Adopted 3 guinea pigs advice on pregnancy

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Ok long story. So we visited pets at home yesterday to adopt 2 guinea pigs from their adoption centre. Told to come back today as that was the date they were due to be adopted from. Return this morning only to be told from 5pm. So we drive back and find that they have been adopted . We ask to speak to the manager and he takes us into the back room and apologises but tells us he has 3 young sisters (7mnths) handed in on the 23rd January who he will let us adopt. They had come from an elderly guinea pig hoarder and in the confusion had been housed with their brother in pets at home. I felt guilt tripped into taking all 3 because their future was uncertain they could be pts and the manager said they didn't look pregnant to him, I just couldn'tleave them aoone in that tiny store cupboard. He knew we had no experience with guinea pigs let alone potentially pregnant ones but I (foolishly) took all 3 sisters home. So how likely are they to be pregnant? Should I take them to the vets? We are committed to them and want to give them the best care. I asked if I should take them to the vets etc but he just said to leave them to it and drop the babies if it happens back in 6wks (won't be happening). Please don't tell me I'm stupid I genuinely want what's best for them. We have done so much research on guinea pigs but not pregnancy. I just need advice, thanks all

Sorry for any spelling mistakes, just to clarify he meant drop any babies back 6wks after birth.

Personally I’d leave it a week or so and take them for a check up at the vets. The vet can check their general health and see if they’re pregnant or not.
Piggies make great pets! Congratulations on your new 3!!

Have you got a guinea pig rescue local to you? Contact them for advice and they can help with the rehoming of any babies.

Thank you @Chocolatecake12 they are being left alone to settle in but it was so sweet hearing them talk to each other. How likely is it do you think that they may be pregnant?

I'm willing to neuter any males which may be born and keep them all but I just want what's best for them. I asked if all 3 sisters are fine left in together if one gives birth and he said it's fine leave them to it then whip the babies out after 6wks.

We got a Guinea pig who was pregnant when we got her (unknown). Looks like they can be pregnant for 10 weeks. The sow will get fat and then you will know. They don't need assistance to give birth (but unfortunately some of the babies may not survive 😔). The babies will need to be sexed soon after birth as boys will be able to mate from 8 weeks 😱. The rescue could help you.

It deoebds on tge male IME. Some are increfibly efficiebt, but others are really not botgered at all! Itll become obvious in a week or rwo as tgeir bellues get sirt of soft and squooshy when pregant, and then fill up with babies - generally 3 at a time, but between 2-5 is pretty normal.

Contacting a local rescue is an excellent idea. However, I would add not to leave the male babies a full 6, weeks before removing them if you can. We had male babies impregnate their mum at just 3 weeks old!

Guinea pigs are great mum's and aunties, so if you do have pregnant piggies, it will likely be very smooth sailing.

Oh dear Lord those typos!!! Sorry!

Was going to say they do seem to take care of themselves with no hassle. The babies are just like mini adults needing no extra work. But boys can impregnate from three weeks so you need to get them out then

Blinkin heck 3wks . I haven't had a good look at these 3 yet or had a hold I don't want to stress them out further. But I will take photos of them so I can compare over the coming weeks. They are so very cute though and make the sweetest noises to each other.

First - Welcome to your new lovely piggies .

Give them time to settle they'll be disorientated and scared .

Guinea-pig gestatation takes 63-70 days . Average litter is 3 piglets (or 'pups' is the proper name but piglets is cuter)

Yes males are very fertile very young and think nothing about mating with their mum or female siblings .
Bad news is interbreeding can lead to birth defects . (My GP4 and GP5 were ex bred rescues who had been interbred . We got them the day after they weaned but sadly most of their piglets didn't survive)

Personally , I wouldn't take any piglets back to Pets at Home .
I don't know if they can even accept them, there's no traceability of the breeding. They get the animals from Rodent Farm/Breeders .

I'm also smelling bullshit on the "elderly guinea pig hoarder" here . This shop is not a charity and the animals in the Adopt Me section are ones that have been budged out of the main cages when they get too old and wouldn't mix or compete with the new ones .
I really cannot see them being gracious enough to take on someones mistakes . Even an elderly woman.

And if the pigs are 7 months ..... WTF was going on to put them in with their brother in the P at H cages .
Male guineas are very obvious once they reach maturity .
That is extremely poor animal management is it happened on their patch.
And I'm not even going to comment on the letting you take 3 possibly pg sows if you've never kept guineas, my Blood Pressure will boil

If they are pg , chances are all 3 could be . Sows seasons last a couple of days and they tend to syncronise . (I could tell with my sows their temper and pee were evil for 1-2 days)

Hopefully your sows have dodged a bullet !

