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Carmen, the guinea pig I have in my hands is six months old now. Lola, you can
see her here is one year and two months old.
I'm telling you their ages because it is a very important detail in females for their
reproduction.
So, if we have a female for reproduction, she has to have her first
birth before the age of eight months. Why? It is a matter of the hip
ossification.
Guinea pigs are born with closed hip.
Hip will ossify more or less
between the age of 10 to 12 months. Before this age, they have had to give
birth because the hip opens when the babies are born,
then the hip finishes ossification open.
If the ossification ends and the hip is still closed, and then the female gives birth, it is very likely
that the babies get stuck in the birth canal. You must also use small males
for the females when these are to be mounted. The male
partners have to be slightly smaller if possible.
The main and most important part I wanted to talk about is the guinea pig
reproduction. It is recommended not to have more than two births per year
and not to use guinea pigs over four years old for reproduction, because
the life expentancy becomes more problematic when they
are older.
It is interesting to sterilize guinea pigs that will never have babies or those
that you will not use for breeding, because
in first place, we will avoid behaviour problems, but also we will avoid
possible utirine tumors and diseases, and although they are quite rare, also
breast tumor.
This is what I more or less wanted to tell you. Always remember this:
sterilize animals that you dont want to use for for breeding.
The veterinarians will tell you all the advantages of this
procedure.