Pregnant Guinea Pig?

Question

My guinea pig is pregnant. She is losing ALOT of her hair. I've been told that it could possibly be a Vitamin C deficiency . Is that true? If not, what else could it be? If it is, what could I give her to make sure she gets more Vitamin C? Thanks....
BTW, anyone want a baby guinea pig? lol

Answer 1

A lot of the information you've been given here is erroneous.

First of all, do not put vitamin C into the water. Vitamin C is both light and heat sensitive, and starts breaking down as soon as light touches it. Within hours you've got funny tasting water with no vitamin C in it at all, and sometimes pigs dislike the taste of the additives, so they stop drinking it.

Vegetables are important to your guinea pig always, but especially now. They're the best way to get vitamin C to your guinea pig. She'll need approximately 1 cup of fresh vegetables per day.

http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/about-guinea-pigs/22156-cavy-nutrition-charts.html

That's one of the best nutrition charts I've seen for guinea pigs. It's important to include a variety. However, some people have mentioned giving cabbage to guinea pigs. Do NOT do this. Cabbage causes a lot of gas, and guinea pigs are prone to intestinal bloat from gas. Your pig can literally die from eating this vegetable.

You need to find a good vet with a lot of knowledge about guinea pigs in case there are further complication in the pregnancy. If she goes into labor and doesn't deliver, you've got about a 1 hour window to get her to the vet before she dies.

Once the babies are born, they need to be sexed and the males removed when they reach 3 weeks of age, or they can start backbreeding the mother.

Answer 2

I am not answering this from a vet's viewpoint, only from experience in retail pet business and having raised many pigs too. Most likely your pig is suffering from poor nutrition overall. If this is so, the babies will not be in good shape either and will be born early or still born. That is a sad event. This happened to us 3 years ago when someone gave us a group of 5 guinea pigs, all expecting and malnourished. None of the babies made it. Guinea pig food these days has plenty of vitamin C, even the cheapest ones. When animals are forced to breed repeatedly, the results are thin hair, paralysis of the hind legs, and anorexia. I have seen it all in pigs that have been donated by people who thought they wanted to make a few bucks breeding them but didn't want to wait for 2 months. The other thing possibly could be a kind of lice. If it is a light colored pig, they will be difficult to see. Either way, please get the pig to the vet. It shouldn't cost much. Before you take to the vet, observe the toileting habits. Guinea pig feces should be oblong pellets and well formed. They eat their own feces, as this helps with digestion. Please don't use cedar bedding as this is not good for the pig either. I hope something of this is beneficial to you.

Answer 3

Our guinea pig went bald in patches while she was pregnant. It happens sometimes. They also have a tendency to scratch more when they are pregnant because their skin gets dry and itchy, so she might be scratching the hair out on her own.

Make sure you're giving her food designed especially for guinea pigs. They need more Vitamin C than other rodents, so hamster or rabbit food isn't recommended. Store it in a cool, dry place so the vitamins don't deteriorate.

Also, it's perfectly safe to give her small bits of orange as a treat. One segment a day should be fine.

Good luck and congrats on being a guinea mommy! =)

Answer 4

Its just like when humans are pregnant. their hormones are crazy. instead of her growing her shes losing it. yes this is most likely a calcium deficiency. Make sure too feed her plenty of timothy hay fruits and vegetables also you can buy some vitamin C drops from your pet store (around 3+ bucks) If shes losing hair rapidly and you think their might be something wrong with her other than that definitely take your baby to the vet. He always knows best. Good Luck with your little babies :]
PS. i want one hehe. I have one of my own Guinea pigs are wonderful :]

Answer 5

Congrats on the babies! I'd take one, but my cats would like it a little too much - lol.

Could be a vitamin C deficiency- but it could also could be a warning sign of pre-eclampsia - a disease that reduces the oxygen getting to the womb. BOTH diseases can be DEADLY.

(Could also be mites- which are irritating but not particularly dangerous).

Take her into the vet as soon as you can-- they will be able to tell you what's going on for sure.

As for the additional vitamin C, oranges or any citrus fruit will be perfect! You can also buy guinea pig treats with vitamin C, but oranges are best. Good luck!!

