And then to our surprise, Thursday morning [11/1/12] we came home from work/school to find two beautiful babies, perfectly clean and suckling on their mother. They had to have been born hours before we all came home, since the babies' coats were perfectly clean and dry. After all the anxious waiting, we finally had our beautiful little pups. Snickers was so big that we were sure there had been 3 babies, but nope...just two really big ones. So without further adieu, meet the newest editions to our guinea pig clan:
Fifi
Boots
More photos of the babies on the day of their birth:
The babies [and Mama] 3 days old:
There you have it. The two most ADORABLE baby guinea pigs in the entire universe. They are only 3 days old and have already started eating hay, pellets, and lettuce. They follow their mother EVERYWHERE she goes. I'm totally in love with them already. Their father must've had black in his coat. I was surprised, I guess I just never expected with such a bright white mommy, she would have a nearly all black baby. Boots has all black fur, except the strip down the middle of her face, her front paws are white [like she's wearing boots ;)], and she actually has a white patch on her butt just like Ariel! She is so sweet. And VERY loud already. When away from Snicker's for just a few moments, she starts to let out a high pitched squeal. And as you can see, Fifi is black on one side of her face, and brown on the other. She also has coordinating black and brown on her hindquarters, with about 3/4 brown fur, and 1/4 black fur on the exact matching sides as the patches on her face. They are both roughly the same size [can you even imagine poor Snickers pushing these two out?], however, when they are stretched out, I think Boots is a bit more longer and slender looking than Fifi ever appears.
Note that have been referring to them as "she's". Well, Dave and I have extensively researched sexing newborn guinea pigs, and are about 99% sure that they are both female pigs. However, we know that even experts can make mistakes, so we will continue to check them on a routine basis for the next 2 weeks until we can confirm the sex. I'm sure the names will stay the same no matter what, though. My daughter has wanted to name one of them Fifi since long before they were born, so even if they were both males, the name on that one is a done deal. And Boots is essentially gender neutral.
It is absolutely vital that we are 110% sure of the sexes by the time they turn 3 weeks old. 3 weeks old is approximately when guinea pigs become of sexual maturity. To prevent any unwanted pregnancies, we will have to immediately separate any male pigs from the mother. Soon after giving birth, actually increases a guinea pig's chance of a pregnancy reoccurring. At this time, a reunion between Snickers, Ariel, and Ellie will be attempted. As well as the introduction of any female pups.
If one [or both] of the babies turn out to be male [which is unlikely], a new cage will be constructed at that time. Also, if we end up having a single male, we will be on the lookout for a young male in need of rescue.
So we have a plan set in place. I am actually relieved that there was only two babies because that's less pigs to accommodate for. Especially here in my small apartment. I hope to eventually have enough space to make MASSIVE c&c cages. In the meantime, we are going to relocate an end table to expand our current cage a couple extra cubes. They better both be girls, because I am sick of having two cages! I can't wait to get all the pigs together and consolidate to one cage. Well, I will certainly keep my fingers crossed. Either way, we are keeping both of these two cuties. How could we not??? Boy, girl, whatever, they are ours. Well, they're Snickers', but they're our grandpigs! And we all love them very, very much. :)
