Guinea pig housing help? (lots of questions)?

Okay I see a lot of suggestions for a cage, which is great you have a lot you can choose from. I personally recommend building a C&C cage. You can definitely put a top on the cage, and make a door out of grids by using cable ties instead of the connectors, as the connectors won't allow you to open up the cage. You can put a wooden piece over the cage for more support so your cats don't fall through the cage if they were to jump on it.

Now onto your female piggy. She needs to see a vet in a a few weeks to see if she is actually pregnant. Since she is an adult, it can be fatal for her to have babies now if she hasn't had any before.

I would also get the free cage from the sore if you don't have an extra cage already and put your male in there. Don't put them back together till you get him neutered. If your female isn't pregnant now, she will definitely get pregnant i you keep him in there. I'm sure you don't want your female going through a complicated pregnancy. There is a high chance you will lose her and the babies.

Here's a good link on reproduction: http://www.guinealynx.info/reproduction.html

Wish your piggys all the best. Please take care of them and get the male neutered and the female to the vet soon.

I also recommend c&c cages. They are the best piggy cages. You will need to baby proof which means you will need to double the grids or make the coroplast sides tall. You can add tops to them too. You can use grids or you can use shelves. You can look here for more ideas

http://www.guineapigcages.com/photos/showgallery.p...

Separate them now. Once she gives birth she can become pregnant again right away. You can put their cages next to each other so they can see each other. Maybe that will make separating them easier for them.

I would wait to get him neutered. If she has a male and a female you can house the mom with the female baby and the dad with a male baby. I would only get him neutered if there are no male babies.

I would take her to a vet to see if she is actually pregnant. Make sure they are cavy savvy. Here is how to find a vet

http://www.guinealynx.info/vet.html

You need to be feeding her alfalfa hay or alfalfa pellets. She also need extra vitamin c so feed extra bell pepper (any but red can be fed daily) and some days you can feed broccoli and kale but not too often. At most twice a week.

For bedding it really doesn't matter if you use aspen or carefresh. The main difference is price. Carefresh is really expensive. I personally like fleece.

My advice is to go to the pet store and redeem your free cage. This can be used for the male piggy when you separate the two of them. As for a new cage, a recommend a C&C cage. They are homemade, meaning you can create and size, design, and layout you choose. A C&C cage is also a lot cheaper than a cage you buy at a store, and a little cheaper than building one as well. As for your cats, you can build a C&C cage with a covered top than can be removed as well.

You should separate the two piggies when you think she's about to have her babies. If the female gets pregnant right after a pregnancy, it is very harmful to her health. Also, if the female has any males, they can get her pregnant at just three weeks of age, so they will need to be separated as well.

Unless your female has complications during her pregnancy, there will be no need to contact a vet.

Between CareFresh and Aspen, I don't prefer one over the other, but I recommend fleece. If you cover the bottom of the cage with fleece, the whole cage looks a lot neater, it is much easier to clean, and the piggies love it.

As for the pregnant piggie, don't do anything different with her. Make sure she has plenty of water, but do NOT over-feed her.

Also, start finding homes for the little piggies now unless you want to keep them. You don't want her to have the babies and then have no place for them. Keep in mind that each piggie needs 7.5 square feet of cage space. So unless you have this kind of room, start finding them homes now so your not stuck with all this chaos in a month or so.

Hope all goes well! Good luck!

Make a C&C cage and divide it, they'll need to be separate in case she is not pregnant. These cages are very easy to build and are customizable to be anything you want.

Do all your research here: http://www.guineapigcages.com/index.htm

Good site for medical: http://www.guinealynx.info/index.html

Fleece bedding is best, check the forum on the guinea pig cages website it has TONS of info on everything about pigs.

DO NOT give her egg like someone suggested and broccoli should be fed sparingly. A regular veggie diet is fine, just give her bell peppers every day. And supplement a timothy/Alfalfa hay mix for extra protein. This is only IF she IS pregnant.

Schedule a vet appt with a cavy savvy vet, and see if she is and get a pricing for neutering the boy too. http://www.guinealynx.info/vetlist.html

The babies would need separated at 21 days old, boys can go with daddy or they can impregnate mom and back to back pregnancies are very very dangerous. 6 weeks is WAY too long as someone said or you'll risk another pregnancy in mom or a sister even! Keep dad away until he is neutered for the same reason. Absolutely do not put him with her during birth she goes into heat just after and he will take that chance to try to make more little piggies.

