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This is basic guide to breeding from your Guinea pig based on over 10 years of practical experience in breeding and selling small animals. Before you start it is important to read as much as possible on the subject. Books are available in your local pet shop or in the library. It is also important to consider your responsibilities for the welfare of the parent animals and their offspring. Do consider how you will rehome the young; do not think that friends will take them or that the local pet shop will automatically want them. Sexing Guinea Pigs. The illustration below shows the different sex in Guinea Pigs.
When choosing to breed your pigs make sure they are both in excellent health and at least 6 months old. However it is not advisable to breed from a sow over the age of 12 months for the first litter. The Boar (male) and Sow (female) and be safely kept together right up to within a week of the birth. The sow comes into season every 16 days so predicting the actual date for the birth is difficult. Gestation is 63 to 70 days. Remove the boar before the sow gives birth. The young are born as miniature guinea pigs. Fully furred eyes open and running about within hours. They will feed from the sow for three weeks and will try hard feed from a few days old. They should be separated by sex at four weeks old. While they are still immature it is not unknown for sows to become pregnant at this age. It is not advisable to let this happen.
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