Pregnant foster pig

kitgal421

Post   » Sun Nov 12, 2017 9:04 pm


I'm currently fostering a pregnant guinea pig for the shelter I work at. Her name is Elle (or Elley the Belly as I call her) and I've had her for about a month now and she should be due to pop any day!! She is such a sweet piggy and it's amazing to watch her through the pregnancy. The couple of days the babies have been SO active. I can feel like jumping around, kicking, and I can even hear them chattering!! The biggest surprise with her though is that she is a chirper! I was reading in bed last night and I nearly dropped my kindle when I heard her! It seriously sounded like a tiny bird was in the room!! Alright, enough of me talking. Here is the good stuff....pictures!

This was the day I took her home (October 10th):
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This is her on October 15th:
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October 27th:
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November 6th:
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November 10:
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Yesterday!:
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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sun Nov 12, 2017 10:38 pm


Be very very careful handling her! You are great for fostering this gal. I hope things go well. She is awfully large. If you can avoid handling her, I would try to do so.

JX4

Post   » Tue Nov 14, 2017 5:00 pm


Do you know how old the mom is? She looks young to me. Be extra careful with her. She looks like she has a lot of pups, and that means her delivery could be hard on her. Ours was young and carried 4 pups. Her femurs broke either before or during delivery because the developing pups depleted her bones of nutrients. In your last photo your pig is lying down in the same sort of way ours did before her delivery. If she cannot seem to walk normally after the delivery, you may need to get her x-rayed.

kitgal421

Post   » Wed Nov 15, 2017 10:44 am


GREAT NEWS!!! WE HAVE TWO HEALTHY BABIES! :D

Labor was short and sweet, both mom and babies seem to be doing great. Sadly, I don't think this was her first time. She seemed well aware of what needed to be done. She cleaned them right up and got to nursing. A bit later I put some lettuce in her bowl across the cage so I could watch her walk. Doesn't seem to be having any problems walking, but thank you so much for letting me know that was something to watch out for! She is currently resting in her igloo while the two babies nurse.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Wed Nov 15, 2017 7:33 pm


Congrats! They are painfully adorable!

JX4

Post   » Wed Nov 15, 2017 8:25 pm


The babies are ADORABLE!!

Just because your mom knows what to do doesn't necessarily mean that she's done this before. Neither of our moms had ever given birth before and they got to work on the babies pretty quickly and nursed pretty well.

You need to replace the igloo with some sort of shelter with more ventilation. One of our mom's tried to nurse in an igloo (before we knew better about igloos) and it was not healthy for them. The mom will want to feel like she's enclosed, but if you could get something that has two entrances/exits instead of one that will help tremendously with ventilation.

WICharlie

Post   » Thu Nov 16, 2017 4:58 pm


Have you baby proofed the cage? Otherwise, the babies can fit right through the opening in the grids.

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lisam

Post   » Thu Nov 16, 2017 9:08 pm


Ditto to the last two posts.

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Catie Cavy
Supporter 2011-2020

Post   » Fri Nov 17, 2017 7:08 am


I’m so glad everything went well. The babies are adorable. I’m surprised she only had two in there; she was so huge. I wonder if they are larger than average babies.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri Nov 17, 2017 7:20 am


They are big! Large pups can cause complications. I too am so glad the birth went well.

kitgal421

Post   » Fri Nov 17, 2017 10:15 am


I have now removed the igloo. Also, the walls of the cage or too big for the babies to get to the grids. I made sure to read about baby proofing, so all good there!

We had our first vet check up yesterday. They double checked mom and confirmed that everything was well. The babies are both boys so I know they will need to be separated in a couple weeks, sad as that sounds. It's too bad, because they are all SO cute together. The ginger/white boy weighs 4oz and the little tricolor weighs 4.5oz. I'm still trying to think up names for them. I'm SO in love with all of them. I'm not sure how I'm going to give them back up for adoption. Being just the foster momma is so heartbreaking sometimes.

JX4

Post   » Fri Nov 17, 2017 4:04 pm


If the boys are kept together since birth they will be well-bonded. Hopefully they can stay together.

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