baby guineapigs (and their rubbish mother) advice please urgent

[OnlyWantsOne]

Hi,

I have 2 female guineapigs, which we thought would be nice if they had some babies (so we used our boar, that lives seperately)

Any hoo...

Mother 1 had her babies last wed (3 - very cute)

Mother 2 had her babies yesterday (4 also very cute)

However, mother 2 doesnt seem to want to know, walks away, even bashes them - and Mother 1 (Called Custard) Has fed them at least once, then she gets annoyed and wants to feed her own - so bashes them away...

what do I do?

You need to remove the mother as soon as you can.

Then wet nurse them...my book recommends the fortified convalescent drinks, but making it warm and more dilute, offered on a tea spoon. But don't let them stick their noses in...

Other than that, call your vet & ask what they recommend, but you must remove the mother before she hurts them.

Actually....do you know if her milk is in? Newborn can last upto 24 hours without milk...so I guess you need to upturn her & squeeze her nipple to check if it is there.

I am assuming that baby batch #2 are over 12 hrs old? You shouldn't feed them before that.

If you have to wet nurse them, you have to help them poo too, by stimulation their bottom, usually with a damp cotton bud.

They also need 'maternal' warmth, so this needs to be addressed too, if mum #1 won't provide it.

Good Website

Dh said after about 2 days, they can have weetbix in milk...very runny tho. He has had loads of GP & has hand reared a couple.

One of our guinea pigs had a hard labour, I think, and showed no interest in her babies for the first day. it was a hot summer day and she lay there uninterseted. we thought one of the babies was being totally rejected. but the good news is she did recover, and looked after all 3 babies, who all grew up and are now healthy adults. so maybe it just takes a bit of time. They don't like hot weather so that might not be helping. are they somewhere cool and shady and private?

they were born yesterday afternoon, have removed other guineapig and her babies incase they were stressing her out.

Will leave it for a couple of hours and see what happens, I dont want to interfer as long as I dont have to.

Thank you for all your advice.

My week old babies and mum are running around in some long grass in the sun shine and are popcorning - so cute

My experience with gps is that they can go downhill very quickly without showing any signs beforehand.

You could contact the Cambridge Cavy Trust for advice. They are brilliant and are experts with all guinea pig related issues.

went to the vets and asked nurse, she told me what to make and how to feed them.

I took them away from their mother about 7pm (which I fell really guilty about) and kept them in the house with me over night, fed at 11, 3 and 5... they are now out in the sunshine eating grass with the other mother and her babies.

thank fully they eat from the syringe quite nicely, but the smallest one takes some convincing. They seem to all be boys, and the largest one drinks 2.5 ml in one go, the smaller one only takes .5ml at once

She advised a syringe? Please be careful, baby pigs cannot co-ordinate breathing & eating, so can easily breathe in the food which can get to their lungs.

Have you tried reintroducing the mother to see what happens?

she attacked them

That's no good. Have you had her checked out, maybe she is ill after the birth?

I know that rejection like this happens, albeit rare, but I think I'd get her looked at, just in case.

Is she OK in herself?

shes fine trotting about eating grass - when ever the babies go close to her she makes an odd sound and bashes them with her head.

Awww, that's sad! Poor babies & mum

she seems happy and they are now fine, running around in the grass munching... everynow and a gain im poking the syringe through the bars and the big ones run up and have some milk

How are they all doing now?

If you do it again , separate out the pregnant mums into two separate cages before the little ones are born. Guinea pigs are usually sociable and love company, but this changes when they have babies - they need their own space or they can reject their young.

Hope they are doing well!