Guinea Pig - not eating or drinking

[Piper]

Callie, my Abyssinian, is going down. She is not eating or drinking. She has her head, at the door of her hut, with a slice of bell pepper under her nose. For Callie to not have inhaled that bell pepper...
- The light colored piggie (Cassie) is an extra large neutered cavy, that is almost twice as big as she is. He has been gone (to a friend) for about 3 weeks.
- Callie and the other 3 females are due, to have babies, at the end of this month.

 

[ladysown]

that's too bad. have you checked her over to see if there is something else going on?

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Sorry, Piper.

Does she have a mineral block? Maybe she is lacking salt, so isn't drinking, which would result in her not eating?

 

[akane]

Dissolve pellets in pedialyte, pureed plain(no sweeteners)juice like Naked Juice, Odwalla or a pureed banana, or if nothing else some gatorade. Make it soup and syringe it down her. If you do not get food down her every 24hrs her digestive tract will stop and you will be doomed. Syringe feed her the mixture warm every few hours (you can skip nights and sleep) until you figure out what's wrong and can get her to eat it off a spoon and then out of a dish and then slowly wean back to regular pellets. This is what we've done for guinea pigs who had surgery and weren't feeling up to eating.

 

[Piper]

that's too bad. have you checked her over to see if there is something else going on?

Nothing is obviously wrong. She's been like this, since 8am this morning. My first thought, if she was sick, was to look for diarrhea, so gently cleaned, her (already clean) bottom.
- I do not have any poisonous yard plants (that I know of) and mow with the reel mower, then give them the clippings.

Does she have a mineral block? Maybe she is lacking salt, so isn't drinking, which would result in her not eating?

Mineral Block - check. Mineral Blocks can be placed on top of their plastic houses, and that cage has 3 houses, with two mineral / salt blocks. When I brought her inside, this morning, I brought a mineral block, with her.
akane - I think she is already gone. But I will bookmark your advice. I am actively breeding, and doubt that this will be the last time, I have problems.
Thank You, to everyone!

 

[akane]

If she shows no other symptoms I would say pregnancy complications. She could have had a pup die and go septic. Complications are very common with guinea pigs since they carry so long and there's nothing you can really do. We lost 1 overnight our first round of breeding. 2nd round is getting ready to give birth.

 

[ladysown]

why are you thinking pregnancy complications akane?

 

[akane]

Because odds are if you have a guinea pig that's pregnant and dies it had complications since they are sooooooo commmon and there are no other symptoms here. After breeding pet quality ones since I was about 5 I have to say every time you breed more than just a few guinea pigs you've got about 80% odds of losing one. Show pigs might be a little better odds but no one has bred pet pigs for survival. Most are accidents and that doesn't lead to good genetics.

 

[skysthelimit]

I lost a rabbit when they were about three weeks pregnant, just suddenly stopped eating and died within 3-4 days. Same symptoms or lack of, no commonalities except pregnancy. Almost lost another, but I recognized the systems ans took immediate action, saved the doe but not the litter.

 

[Piper]

Frustating - not knowing why.

It hurts my breeding.
1) She was the only one, that was true enough to type, that I might be able to start a pedigree, she was also the only one that already knew her name, I will miss her.
2) That leaves me with a boar, (and 3 bred sows) Sr. Sow, and her two daughters (from an unrelated boar), in a colony.
- For me, the guinea pigs, have been easier than the rabbits, partly because they are already in a colony.
Questions:
Can I leave all sows, to have babies in the colony?
Should I have a 'house' for each piggie, to give birth? Right now the daughters, still share their mother's house, or have been outside her house.
Separate at 3 weeks, to keep boars from fighting / sows getting bred?
Butcher at 4-5months, when their growth slows down?
Mature at ten months - breed then? I am trying to get larger piggies, so it would be better to know who will get the largest, or can you tell (what Sr. size will be) at a younger age?
When to start giving the baby piggies, a piece of chewable vitamin C?
Live for three to six years?
This article refers to Peru developing / breeding up the guinea pig to 5 pounds. Where could I get breeding stock?
http://www.guineapigtoday.com/2012/06/2 ... ejorados/#
And this article refers to 7 pounds
http://houstonist.com/2006/12/01/on_local_menus.php

 

[ladysown]

i have lost in seven years of breeding pigs three sows to pregnancy issues. None of mine are show stock, so pregnancy complications are things I rarely think about and I simply hadn't recalled reading she was pregnant.

As to keeping guinea pigs.

I LOVE keeping my sows in a colony. They will help raise each others pups. They will discipline each other pups which makes it even easier to keep colony raising them. if you do lose the odd one

When raising as a colony you must remove the pups at three weeks. If you run the boar with them all the pups need to be removed at three weeks, the boys to one spot the girls to another. Otherwise just take the boys out and stick them in with dad. They'll be fine with him as long as the area is big enough.

I start breeding mine at 4-5 months of age, just like the rabbits. They pup and do well. First litters most often will result in 2-3 pups, subsequent litters generally are 3-5 pups. I had ONE in seven years who had 10 pups in her, she died as about three of them died in womb and that's just not a good thing. It was her first breeding and it was a very unusual thing.

I stop breeding when they are 2 since the other two losses I had were older sows with big pups. I find the older they get the bigger their pups are and dislike having sows die due to breeding issues.

I provide lots of housing for them, it gives them areas to scamper to. You'll need it anyways for when the pups come.

I find the young pups start nibbling on vitamin C when they are about 4-5 weeks old, I did have one precocious big one start at two weeks though. She became a vitamin C thief and I have to hold her so the others get dibs first.

You'll be able to tell by four-five months who will be the biggest.

 

[Piper]

for now, they are in a ground level, movable cage, that is 1x1 wire. Could babies get out?
23tall 24deep 72long (all measurements are inches) - Considering 3 sows x 3 babies each = 9 total -- will that be enough room, until, I separate the babies at 3 weeks? They should be due about the end of this month, (my friend bred them) and will take out the boar, by the 25th. If I do not get him out in time, could he hurt the babies?

 

[ladysown]

no the babies will be fine with 1 x 1 wire.

so that two feet by six feet right? I keep mine in a 4 x 4 in the summer... about five sows or so and they have lots of room even with littles running around.

the boar will not hurt the babies. Boars tend to be really nice with the little ones.