I have no advice I'm just placemarking and wishing you well!

I would double check they def are all girls - pets at home arent the smartest at sexing!

@70isaLimitNotaTarget gosh thank you for commenting, i had no idea regarding the charity etc. I gave them £150 for these 3 girls basically back door because I couldn't see what he was doing on his ipad. They have told me these are definitely female and once they realised the other was male that's when he was removed. This is the reason apparently they were kept out back and the plan was either pts or wait it out to see if they gave birth. I told him many times (and also other staff when enquiring about the other 2 we originally wanted to adopt) that we had zero knowledge of guinea pigs apart from what we have read. Looking back on it now it's pretty bloody shocking.

They have been left to adjust to their new home with plenty of hay and fresh veg. I can hear them making lovely pigeon noises, but I guess it's a waiting game to see if any of them are pregnant.

Also definitely will not be giving any babies back to PAH I shall play it by ear and probably neuter males and keep them or contact guinea pig rescue if I end up with an extra 10. I think a trip to the vets is needed so they can have a thorough check up.

£150 for three adult hogs is fierce !

(I've not adopted guinea-pigs for a while but my last adult girls were £10 each -and I gave a £10 bag of pellets on top . My neutered boar was more )

Any guineas I've seen in the Adoption Cages were young returns (allergy , pigs not getting on etc) or the got too old ones (usually if you read between the lines there's a here through no fault of my own, I've been waiting here for someone to adopt me )

If your piggies are pg (hopefully not) they'll be only a couple of weeks in so nothing will be showing yet anyway .
They get quite tubby anyway with good food (these animals do like to eat )

Give them a load of hay . They sleep in it , eat it , play in it and pee/pooh in it . It keeps them busy . Basically your guinea-pigs bodysize/day but really , unlimited .

They need pellets not muesli but you need to keep them on whatever they've been eating and slowly introduce new dry food . ( start mixing 10% new then each week, increase the new:old ratio . )
Burgess Excell are popular .

2 water bottles
2 bowls
Reduces the risk of squabbling

Any hide houses need 2 doors so a pig cannot get trapped .

Enjoy your new additions . They are lovely creatures .
In spring you can get a run (I used a Bunny Business metal run, about 7'x4' and about hip height to me , pegged in with heavy tent pegs )

And there's loads of threads on here about
Food : what they can have freely , what hey can have limited , what they cannot have at all.

And bedding . There's no perfect bedding , my guineas liked hay on newspaper with puppy pads underneath (luckily they didn't chew them) .....but the hay gets everywhere !

Pigtures will be demanded nice when they show their little furry snouts

If you get males then be very wary about keeping them when you have sows . They can fight if they're in the prescence of females (and neutering will not change behaviour )

They need to be a good weight to castrate ( probably not before 5 months) , there's risk, it's about £50ish/ pig and they need 6 weeks to go Jaffa .( seedless)

If you contact a Rescue and explain the situation (you aren't the first who has been sold a pg piggie) once you know for sure , they can advice ,
Very little boars are ideal to bond with an older boar ( from 4 weeks ) you cannot easily get very little boars from petshops , they're usually 8+ weeks .

Fingers crossed though that the only pattering feet are your three ladies

i run a guinea pig rescue and we had a pig come in that we were sure was pregnant due to her size they look a bit like a pear when pregnant. we were cross as she was quite small and probably too young. they do have to be 7 months and under to breed but she was way too small.
she was probably inbred as we understand the lady had 60 pigs and she just literally left them all together m and f
well we were worried as she was so small and had visions of a c section but one morning came down and there were two gorgeous little babies oh they are so sweet and when born they are fully functioning dont even mind after a day or so being handled.
personally pets at home are a nightmare and i would no more buy from them (animals) than fly.
i dont know where you are im in worcs if you are nearish me and you do have babies i would willingly take them from you
all you can do is wait but like i say look to see any pear shaping

I would never have bought an animal from pets at home, but believed the animals at the back of the store were to be adopted through blue cross and that's who all the donations from the adopted animals went to (hence me giving them so much). I was on the spot yesterday and felt I couldn't leave those 3 there in a tiny cage in a store cupboard completely terrified. He should not have given them when all three could be pregnant.

I'm in pembrokeshire I can see there's a rabbit and rodent rescue, but 100% no babies will be returned to PAH. Thank you everyone for advice as soon as they surface I can take some photos (they are currently nameless).

Any photos yet

A leg or something? Nose ? Ear?
Not fussy

This is the only photo I managed to get last night, will get some more later to show you the difference in size of one.

Ah lovely guinea and a good sign that she's eating

They are so cute, such characters.

Aww what cuties! I miss having piggies around and their happy little pip pip pip noises

Oh that's a fatty on the end!