My New Guinea Pigs

[Mark]

I bought these to rodents today for my daughter
Does any one know wot breed they are or the correct name of there color

This is our Male Rosco


This is our Female Mindy


Rosco & Mindy together in there new home

[Peter]

I dont know what they are, but they are very cute!

[Amanda]

Mindy is Beautiful.... her long coat suggests to me that she is a sheltie or a x at least. Rosco has me stumped!!! He has very unusual colouring...... I WANT MORE PIGGIES NONE OF THE PET STORES HAVE ANY. Must buy the newspaper tomorrow

[Silvercloud]

They are so cute.

[Mark]

I think they will both get a good bath tomorow maybe their color will come out a bit more and if it does ill take more photos as it might be easier to name the breeds and colour

[Jenny]

I hate to say this and you probably won't be happy but it looks like you have two Roan guinea pigs there. This in itself is not a problem but if you breed roan to roan, you have a good chance of getting what is known as a Microphthalmic or "lethal" white.

These babies are quite often born blind or with no eyes at all, deaf, and with teeth deformities and other problems. Sometimes they die young and other times they will survive if their disabilities are fewer. They are generally all white with pink eyes. Dalmation to Dalmation breeding should not be done either for the same reason.

Here is an ad placed by Liss who posts here sometimes. Note the warning she has put at the bottom of the ad.
www.petlink.com.au/Classifieds/sale/168062.html

It's extremely irresponsible of pet shops and breeders to sell guinea pigs like this without informing people of the risks. No doubt, these two will be brother and sister as well.

Mindy looks like a Sheltie or Sheltie x and the colour might be called Red, (not sure) & Rosco would be called a Black Roan.

They are both lovely piggies by the way.

[Amanda]

WOW I didn't know that myself and thank you so very much Jenny for sharing that info. Makes me wonder what else those darn pet stores wont/don't tell us! So it's a case of find another boyfriend for Mindy (maybe a nice sheltie boy ) and a small harem for Rosco.

[Mark]

Wot is a ROAN?

I might just let them breed once as they might have normal baby’s if they don’t then I will separate them and get them new partners as I really only got them as pets for my wife and daughter and not really breed I can separate them as ive got 2 hutches .

[Jenny]

Wot is a ROAN?

The Roan is basically a colour Cavy with white hairs evenly mixed though out the body. Solid colour should be confined to the head and feet. Quote taken from the link below.

www.dalandroan.co.uk/standerds.htm

The fact that your Black Roan has lots of white on his back doesn't make him less of a Roan, just a badly marked one as far as show standards are concerned.

[Mark]

Thankyou Jenny

[muirindahcavies]

I'd also like to mention that the food does not look like a nice and tasty guinea pig mix. It look like it is a supermarket bought one that is basically bird seed with a little bit of chaff. You're best off tossing it and getting a good mix from a pet shop/produce store that contains some rabbit pellets and lots of chaff.

Also. The wire on the bottom of the cage is far too dangerous for guineas. Their feet can quite easily get stuck and if they happened to get spooked by anything and their feet get caught then you may have an expensive vet bill. Remove the wire on the bottom and replace with 1 inch wire or larger. Alternatively, cover the base with wood and scatter straw over it.

Please do not purposely breed them. It's quite possible that Mindy may already be pregnant.
What will you do with the babies? I'm not sure how old your daughter is but she may become distressed at seeing a "micro" baby. They aren't pretty. Also all sows are at risk of having complications during their pregnancy.

It also looks like Rosco has a skin condition. His fur looks a little scarse and ruffled. I suggest you take them both to the vet and have them checked out for scurvy, mites, lice or mange.

They also look like they are very down in condition. Regular feeding of high vitamin C vegies, loads of grass and a good stud mix should have that problem sorted in no time.

Sorry to keep sounding picky but guinea pigs are a huge responsibility.

[Mark]

Thankyou for the info muirindahcavies but the photo was taken 1 hour after we got them that is why they look the way they do and the food they have my wife got it until we were able to get the pellets we use’ to use as the store was out of them at the time

They were both bathed and mite and flea treated the next day and look perfect now
I also grow my own fruit and veg for all my animals and they get it fresh picked every day

As for my daughter she is only 11 weeks and only understands how to CRY lol so I don’t think the baby’s will affect her

And in regards to the hutch it will be fine for them as I bred guinea pigs for 2 years in Sydney with them and out of 2 hutches like that and never encountered a problem with the wire bottom besides they cost $175 each and I don’t fancy cutting the bottom out of them

Thankyou for the help and info though Eagle

[muirindahcavies]

Hi Eagle,

As for my daughter she is only 11 weeks and only understands how to CRY

LOL When I read that you got the pigs for your daughter I presumed she was at an age where she would be handling, seeing and understanding them etc.

You could put a carpet mat on the wire part (or part of) if you do not wish to cut the wire off. The wire would be very uncomfortable on their feet. That would be like us trying to walk barefeet on large gauge weldmesh to get to and from our kitchen/eating area.

[Mark]

Well my wife really wonted them since we had to sell all our guinea pigs (6) and rabbits (12) before we left Sydney but I think she used our daughter as an excuse to get them. lol

Ill give it a go but half of the cage has a gal bottom and that is where they spend most of there time out of the heat but as soon as the pet place has hay in im going to cover the bottom in it and might just see how that goes first as the carpet will get very dirty and will be hard to keep clean

And with the old hay I just put on the veggie patch for manure that is wot use to do lol