Lethal baby or not?

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Melodystique

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Hello,

We have two piggies, boy and girl. They are siblings and they are around four months old. Just when we decided to separate them so they would not start breeding, we found out that our female was pregnant.

She had a beatiful all white baby. We are first time owners and had never had a pet have babies like that before. Even though I am do not know a lot about guinea pigs, I knew that our new baby was special as I did not recall ever seing an all white guinea pig before.

I searched online and found out about the lethal guinea pigs. I saw that she did fit the description as she was all white but I could not find enough information as of how to know for sure if she was doomed to an early death or not. I have been very upset about this since our baby is so beautiful and apparently healthy and our kids are totally in love with her. I wish I could have some expert help knowing more about this and whether she is a lethal guinea pig or not... help!
8...
 
Firstly let me welcome you all to the forum :)
ahhhhh yes well piggies can fall pregnant from a very young age, usually they're separted at around the 3 weeks age.
I'm not going to be able to help you re the lethal, i'm sure some of our lovely members when they wake up will be able to advise you better :)
If you get some time, perhaps you could put up some pigtures and a little comment/name about each one of your piggies in our stories/photo section :)
Good luck with your little one XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Glynis, Velvet and Onyx x
 
One of our members has cared for two lethals x)
i will send her a message ..... she might be able to advise you.

Are you in the UK? someone maybe able to also advise a good cavy savvy vet for her and your piggies :)
 
lethal pigs are white pigs, however not all white pigs are lethal as you can have white pigs, my rex is a white pig and she is not a lethal.

Lethal is a term for a pig that has for want of a better word, genetic deformities due to a certain type of breeding - this link (scroll down) explains it for you http://www.guinealynx.info/eyes.html

It has been discussed a few times http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=84192

and a bit more information http://www.australiancavysanctuary.com/latestnewsthelethalgene.html
 
Don't worry too much! As Pepperdog said lethal babies are always white but not all white piggies are Lethals.

Pigs with pink eyes and white coats are known as Pink Eyed Whites (PEW) and those with dark eyes are known as Dark Eyed Whites (DEW). These pigs will have normal physiology, normal sight and hearing and no more inherent problems than your average piggy.

Lethals are always white and have a gene mutation that affects pigmentation as well as eye and inner ear development. They are often blind/partially sighted and deaf and many have dental issues ranging from mild to severe. They often also have gut problems leading to malabsorption fo nutrients so they are often smaller than their healthier counterparts. Often the most sever lethal babies are born dead, others survives a few days/hours. Milder cases go on to live for some years.



This does not mean they can't live a full life though for however long that may be!

You will hopefully be able to watch your baby and see if it is responding properly to sights and sounds around it. Clues that they have problems can include sitting staring into the corner, not running away when a loud noise occurs and bumping into things. They can also develop a head tilt.

Just keep an eye on them but it sounds like you just have a healthy white piggy! Also be aware very few vets are aware of lethal gene pigs so you may struggle to get recognition of problems if they do have issues.

Good Luck!
 
If you could post pictures of the parents to show their colouring this will help to determine whether they are capable of producing a 'lethal' gene baby.

When both parents are roan or dalmatian then each baby has a 25% chance of having the combination of genes that cause the problems Merrypip has listed.

If you are unable to post pics you are welcome to email them to me at the rescue and I will post them on your behalf.

HTH

Suzy x
 
Just a thought going on from this, there is no reason why all three of your pigs cannot live together - but you will need to get your boar neutered. If you decide to do this, check out the list of vets on here, as not all are cavy savvy, and it is very important to find a good vet with experience of neutering pigs or you could have complications. If you decide to do this, you will need to wait for 6 weeks after the boar has been done before he can go back with the sows to avoid possible pregnancies.
 
Thanks so much for your responses, I will post pictures of the parents and my sweet baby so you can have more insight. I live in the US and chose to separate the parents because I did not want to risk it since I heard there are some risks with neutering/spraying.
I am trying to find my way on this forum so I hope I do it correctly :)p
 
My Amy had a REW in her litter.
I was concerned at first because I knew these could have the lethal gene but it turned out to be otherwise. The REW was completely healthy, infact it was the biggest baby of the group and very very greedy!
 
Ok, pardon my stupidity but is there another way to post a pic that is not through an url?
 
Melodystique said:
Ok, pardon my stupidity but is there another way to post a pic that is not through an url?
Click to expand...

The best way to upload photos is through photobucket. If you already have an account then just copy and paste the code.

Here's a step-to-step guide to help you [url]http://theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=88068[/url]
 
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