Most of the time people don’t have room for any extra guinea pigs and don’t wish to breed them. Others know they don’t have time or money to care for guinea pig babies.
But if you do want to breed them first make sure there aren’t already numerous breeders in your area. After all, that would be competition for you and you want to be able to sell the guinea pigs you breed.
It’s vital you learn all requirements for caring for guinea pigs and their needs, you’ll want to pass this knowledge on to your potential buyers, after all. You’ll also need to be able to provide them with a list of all the things guinea pigs can’t eat, no one wants to accidentally poison their pet!
Thousands of guinea pigs needlessly die each year because they are allowed to breed excessively or pet owners simply don’t know how to care for them. When you breed guinea pigs you may want to have a number of families in mind to sell to so that you know they are going to a good home.
The Mating
A female guinea pig can give birth at 4 to 6 months of age.
Let nature takes its course and give the guinea pigs plenty of space, don’t interfere too much. A female guinea pig has a cycle of about 16 days but there is only an 8 to 24 hour window in which she can successfully mate.
When a make guinea pig is ready to mate he will lower his head and walk towards the female. His steps will be deliberate to indication his intentions to his mate.
They make a distinct rumbling sound as part of their mating ritual so do not be alarmed if you have never heard it before. He will even wag his bottom side-to-side a few times.
Some males go as far as to do a mating dance of sorts where they put their front legs up on surrounding objects to attract the female’s attention. This move might also include some sort of waving or wiggling.
Sure it’s funny to watch, but this ritual is important to the guinea pigs. So spare the piggies’ feelings and leave the room if you need to laugh!
The female will show interest by squeaking, she’ll squeak louder the closer the male gets to her.
If she is by chance uninterested, because she isn’t in heat or at least not at the right part of her cycle, she will instead snap and bite at the male or run away. If the male continues to persist she might even urinate in his face to send a clear message.
If the male is not aroused and the female is ready to mate she will sometimes walk toward the male using the same steps and stance he would use to approach her.
Sometimes a female will even back up against the male to encourage him to mount her. This is perfectly normal, don’t worry about any of their actions and just let nature take its course. The guinea pigs will know what to do.
A male can successfully mate with up to 10 female guinea pigs in one period of time, it may seem excessive but is something for a breeder to consider.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi , i had a female for about 1 year and today I bought a male, it’s 1 year oldaproximately and the female does’t accept him in the cage , they are fighting all the time … What should I do ?!
this is funny… could you picture them doing this…LOL
hi,, im dennis
i visit this website and it help me a lot for taking care of my three guinea pigs (american cavy, abysinian cavy, and peruvian cavy)
hope you can help me cheers Pam
Hi, I’m about to breed my 3 beautiful guinea pigs. There are 2 females, Santana and Brittney; and theres 1 male, Puck. The females are 6-8 weeks, so thats why I’m about to as they’re too young at the moment. Brittney is a peruvian, mostly white, Santana is a smooth haired brown and white, and Puck is a coronet lemon agouti mix boar.
They will have really cute babies!!!!!!!
heyyyyyy great info dude
if you have not bred you guinea pigs before she is 1yr old i would advice you not to now . they have problems with their hip bone fusing after they reach 1 yr old and this makes delivering the babies very difficult.