For the cage you can use grids and coroplast. However, in my area I was unable to find any so what I use for my cage base is the largest bottom to a dog kennel. (I purchased mine at Rural King)(:

If they are enjoying being together then you can go ahead and leave them together until she gives birth ... after that you need to separate them.

Unless you want more baby piggies then you will have to either keep them separated or get the male neutered!(:

Carefresh is your best bet as far as bedding goes. It's much softer and any types of wood shaving beddings cause upper respiratory problems with piggies. So id go with carefresh.

Usually piggies can have the babies just fins on their own. Last summer, my boyfriend got a guinea pig from a friend and found out towards the later end of her pregnancy that she was pregnant. She had three beautiful babies on July 16th, 09. I currently have the mom and one of the babies. So unless she has complications then you shouldn't need to take her to the vet!

Good luck with your piggies!(: they are wonderful pets!!(:

If I were building, I'd use the wood used for rabbit hutches which can be found in any DYI shop, but the name escapes me now. I use vet obtained straw which is cheap and lasts about 2 weeks when you change twice a week, so four changes :) Plus it contains no parasites, mites or allergic materials :)

Because Guinea pigs are social creatures, they do not need to be separated initially. But when she is ready to deliver I separate them but keep the cages together so they can still see each other and "speak" to each other.

Normally your piggie will give birth without you knowing so no vet could help, but it just to be certain have one on call or on speed dial just in case! :) When baby piggies are born they are pretty much ready to eat and drink, eyes open and all furry. But don't separate the mother for about 6 weeks. Some say 3-6 weeks but 6 gives nice social and acceptable behavior :)

One of my males is nurtured and he lives happily with an un-neutered female, if you don't want to breed then it would be something to consider in the future! Best of luck! :D

But this site helped me a lot :) why not give it a click. http://www.freewebs.com/aaguineapigs/Babies.html

Get a C&C cage!!!! go to guineapizone.comto get a kit. But even cheaper way is getting sttorage cubes.The cheapest I could find mine was at http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?SKU=16... One set will be more than enough. Then at a local sign shop, buy some coroplast. It will be the base. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXG764Gex6A That link will show you how to put it together, like cutting the corplast and using zip ties. Also, you dont have to waste money on bedding. If you have 2 fleece (Make sure a FLEECE!) Then you can use that as the base of their cage. You can litter train them if you want, but I would just suggest getting a hand held vacum to pick up little stary poos. Also under the fleece you will need a layer of newspaper then on top of that, a layer or 2 of towels. This is so your coroplast doesnt get ruined. Then add toys and hay racks.

Carefrsh is the best but its lots of $$$$

If you get him neutered you wont have babies so yes, and she will have 3 babies at the most! Usually only 1 or 2. But as soon as she has them seperate the male and female unless he is already neutered, or else they will have more babies.

She doesnt need a vet, just make sure you give her lots of vitamin c like brocili. Also maybe a chunk of hard boiled egg

seperate them now in case she isnt pregnant.

i would go back to the shop and get the spare cage you can use it to house any boys she may have whilst waiting for them to be old enough to be re-homed. you can let them live side by side so they are still close.

yes please get him neutered its not fair on your girl to keep having babies. do you know how old she is? she needs extra vitamin c in red bell peppers or brocolli apart from that she will do everything.

4ft by 2ft is fine for just 2 piggies if she is pregnant however you will need a bigger cage. how big all depends on how many babies mum has. you have to add a foot for every extra piggy so 5ft for 3, 6ft for 4 etc. bigger is better

they need to be apart as soon as you can, a cage should be made of wood and wire (chicken wire will do) and they need as much space as possible I advice minimum of 5ft x 5ft.

Aspen is best.

No you don't need to do anything to help in anyway, just make sure she has plenty of water and food at all times.

it will al be fine, I hope this helps.

...when I had Guinea Pigs I had "them" in a moderately "large" wooden box... with lots and lots of Cedar (wood) chips as a bedding... at one end of the box I placed a card-board Shoe-box with a hole big enough for them to run-inside and hide... "they" like to hide-out...at the other end I had a "weighted" water bowl and their food bowl..."they" knock everything over... (and) "if" you have a pregnant pig... prepare yourself... one-morning you're going to wake-up with a HORDE of PIGS...!!! lots and lots of Pigs ! (and) "they" repeat that process quite often...so be aware !