my guinea pig is 3 or 4 can i mate her.

[kieno]

I want to get some pigies out of her before she kicks the bucker. She had loads of kids before bought her 6 months ago.

 

[DIGGIN CHICKEN]

you can lead a horse to water .... but choosing the words '' can i mate her '' is a tad ambiguous .. a better way might have been ... ''would she take a mate at that age'' ... ???

 

[Peepaboo]

Normally it is unsafe for a guinea pig to have pups after eight months of age. I would do a little bit more research to make sure. As far as asking on here this website, it is specifically meant for poultry so I don’t know how many people will be able to give you a good answer. Good luck to you though. Sounds fun

 

[cassie]

The question isn't so much whether you can breed your guinea pig as whether you should. The answer is probably no.

 

[kieno]

you can lead a horse to water .... but choosing the words '' can i mate her '' is a tad ambiguous .. a better way might have been ... ''would she take a mate at that age'' ... ???

Would she take mate? Lol, what I'm trying to say is can she get pregnant so old? Furthermore can female guinea pigs give birth safely so old? Lastly, please don't comment on my query trying to make amelioration, I am sure my adage was unambiguous to many.

 

[kieno]

The question isn't so much whether you can breed your guinea pig as whether you should. The answer is probably no.

Probably? What kinda answer is that? hey you can't tell me what I should and should not ask, Where's the proof and the evidence? Direct me to people who tried and failed or was successful, people who know the outcome of what's to come, because, like it or not I will let them mate and then I will know for myself, thank you very much

 

[kieno]

Normally it is unsafe for a guinea pig to have pups after eight months of age. I would do a little bit more research to make sure. As far as asking on here this website, it is specifically meant for poultry so I don’t know how many people will be able to give you a good answer. Good luck to you though. Sounds fun

That's what they say, but what happens to female pigs in the wild after eight months?

 

[Fuzzy Torpedoes]

Hi, word from a small-scale, professional guinea pig breeder -

That 8-month thing is only related to first litters. It just means that it is generally treated as unsafe to allow a guinea pig's first litter of her breeding career to be born at a date where she is 8 months of age or older. The best time to start a sow with the boar is much younger than 6 months though, it's done by the young sow's weight and it's between 500-600 grams (one well-respected source has the wider 450 - 600 grams as the recommended range).

You should find out the sow's actual birthdate, 3 or 4 years being vague.

This situation is not exactly the perfect breeding scenario. There are several tricky things to think about with this.

You should find out from the former owner why she was retired into a pet home. It could have been strictly age, in which case you might be okay getting another litter out of her. Note that being on the wrong side of 'might' in this case is a potential cluster****. On the other hand she may have been retired due to a problem.

How long has it been since she had her latest litter? It's known that the longer the break between litters has been, the more babies will be in the new litter. More babies in a litter are generally harder on the mother. We know it's been at least 6 months which to me seems that it is getting a tad long. If it's been a year out or something, no thanks to that IMO.

There is a lot of anti-breeder sentiment going around the internet right now. Having said that, there is no reason in general not to breed guinea pigs if you believe you have the means to get babies you do not want to keep for yourself into new homes. People are allowed to have young guinea pigs for pets if they choose, and haters' gonna hate, there's nothing you can do about that. It's not like you can make a hater stop or change their mind once their hate has blossomed into a turdflower (facts are no obstacle to them, either).

If you end up breeding any guinea pig, remember that guinea pigs are among the harder rodents to breed in a pet environment and avoid having problems with. They are more prone to having problems birthing the babies than other rodents, but it goes further than that.

If something in the care/nutrition is off, you can end up with a mess instead of happy babies. The perfect environment is like 68 - 73F temperature; a decent-sized pen with a friend or friends (or the boar); room for them to walk around and do stuff as a natural course of things; the core of the diet being provided from good hay plus high quality guinea pig pellets that are high protein, high calcium, and high fat and supplementation of that diet with some veggie source (grass being the perfect one). The sows are known to eat a higher net volume of food when they get some veggie like that to munch on once or twice a day, and that directly affects how healthy the litter comes out (they can be born too small if the mother eats less than she could have).

The combination you have of somewhat older sow + she might be getting out of shape in a pet home + she would be having largish litter due to the artificial breeding break of some duration - not exactly a perfect scenario. But at the same time, everything might turn out just fine. It's hard to say, except that I'd definitely want to find out the real age and if she was retired for a reason other than simply age. Minimally, there could be some disqualifier to her health that would make you cancel all such plans.

 

[Dawnclucks22]

I know it sounds fun, but breeding your pets (especially small ones like guinea pigs) is not for the inexperienced. You can always buy a new guinea pig, but especially if she's had lots of litters before it doesn't sound very healthy... Just an opinion though

 

[Dawnclucks22]

Probably? What kinda answer is that? hey you can't tell me what I should and should not ask, Where's the proof and the evidence? Direct me to people who tried and failed or was successful, people who know the outcome of what's to come, because, like it or not I will let them mate and then I will know for myself, thank you very much

We're just trying to give you advice, if you like you can try to contact a breeder in your area but no guarantees.