when can I rehome my guinea pig babies?

[bossynbella]

Hello! I know you have to separate them by 3 weeks or the boys can breed with the females. I also know they eat and drink on their own from the beginning. In the past I have always waited till 6 weeks, separating the boys at 3. I have three boys and one girl in this litter, and no extra cage (though I can use a Rubbermaid tub if needed. I also have some people interested that will be at the Local small animal swap next Saturday. They are passing through and want to see the swap having never been to one. They live almost two hours away. So my question is, my piglets will be two and half weeks old. They eat great on their own, pellets, veggies and hay, also I caught one of the boys purring at his mom today at only almost two weeks old. Would it be okay to take the boys with me, they want at least two but said they may take the third one. I was going to keep a boy, but have read that he will fight with the dad unless I keep them in another room from the girls, so I am just going to be building Piggy (the dad) a apartment where he can see his girls without making any more babies.

So I would like to be able to rehome them next weekend, just because otherwise I am going to have to look for homes, and this family would be awesome for them (they have had G. pigs in the past, one of which lived for almost 6 years!) but its a next weekend or not at all for them. I don't want to endanger the baby pigs by seperating them to early though. I tried looking it up online but got to many answers, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks, one person said 12 weeks before they are weaned and I wanted to reply with "How did your baby boars not get their mom and sisters knocked up?!"

Thanks in advance,
Melissa

 

[shelleyd2008]

They should be fine. As you said, guinea pig babies are pretty much self-sustaining from birth, though they do nurse a little. However, the mother's milk is pretty weak and they get most of their nutrients from their pellets and hay. Just make sure you take some of the feed they are used to eating and maybe include a care sheet for the new owners? I would make sure they know the baby pigs need to have the feed they are used to and ONLY that feed for a while...at least until their little tummies are a bit older. Also, make sure to let the new owners know not to just switch the babies' feed...they need to introduce new feed gradually.

I've never had baby piggies but I would think their biggest threat is similar to baby rabbits: Diarrhea from switching feed. Sure there are other issues that can cause problems, but the easiest to 'knock out' is to not switch their feed. Maybe take a full bag of feed for the babies, I know my guinea pigs' feed only costs $6 for 25#. You can always figure the price of the feed into their 'adoption fee'.


Otherwise, you can contact local pet shops to see if any would be willing to take them, I'm sure you wouldn't have any problems.

 

[bossynbella]

Thanks! The reason we bred them to begin with was for the local pet shop, who buys rabbits from us, they told us they would buy them, just to let them know when they where born. Well when I called to tell them, they said, oh well sorry we are fully stocked with guinea pigs right now. They knew about when they would be born, so it makes me a bit mad. Sorry to rant, just going to be sure I have the extra cages if we decide to have more.

Will buy a bag of feed to send with them, it is only $5 and I will send some of the hay they have been eating as well.

Thanks again!
Melissa