50 years that is a bit too much of a job for me.

The youngest two that I have lost were around 1 year old/just days after their second birthday (both from genetically determined sudden acute heart failure) and the oldest two lived to 9 years. The majority of my piggies have lived to around 4-8 years with the bulk living to around 5-7 years as far as I can say, seeing that over the years I have adopted several guinea pigs whose age is/was unknown and had to be estimated.

Guinea Pig Facts - An Overview

PS: I have moved this thread from the Rainbow Bridge section to Guinea Pig Chat as the subject and tone of the post can come across as hurtful to especially newly bereaved owners.
 
The youngest I have lost a pig is 6 months, he passed very suddenly and we will never know the exact cause.

Perhaps this post could be moved into another section, as some grieving their/others piggies may find this a bit upsetting.
 
This would be a great survey to get some more results for.

Unfortunately my eldest was only 4- all of my piggies died/ were pts due to illnesses such as bladder stones or teeth troubles, and surgical complications like septic peritonitis. :(

Freddie (3)- March 2015- May 2018 (Molar malocclusion)
Scruffles (4)- March 2015- March 2019 (Vets were unsure, but unsuccessfully treated for a URI)
Percy (2)- December 2018- December 2020 (bladder stones)
Teebo (4)- February 2018- June 2022 (bladder stones and subsequent septic peritonitis from surgery)

Hopefully veterinary medicine will continue to advance for our piggies. Teebo had the best care from an incredible exotic vet, but unfortunately nature took a different course.

I've attached some photos, as I feel like this thread might get a bit depressing. (I agree with piggl, this should probably be moved to a different section of the forum). I hope people will find it a useful resource though- I know that on some hamster forums the data has been collated into graphs etc, making it possible to spot trends over time.
 

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Having lost over 30 piggies at this point, it's a bit hard to fill in a poll, but I have lost them from 1 year to 11 years, and most ages in between for varying reasons.
 
A Guinea Pig said:
Very sorry if this made anyone feel uncomfortable in any way. My apologies.
Click to expand...
No problem- I'm sure you meant no harm.
I like to think we're a very caring community to ask questions of, as you have noted :)
(And I agree that it's good to do your own research on life expectancies, as the often-quoted statistics on articles around the Web of 6-8 years aren't really very accurate.)
 
So many of mine have come from rescue and it's been unclear exactly how old they are. We made guesses but for many of them I don't know how old they were when they passed.
 
I’ve deleted your poll as I have found it distasteful. And in my opinion there is nothing much to gain from it remaining on the forum.
Guinea pig longevity is multi factorial. Genetics, husbandry and access to exotic veterinary care all play a part.
How old were your own guinea pigs when they passed?
 
A Guinea Pig said:
Very sorry if this made anyone feel uncomfortable in any way. My apologies.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your apology. Our Rainbow Bridge section is a virtual place of memorial and should be treated with the same respect and sensitivity you would show their physical equivalents, which is why I felt it necessary to move your thread.

You are welcome to go through the threads in the Rainbow Bridge section (which with over 4000 threads should be significant enough to be representational) and look up the ages on your own if you wish to do any more serious statistical research - just the same as you can visit any human cemetery to look at the ages on the grave markers in order to get a rough idea of the life span of the area's inhabitants and what it says about the general living conditions of that community; but you would never think of personally asking cemetery visitors about the age their beloved ones died at, would you?
You are however perfectly fine to raise this question in Guinea Pig Chat where there is no direct connection to a loss a much as you are fine to talk about human, a community's or your own family's general life expectancy in another context. It is actually a surprisingly interesting field of social as well as historical research.

I have lost my mainly rescue adoptee piggies at pretty much all ages; good normal care and a mainly hay and not vegetable and pellet-based diet can prolong the average life span by around 1-2 years in my own experience and take a healthy piggy from the lower end of to the upper end of the average life span whichs seems to peak at 5-6 years. You will also find that the average life span in different social media groups can be influenced by the level of care and diet promoted by each group and where they are generally sourcing their piggies from.

What you can never do anything about are genetic issues, vet access/bad timing of illnesses or quick declines that would have needed an exotic vet or an emergency op, conditions that are beyond the current veterinary abilities, sudden deaths etc. which can all happen at any age. Guinea pigs are prey animals and wired to suppress signs of illness as much as possible. By the time they no longer can do this, they are usually already very ill and well advanced. They also have a much faster metabolism than larger predatory pets, which turns against them in illness and old age as the veterinary system is not laid out for that and many medications take some time to kick in fully.
In my own long term experience, my younger age losses below 4-5 years roughly balance out my piggies that have lived beyond 6-7 years.
 
I'm still hurting from when I had to take my first piggy on the dreaded on way vet trip over 4 years ago, since then I have lost 6 more and each one takes a bit more of my heart with them. I love all my piggies dearly, give them the best possible life I can. I appreciate the fact that you didn't mean to cause offence but I find it very upsetting that you want to know how old my guinea pigs were when they toddled off to the Rainbow Bridge (with or without assistance).
 
Most of mine have passed away between the age of 6 and 7 (anywhere between 6 years and 3 months to 6 years and 10 months), but we lost one really young at 18 months after a serious dental abscess and an inexperienced vet.
 
My oldest piggie is about 8-9 years old, she's still going strong & healthy, bless her soul.

As far as my passed piggies, my oldest was Gordon, he was about 7yrs old.
He passed of old age, he started to decline & went peacefully.
Charlotte - she was 6yrs old (bloat).
Maisie - she was 5 (swollen cecum area/bloat)
Maple - she was 3 (GI stasis).

I miss them dearly.
 
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