h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi, is anyone a fountain of knowledge about guinea pigs? We adopted 2 'females' (mother and daughter) for my daughter through a welfare organisation only to be surprised 3 weeks later when the mother gave birth to 4 pups. We went back to the welfare place who were very apologetic and have helped us out with food etc until the pups can be weaned and rehomed. They suggested that we take the pups in to them at 4 weeks so that they could determine their sex. We did this and discovered that we have 3 boys and 1 'undecided' plus they also discovered that they had been wrong with their original guess and the older 'daughter' is in fact a boy. We have separated the older male from the female and he is now very sad and lonely in another cage. At what age do we need to separate the male pups from mum and can we put them in with the lonely male? Our concern now is that mum is already pregnant again, having been in the same cage with the male whilst we thought he was a female. Not to mention the fact that we have a little girl who is broken hearted at the prospect of us having to rehome 4 of the piggies and the possibility of history repeating itself. Very confusing, but any help would be appreciated.

I'm afriad I don't know. Unfortunately I don't think many people are subscribed to this article at the moment.

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Good luck!

I've kept guinea pigs for years but I've only ever had females.

I believe that the male pups should be separated from their mother at six weeks. After that they are able to breed with the mother.

You can keep males together in pairs, but never more than two together, and only if they've been together since they were young. Otherwise they will fight.

Females can be kept in together in any number. Two or three is best. One on her own will be lonely, and four or more take a lot of space.