Our Guinea Pigs

The day we brought her home

Shortly after arriving here we decided to get our children some guinea pigs. A few years earlier I had collected a used hutch from someone giving it away via Freecycle. It only needed fixing in a few minor ways and was then good to go. We decided to buy two females and the children chose one each. Within about two weeks of having them it became quite clear that the black and white one was pregnant. It wasn't part of the plan, but our children were excited and so were we to be honest. We didn't have to wait long for the birth, only two weeks later she gave birth to a single pup. The sweetest little babe I had ever seen, not including my own.

Our Freecycle hutch score

Warm and cosy inside

The female who turned out to be male

Our little Mumma

When the babe was three days old I checked to see its sex. Quite sure he was a boy, I checked the two adults just to compare. It was then I discovered our ginger pig was in fact a male. Now if you know anything about guinea pigs you will know that they are extremely fertile right after giving birth. We separated the pair immediately and set about finding another enclosure. Then all we could do was wait to see if she was infact pregnant. Within a month we were sure. Four weks later she gave birth to four new babies. Two males and two females. Being such sweet pets and because the while family were in love with them, we chose to keep all seven. The mumma now lives with her two daughters in the original enclosure, her two youngest sons bunk in together, while dad and his step son are room mates and all the males live in a double story hutch.

Her first babe the day he was born. Quite big as there was only one baby.

They have become an integral part of our garden. Keeping our lawn and some of our weeds at bay, whilst supplying us with a large amount of manure and used bedding hay for composting. Plus they are pretty darn cute pets for our children and I'm quite smitten with them myself.

We do plan to get chickens at some stage, but for now we are going just fine with these little critters.

Girl on the left, boy on the right

Girl on the left, boy on the right

The guinea pig mansion we bought on ebay