Please Help! my 5 day old orphaned guinea pig refuses to eat
Not long after the tiny baby died my other sow went into labour.
The 1st baby was stuck as they were too large I knew I needed to help her and needed some sort of lubricant. In my panic I picked up vegetable oil (thought it would help) and I helped deliver the very large baby be born with each contraction.
Kimmi (Sow) could not deliver the 2nd and last baby so I took her straight to the vets. She managed to delivery it on route but sadly it was still born.
Kimi is doing fine and has accepted the four orphaned babies a her own the problem Im having now though is that they are all covered in vegetable oil. Is it dangerous and should I bath them all?
The 1st baby was stuck as they were too large I knew I needed to help her and needed some sort of lubricant. In my panic I picked up vegetable oil (thought it would help) and I helped deliver the very large baby be born with each contraction.
Kimmi (Sow) could not deliver the 2nd and last baby so I took her straight to the vets. She managed to delivery it on route but sadly it was still born.
Kimi is doing fine and has accepted the four orphaned babies a her own the problem Im having now though is that they are all covered in vegetable oil. Is it dangerous and should I bath them all?
You might just use a dry absorbent cloth to wipe the babies. I used mineral on Rod all the time and he was fine. I used it to clean his sac and his ears.
They are a week old tomorrow and weigh between 55 - 65 grams. The baby which was born this morning weighs 130 grams! So they look even smaller than before compared to this huge baby.
I was thinking cause they have been on there own virually all there life and as they have been fed on the wrong food and born early this is why they sleep alot.
We I get them out of the cage they are very active but as soon as I put them back in they fall asleep. Im hoping I will see an improvement in them tomorrow now they have a foster mum and a new sibling with them. They have perked up a bit today but the newborn is slightly more active than them.
When will kimmi s milk come in? They still wont eat dry feed they slightly nibble at hay but you would think I was trying to poison them the way they react
I was thinking cause they have been on there own virually all there life and as they have been fed on the wrong food and born early this is why they sleep alot.
We I get them out of the cage they are very active but as soon as I put them back in they fall asleep. Im hoping I will see an improvement in them tomorrow now they have a foster mum and a new sibling with them. They have perked up a bit today but the newborn is slightly more active than them.
When will kimmi s milk come in? They still wont eat dry feed they slightly nibble at hay but you would think I was trying to poison them the way they react
I'd take them to the vet. They can at least show you how to get them handfed properly.
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barb5417
- For all Wonkys & Winkys
I"m glad that some of the babies are eating.
However, why do you keep asking for advice,
"Does any one know of any food that increases a guinea pig appetite?"
when you haven't taken the advice of all the people that are trying to help you? Mum has stated right from the beginning that you must learn to handfeed, and yet you just ignore their very knowlegeable advice and do what you want.
However, why do you keep asking for advice,
"Does any one know of any food that increases a guinea pig appetite?"
when you haven't taken the advice of all the people that are trying to help you? Mum has stated right from the beginning that you must learn to handfeed, and yet you just ignore their very knowlegeable advice and do what you want.
erm how do you think the babies have survived this long!!!
I have been hand feeding them since day one. I have never met a bunch of people who claim they care but obviously they dont I am tired of all this snide remarks and speech commas.
I promise I will never vistit this forum again, I have visited other ones that have been very helpful and understanding.
One last thing can I ask why if this site is so against baby guinea pigs drinking human formula milk does it have a link for weak babies endorsing its use. I rest my case. Thank you
I have been hand feeding them since day one. I have never met a bunch of people who claim they care but obviously they dont I am tired of all this snide remarks and speech commas.
I promise I will never vistit this forum again, I have visited other ones that have been very helpful and understanding.
One last thing can I ask why if this site is so against baby guinea pigs drinking human formula milk does it have a link for weak babies endorsing its use. I rest my case. Thank you
Oh dear. You need to chill out. People are really just trying to help you out. When you are not taking their good and first hand advice and knowledge, its kind of useless for them to keep posting to help you. They do it anyways, because they don't want the rest of the babies to die.
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Mum
- I GAVE, dammit!
You have never actually handfed them, as you yourself said. Giving them food from a spoon is not what I was talking about, as you know from the link I gave you.I have been hand feeding them since day one
I also, along with many others, told you very early on that human milk replacer is totally inappropriate for guinea pigs. Information found in links is not something that can be controlled from here - you may find SOME useful information on other sites, but you need to be able to glean the good and leave the bad.
There are plenty of other forums you're welcome to visit. However, if you want medical advice be very careful what you listen too.
If you're going to continue to have baby guinea pigs then you'd better learn how to handfeed - and with a true handfeeding formula made specially for herbivores, which I doubt you're actually using.
I too am at a loss as to why you keep asking for information and then discounting it. If you simply want people to sympathize with your woes or agree with your incorrect methods, then by all means don't bother to post here again.
I can see where someone would think that human formula at least has calories in it, and therefore would be worth something. The problem with this thinking is that the form of the calories is useless to guinea pigs and can actually be harmful.
Guinea pigs are strict herbivores and have a digestive tract - from teeth to anus - that is designed to extract nutrition from plant matter. Its gut needs plant matter to function.
Milk formulas contain absolutely no fiber, which is necessary to keep an herbivorous gut functioning. In addition, I would expect that the guinea gut does not produce the enzyme required to break down lactose for digestion - which means, from my reading, that there will be too much lactose in the large intestine, drawing in water and allowing an overgrowth of bacteria - this can cause bloating, diarrhea, gas, and so on.
It's sort of like feeding human babies dirt - hey, baby worms eat it and thrive, why not baby humans? Because we're significantly different from worms, we can get no value from dirt, and it will probably harm us. Guinea pigs are NOT humans and do not have a human infant's digestion.
Critical Care is specifically designed to meet the needs of herbivores. If you're already feeding Critical Care and think you can add a little human formula on the grounds that it won't hurt, then you have to realize that the forumula itself, for the above reasons, may STOP gut function so that the pig can't get any good from the Critical Care either!
Edited to add: I don't actually know if worms eat dirt, but I was looking for a good simile and that's what I thought of. Different species have different nutritional needs!
Guinea pigs are strict herbivores and have a digestive tract - from teeth to anus - that is designed to extract nutrition from plant matter. Its gut needs plant matter to function.
Milk formulas contain absolutely no fiber, which is necessary to keep an herbivorous gut functioning. In addition, I would expect that the guinea gut does not produce the enzyme required to break down lactose for digestion - which means, from my reading, that there will be too much lactose in the large intestine, drawing in water and allowing an overgrowth of bacteria - this can cause bloating, diarrhea, gas, and so on.
It's sort of like feeding human babies dirt - hey, baby worms eat it and thrive, why not baby humans? Because we're significantly different from worms, we can get no value from dirt, and it will probably harm us. Guinea pigs are NOT humans and do not have a human infant's digestion.
Critical Care is specifically designed to meet the needs of herbivores. If you're already feeding Critical Care and think you can add a little human formula on the grounds that it won't hurt, then you have to realize that the forumula itself, for the above reasons, may STOP gut function so that the pig can't get any good from the Critical Care either!
Edited to add: I don't actually know if worms eat dirt, but I was looking for a good simile and that's what I thought of. Different species have different nutritional needs!