Answer 6

Vitamin C deficiency is a huge problem for guinea pigs, especially pregnant guinea pigs. This is a very likely reason for your piggies loss of hair. It is a huge problem, and you should take her to a vet who specializes in exotic animals a.s.a.p.!!! In the mean time, (since it's a holiday, or almost so where you live), give her citrus fruits (oranges and/or lemons mainly), and multi vitamin guinea pig drops if you have them. Other possible reasons for her hair loss could be malnutrition, or even mites. The only way to know for sure is to go to a veterinarian, and for the good of your piggie and her babies, please take her to one as soon as possible, because guinea pigs are small, and it doesn't take long for a small problem to turn deadly. I'm not trying to scare you- I'm just warning you from a personal experience I had with a guinea pig very similar to your situation. God bless you and yours!

Answer 7

THE BEST SITE ON GUINEA PIG CARE including pregnancy
www.petergurney.com

I'm going to be having some soon too but I'm keeping all mine.

Answer 8

Hair loss or thinning of the hair is a common problem of female guinea pigs that have been repeatedly bred. These sows tend to lose hair with each successive pregnancy.

Hair loss is frequently noted among juvenile guinea pigs by weakened state at or around the time of weaning. "Barbering" also results in hair loss. This vice (bad habit) occurs when guinea pigs habitually chew on the haircoats of guinea pigs that are lower in the social "pecking order." Younger guinea pigs in particular, can lose substantial amounts of hair as a result of this activity. Hair can also be lost because of fungal disease and external parasite infestations.

But if you believe it's a Vitamin C deficiency..
Good-quality food and fresh, clean water must be readily available at all times. Commercially available pelleted chows provide all of the essential nutrients, as long as the pellets are fresh and wholesome when offered. Some guinea pig owners are tempted to feed rabbit pellets, assuming that they are roughly equivalent to guinea pig pellets, but this is not so. Unlike most mammals (including rabbits), guinea pigs require a high level of the vitamin, folic acid. Unlike rabbits, guinea pigs cannot manufacture their own vitamin C and must, therefore, receive it from an outside source. Interestingly, people and our primate relatives share this dependence on vitamin C from the food we consume. Pellets milled for guinea pigs take these special requirements into consideration and are appropriately fortified with these 2 nutrients, among many other essential ones.
Guinea pig chows generally contain 18-20% protein, 16% fiber and about 1 gram of vitamin C per kilogram of ration. Even when the fresh pellets are properly stored in a cool, dry place, about half of the vitamin C content is degraded and lost within 6 weeks of manufacture. Therefore, the diet should be supplemented with vitamin C as follows: 200 milligrams of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) should be added to about 1 qt of drinking water, made up fresh every 12 hours, or a single guinea pig should be offered one handful of kale or cabbage or one-quarter of an orange daily.
Researchers are not in agreement on the advisability of adding other items to the balanced ration (pelleted chows). We recommend that fresh greens, hay and small amounts of fruit be offered daily with several precautions: These items should not exceed 10-15% of the daily diet Furthermore, the fresh items must be thoroughly washed to avoid pesticide residues and possible bacterial contamination.

Guinea pigs cannot manufacture vitamin C and must receive an adequate supply of it from outside food sources. Vitamin C deficiency results in scurvy, which is characterized by inappetence, swollen, painful joints and ribs, reluctance to move, poor bone and teeth development, and spontaneous bleeding from the gums and into muscle.

Adequate levels of vitamin C are always included in the formulation of pelleted diets for guinea pigs. Often, however, handling and improper storage (exposure to light, heat and dampness) of the feed pellets results in loss of vitamin C. Therefore, even guinea pigs fed presumably reliable pelleted diets may develop scurvy if the diet's vitamin C content has been reduced or lost.

A veterinarian should be consulted if this disease is suspected so that the diagnosis can be confirmed. The veterinarian will prescribe a program of vitamin C supplementation (via food or water or injection) to reverse the signs

Answer 9

never had a guinea pig lose hair while preggo, but she ate her babies both times it made me sick....was watchin for her to have the babies but she always did it at night, and when I woke up they were half eatten.......I was soooo upset. how do you stop that??

Answer 10

It could be that she is pulling out some of her hair to make a nest. But I'm not very experienced.