Well, thats it, I have canabalistic guinea pigs!

[GBov]

There is something well wrong with my g pig herd! This last week has seen 8 dismembered and part eaten baby g pigs with no survivors.

They get a three gallon bucket of fresh grass, a scoop of rabbit pellets, a LOT of hay and all the water they want plus any kitchen scraps they are able to eat.

Only one is thin but she is the bottom of the pecking order so gets pushed off the feed a bit more than she should be.

So that's it, my lifelong bad luck with guinea pigs couldn't kill all 10 that we started with so it just made them cannibals.

So they are all going to go to freezer camp!

Even my best sow who always has live pups and takes really good care of htem, well, she had bloody front feet and jaws at feeding time :x

 

[5dognightfarm]

How many of them are in the herd?

 

[Secuono]

Are they getting vitamin C?
Also, send them to me when you no longer want them, they'll behave for me. =D

 

[Dood]

Some bloodlines are just prone to canibalism. And once they get a taste for meat, they rarely stop.

I use to breed rodents for snake food and any cannibalism was dealt with very swiftly! Usually a female goes overboard with cleaning or there is a stillborn but they develope a taste for blood and start eating the others.

If I didn't want to cull them all, I would cull the male in the breeding group and cage the females individually until they had a litters to find out who the culprit was. Sometimes it was just 1 female, sometimes all 3 got the habit and they were culled regardless of their quality.

I once imported some expensive Swiss Websters but they went cannibalistic and even the daughters fostered to others doe were meat eaters, I went so far to actually give them raw meat to see if I could salvage them but they only wanted warm mouse so I had to cull them all

 

[akane]

If you weren't so far away I'd throw them in my less populated rabbit colony and see what they did. I've never heard of cannibalistic guinea pigs. They are generally good parents. Better than rabbits and not like other rodents which will eat meat.

 

[GBov]

I would happily give them to you guys, they are so cute I just don't want to cull them! But daaaaaang, I am so done with finding just little heads or legs in the cage, UGH!

There are now 21 in the herd.

And I was giving vit C as tablets, then as pine branches until I heard about the still birth thing linked to pine and now I just give lots and LOTS of grass and hope it has the vit c they need. So far it has kept them all healthy but the dead babies is such a bummer! Their fur looks smooth and glossy and they are all in good condition so it is so down heartening, they were an experiment in micro livestock that hasn't netted me so much as one single meal!

Shall try again with a totally different breeding line once we are settled again. We are just about to move into a place with a hundred plus year old barn so a corner will be set aside for the new g pigs but this lot, this lot has GOT to go.

 

[Secuono]

Try regular pet GPs, never had any pet pigs eat another or even anything close to it.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Try regular pet GPs, never had any pet pigs eat another or even anything close to it.

I believe that's what they started with. same as me. i never had any cannibals though.

Gbov did you ever make contact with the breeder i sent you his email? (pretty sure it was you i sent it to) the one in GA i got a pair from. the ones i got from him are doing great. if i can ever swing it i'd be getting more from him if i ever get new stock to add. i'm keepin sows from my litters of that boar's and workin on sellin off the other sows. gonna be down to the big boar and sow from him, and one other adult sow. then i have three young sows (dad is the big boar) which will be bred back to him.

so sorry about yours ):

 

[GBov]

Try regular pet GPs, never had any pet pigs eat another or even anything close to it.

I believe that's what they started with. same as me. i never had any cannibals though.

Gbov did you ever make contact with the breeder i sent you his email? (pretty sure it was you i sent it to) the one in GA i got a pair from. the ones i got from him are doing great. if i can ever swing it i'd be getting more from him if i ever get new stock to add. i'm keepin sows from my litters of that boar's and workin on sellin off the other sows. gonna be down to the big boar and sow from him, and one other adult sow. then i have three young sows (dad is the big boar) which will be bred back to him.

so sorry about yours ):

I havnt yet contacted him but, as we are once again moving, I am glad I didn't :roll: BUT! The place we are moving to has a HUGE barn so, the new plan is, to get rid of this entire bunch of g-pigs, get settled into the new place and THEN to try again only this time with good shelter and a nice large stall to put them in.

