The guinea pig pup wait has begun

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akane

akane

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Guinea pigs aren't as exact as rabbits and they have heat cycles. Rather than try to figure out each one's heat cycle I left the boar with all 3 for 16 days which is a full cycle for a guinea pig. They all should have gotten pregnant within 16 days but they also can go from 63 to 72 days of gestation. Today marks the earliest possible due date. Now we wait... :popcorn:
 
First litter is usually 2-3. Later litters can go up to 8 but usually aren't more than 5. They could technically be weaned after 24hrs once they get colostrum because they don't rely on milk. I have pics of 3 day olds eating pellets and 24hr old pups with fresh alfalfa. Most though wait 3-4weeks and then at least separate the boars even if they leave the sow pups longer because they can occasionally breed that early.
 
What do you do with those pigs? I can't even sell my rescue pigs for dang near free.
 
Meat. Mainly dog food because of their size. They are nearly as efficient as rabbits and you can actually live on them unlike rabbit which has so little fat you'd starve to death eating only that. The dogs start to suffer if they have more than 50% rabbit in their raw diet so I have to make up the other 50% with something.
 
mine go as pets mostly($10-15 each). rescue pigs sell for $5. (or the the pet zoo guy for $1).

I can sell them to the dog food people as well for $2-5.
 
The pet market is pretty full here but everyone wants $20 for their pig to make sure it doesn't go for feeder animals. That's actually the problem. The only people buying the pigs are the ones who are willing to spend $20 on a pet quality guinea pig and they stay in the gene pool while yet another person has an accident or breeds on purpose and then can't find homes because they want $20 for them.

We removed 6 from the pet gene pool in to meat production and then bought a few show quality pigs. Waiting on those to grow up. The show crowd suggests 8months before breeding. Personally I'd recommend 4-6 for other purposes. The ones I am waiting on now are closer to a year old but some have had pups before and that's how the person ended up with 8 minus what she'd managed to sell before they got too old to appeal to the pet crowd.<br /><br />__________ Sat Jun 23, 2012 8:21 pm __________<br /><br />Olida is ready to explode any day now. Hoping for some roan babies with less white since she just has 2 small patches of color.

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Nope. I didn't know a guinea pig could get that big. Her belly dropped days ago and she now looks like a baseball with a head. We decided she's probably bigger than a baseball and I'm afraid to handle her for pics or anything. My husband tried to reason with her that it would be more comfortable to have them but it doesn't seem to have worked. We are now calling her a walking gourd and expect our guinea pig herd to double eventually. Although she doesn't really walk much. She waddles to the water and the pellets twice a day and eats any greens I put within reach from the doorway of her house. It's a race between her and mallow now as to who pops first.<br /><br />__________ Mon Jul 16, 2012 1:38 pm __________<br /><br />Lost one. The quiet tricolor that always just kept out of the way attempted to deliver last night and I found her body this morning already stiff. No chance of saving any pups.
 
Finally 3 tricolored pups with I think one aby. She had 7 but 4 didn't make it. #4 probably held up the group and suffocated the rest. I'm just glad we didn't lose another sow with how huge she got. Mallow is starting to get the low belly and pancake look from above so more soon. We played musical cages and switched Mallow with the young sow Zeera who isn't ready to breed and than put Kalan, the chocolate marten boar, in with all the breeding age females. I've decided to keep sows from him for future breeding and none from the tri boar. I want to move them towards solid show colors since random white and tricolor keeps all but the ones judged on special coat type from being show quality.

Pictures when my camera reappears....
 
..................I somehow had no idea that dogs could eat guinea pigs. O.O How are they offered? Do you skin them or just...hand 'em a dead pig? I'm...rather curious now! :D
 
Glad to hear Mom and pups are doing well. So sorry for the loss of the 4 though. I'm fascinated with Guinea Pigs. I never had them, but knew a few people who did. Such sweet creatures. Wanted to get one but husband, who had one as a child, like him, just could take the squeaking.

Hope your camera reappears, would love to see your piggies. Never knew there were so many different breeds. And now colors and patterns. Just like rabbits.

Karen
 
Guinea pigs are a main meat source in their native land. They build little huts for them in the kitchen or little pens nearby outside and feed them on table scraps and forage. Once they have established a safe hiding place guinea pigs will keep returning and having more pups so you can free range them aside from the potential predator problems.

Our dogs won't eat anything with fur on it. They just slobber it up and take it apart like it was a stuffed animal. I also dislike leaving the digestive tract in there so our dog food is pretty well processed and bagged in individual sized portions. It takes them 3-4 days/bags per rabbit and 2 days/bags per guinea pig to get one entire animal. Not every meal has to include the same percentage of bone, muscle, and organ meat. Just the diet over time needs to balance.
 
Box of guinea pups
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3 tris from olida and 2 blacks, one with a snip on it's nose, and 1 golden agouti from Mallow.
 

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