Taking Care of Guinea Pig Babies
Taking care of guinea pigs is not limited to taking care of them alone. Of course, it also includes proliferation, and that means breeding and having guinea pig babies.
A mother guinea pig can give birth to two or three guinea pig babies after going though pregnancy for three months. Usually, the father stays away when the female gives birth, but there are also times when he stays around and helps clean the baby rodents.
Unlike dogs, you can handle the newborn babies immediately after they are born, but they cannot be separated from their mothers yet until about three to six weeks after. During that time, the mother will still be feeding her babies with her own milk and wean them. But even if they have to be weaned, it is amazing to know that they can immediately eat hard food minutes after they are born.
It is advisable to also separate them by gender as soon as they reach the sixth week as well. On the sixth week, the female baby guinea pig will be able to go through pregnancy already, and the male will be able to mate ten weeks after. If you do not immediately separate them, they may end up mating with each other, and it may not be a good idea since they might end up having genetic defects.
But how will you know which among the guinea pig babies is the male and who is the female? It may not be as easy determining their genders as that of a dog’s, but it is possible. To know their gender, all you have to do is to gently push on their stomach near their private area. A penis will usually emerge if it is a male, and nothing will come out if it is a female. Take note also, that in females, their anus and female organ are usually close together.
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