Must admit, it was a bit of a shocker to find "Snuggles" the sow looking like something from a bad horror movie yesterday :shock:

It reminded me of the time I raised long haired mice and started finding empty mouse skins in the cage. The evil little blighters were eating each other but they didn't seem to like the hides. And, being the odd person I am, I tanned a few of them and used them as rugs in my dolls house :lol: Still have them somewhere round here, they have proven most durable!

 

[Honorine]

I had this happen once, when I was a youth breeder. Its horrible because their born so complete and running around, seems so much more horrific than a rabbit eating its naked just born babies. Mine were older babies too, put me right off guinea pigs, will never have them again.

 

[Veliraf]

You say freezer camp- do you eat them? I know they are commonly eaten in south america- but didn't think they were eaten here. They'd have meaty little carcasses. I never had any luck breeding them, I had a beautiful blue roan teddy that I tried to breed- she had three beautiful little babies and then promptly hemorrhaged and died. Of course, all the literature says oh guinea pig babies will be just fine if they are orphaned. Mine if course, didn't read the same books and died one after another. Those were the last GP's I have owned :/

 

[GBov]

You say freezer camp- do you eat them? I know they are commonly eaten in south america- but didn't think they were eaten here. They'd have meaty little carcasses. I never had any luck breeding them, I had a beautiful blue roan teddy that I tried to breed- she had three beautiful little babies and then promptly hemorrhaged and died. Of course, all the literature says oh guinea pig babies will be just fine if they are orphaned. Mine if course, didn't read the same books and died one after another. Those were the last GP's I have owned :/

My plan was to eat them and as an experiment in free ranging them when we had a large fenced back yard but, in the time we have had them we have moved and are moving again so havnt done the second bit of the experiment. If they hadn't eaten most of the pups born we would be up to 50 or 60 by now and be eating them weekly.

They are so slow to start but once the snow ball starts to get really going they could easily feed a family of five!

 

[dayna]

Do you have any photos of your herd? My daughter would love to see a herd of GP's. We currently have two living in my amazon aviary.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

previous setup in the barn... pre-**** attack ): but i'm workin on getting things together inside for now until I get the hutch built.




group of babies. this was all born in one day


fattypants himi sow the day before she had her babies. she had four. she is due again today actually. waiting very impatiently



didn't mean to abduct your thread Gbov!

 

[GBov]

I LOVE thread hijacks, I tend to learn as much, or more, than in my first question :lol:

 

[akane]

I think when we get a house I'm going to grab some cheap show culls (sell for less than pets) and try an outdoor colony in our weather. I tried an indoor colony in our condo and my husband hated the guinea pigs plus we ended up with nonstop fly population explosions. We couldn't keep the pee corners and under houses clean enough.

 

[Secuono]

My brother is stationed in FL, just have him bring them up next time he drives up. =D
I always have room for GPs.

 

[GBov]

I put an add on CL for FREE guinea pigs and have only one taker and she only wants one!

:shock:

Today I put in corn plants, gourd vines, hay, sunflower seeds, pellets and sweet potato vines. And then I had a quarter scoop of game bird starter in my hand so tossed that in as well........

Every pig in the cage jumped into the high protein feed like piranhas!

Perhaps they are just a sport and really need extra protein? The livers and hearts are what get eaten in the pups, well, if there are more than three at a time, any less and they eat all but the head.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

I LOVE thread hijacks, I tend to learn as much, or more, than in my first question :lol:

hahaha love when that happens.
I think you said you weren't on FB correct? I made a group for meat GPs and tend to post mostly there. even that I've been neglectin lately lol.<br /><br />__________ Fri Aug 09, 2013 11:28 pm __________<br /><br />

I put an add on CL for FREE guinea pigs and have only one taker and she only wants one!

:shock:

Today I put in corn plants, gourd vines, hay, sunflower seeds, pellets and sweet potato vines. And then I had a quarter scoop of game bird starter in my hand so tossed that in as well........

Every pig in the cage jumped into the high protein feed like piranhas!

Perhaps they are just a sport and really need extra protein? The livers and hearts are what get eaten in the pups, well, if there are more than three at a time, any less and they eat all but the head.

wow... I haven't found much on GPs and cannibalism really but I guess its possible. mine don't get anything amazing and they haven't gone nuts... hm...