Guinea pig rejecting babies?

CuireadhCrainn

Hi all,
my guinea pig had her first litter while I was at work - 2 dead and 2 still alive.

However, she's ignoring them and actually running away if they run towards her. Is she rejecting them? Is there anything I can or should do?

thanks for any advice.

LissyMissy

Hi
Usually the mother rejects the babies when they are too sick to survive! However, try to bottle feed the 2 remainings. Get a syringe (1ml) without a needle and feed the small ones every 3 hours (also during night!) with cat milk but be careful that you don't give them too much at onces otherwise they might get the milk into their lungs. Don't feed more than 2-3ml per fed! Hope you understand what I mean. Did you get the weight of them? This is also a good indication if they are strong enough to survive. You can also mash up some boiled carrots, pellets and fresh droppings of the mother and feed them with that via the syringe. The droppings are important because they have bacteria that help the small ones to digest! Try to cut hay into small pieces too and see if they eat that. Guinea pigs can eat "normal" food straight away. If you ever heard about Critical Care you can make up a mash of that and feed it. Your vet should have it anyways!

Sigma Force

Actually no you don't use a syringe for the first week at the very least , you feed the babies with a spoon to avoid them ingesting too much which can happen with a syringe.

Unless you can get the special tiny bottles suitable for baby guineas baby guinea pigs need to suck hard on the teat to get the milk out from their mum and in reference to peter gurneys book (he knew his stuff) syringe milk would come out too quickly.

Wrap the baby in a towel, keep it up right and feed little and often.

You need to feed the babies origional Complan watered down enough at first.
I don't think cat milk is suitable cat milk is for animals who eat meat guinea pigs are total vegetarians.

Before you think of feeding them first weigh them newborn guineas are 80 to 113g in weight if they are below 80g then you will need to hand rear them also if you dont see mum feeding them.

They can take a couple of days to start eating regular food and need the substitution as well.

If in doubt contact a vet that knows about guineas as many haven't a clue.

PM me if you're stuck.

SophieSakura

The mother might just be scared. Sometimes for the first day or so, the mother is scared of her babies. I've never seen it happen but heard of it with guinea pigs.

I know this is a few days old, so if that was the case then she's probably fine now and looking after them hopefully.

If you have to handrear them, then Sigma Force is right, don't use a syringe, try to get them to drink milk (goat's milk is meant to be best) from a spoon. Just hold the spoon up to them and see if they'll lap it.

Or you could soak their pellets in water so they turn into mush and try to get them to drink that.

And hopefully they'll go onto solid food themselves. Hopefully they're doing well now.

If they are very weak or premature then they mightn't want to eat themselves or lap up milk.