Orphaned Guinea Pig Babies*Looking For Advice*

[Patchesnposies]

In the wee hours, night before last, our girl Guinea Pig gave birth. We had been gifted this Piggie and were not certain she was pregnant. (Our first experience having a GP. She was chunky, but not excessively so. A very sweet little thing. Sadly, she didn't survive the birthing experience and we found her dead in her cage, with 3 little piggies running around beside her.

I found a lot of conflicting info about feeding orphaned GP's on the internet. I called around all of the local pet shops and vet offices looking for Guinea Pig milk replacer, in our small town, and no surprise, there was none to be found.

Our vet suggested using diluted evaporated milk and the little ones seem to like it real well. I tried making up kitten milk replacer and they didn't like it at all. So I mixed some into the evap. milk thinking I could enrich it. They still do not like the taste of the kitten milk.

I am worried that they will be missing out on some much needed vitamins and minerals etc...if I just feed them solely evaporated milk.

Are their any GP enthusiasts who can advice me on a better formula for feeding these babies? From what I have read it is hard to keep these little guys alive without mama.

Any help is much appreciated. Here are some pictures of the little piggies.

 

[georgialee]

Is there any way you can look on craigslist for some raw goats or cows milk? That would have more nutrients in it than evaporated milk. They are SO cute! I had a piggy die giving birth except her babies were stuck.

I think it happens a lot unfortunately.

 

[Patchesnposies]

Quote:
You know, that's what I have (subsequently) read! They do have a high death rate when giving birth. I was really surprised. I wish I had read up on it, knowing there was a possibility she could have been pregnant. Though it probably wouldn't have made a difference.

We'd had her long enough that I was sure she would have had babies a while back if she were pregnant. They are pregnant for a long time....guess that's why the little buggers come out eyes wide open and fully furred!

BTW-My daughter, S-I-L, and 3 beautiful grand babies live in New Market, TN.

 

[georgialee]

New Market is beautiful!

 

[EweSheep]

Here is the link:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=112564

Country Mom and some of the folks would know what to do.

From what I know from the link provided in the cavy link, they really can survive without milk after some days and go pelleted feeds for young cavies.

I am sure someone will show up! They are sooooooo cute!

 

[cutiepieacres]

No milk products, here is a link on how and what to hand feed your babies

http://www.guinealynx.info/handfeeding.html#pups

scroll down to feeding young pups

they are sooo cute!!!

 

[CaGoatLady]

When my baby guinea pig was sick, the vet had me feed him Oxbow Critical Care; it says it is a nutritionally complete, asisst-feeding formulas for them. You mix it up into a paste and feed it, it also helps get those piggies to be tame and relaxed more.

 

[CaGoatLady]

I can't believe it. I read this message just the night before I woke up to find my mama pig dead in her cage with her grieving older baby. I have no idea what happened to her and I don't think she was pregnant; I'm wondering if she could've choked on something because she wasn't sick that I could see.
Willow, her baby, wasn't talking or eating, so my husband took me out and we got a new little baby for him and they are very happy, but Willow squeals for his new buddy whenever I take her out to hold her to try to tame her a bit more.

 

[Patchesnposies]

Quote:
I am so sorry! Poor Willow to lose his mama. I hope the new baby helps him get over his grief. I feel so bad for you.

Well, I think I killed two of my three babies They'd been doing great. I could not find any Critical Care, but on the advice of my vet was feeding warmed diluted evap. milk and high quality pellets that were soaked in it. They didn't like the milky pellet gruel but I was able to get them to eat it. (With the milk only they would grab the little eye dropper with their little hands and drink voraciously.)

They seemed to get very lethargic and over 24 hours the two smallest ones just seem to fade away before our eyes. I could not get them to poop or pee, and thought perhaps I had "stopped them up" by introducing the greens-but that didn't make sense since they are able to eat shortly after birth.

At any rate, they were in a brooder cage with a heating pad for warmth. I don't think it was able to keep them warm enough and they got chilled, then wouldn't eat, and without eating they didn't pee or poop because they had nothing in their little systems to process or their little systems shut down.

So, we put a heating lamp on his cage too and kept forcing (gently) the last little one to eat. In the afternoon he finally let out a big (for his size) pooper and pee'd and after that started to come back to life.

I am only feeding him diluted evap. milk right now and will go slower at introducing anything else in large quanities. He does have pellets and water as well as some lettuce in his cage with him. So if he wants to nibble them he can.

I am just sick that I may have chilled these little babies and for no other reason than that they died. (Darn hot flashes & perimenopause! I am hot all of the time!) Ugh!

They were so adorable, too. I can't believe how upset I was when they died. I feel totally responsible.

I have a slightly older (5-6 mos) girl guinea, do you think I can put the baby in with her when he is a bit older? I am hoping she will teach him to eat regular food. But am worried that she might be aggressive to the baby.

 

[CaGoatLady]

Oh, I'm sorry the two babies died; I know how you feel because my birds had babies during cold weather and they just didn't get warm enough and died.
I don't think yours were too cold because I raised guinea pigs when I was young and they lived outdoors all the time and survived winter and summer without any intervention on my part.
I've had baby bunnies die in my hands for that same non-potty problem, no matter how much I stimulated them to go, they just couldn't make it.
I'm pretty sure you'll be able to put your two together; mine aren't having any problems.