Olivia loves her wok wok thread too!! Her favs are the baby piglets and the new baby chicks, we have now added them to her personal Kay's farm wallpaper on her wall! Before long I'll have to start using the ceiling and it just dawned on me to scrapbook them for her!!

Ready to Rock 'n' Roll, Olivia ??

We have more WOK-Woks for you tonight !!

At the moment, three of my guinea ladies are pregnant, and two of them are quite far along, almost ready to deliver their babies.

so......... I'm getting a wee bit jittery about the upcoming birthing events...

hoping everything will turn out well, it's nerve-wracking!!

these photos were taken this afternoon:

http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/391/dscn5102eu2.jpg
Peyton - prodigiously preggers (anyone remember Peyton Place?)

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/5403/dscn5101jt7.jpg
Peyton's hiding her head, but you can see her HUGE pregnancy better in this pic

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/4876/dscn5103fh8.jpg
Padmé - pretty pregnant (yeah, she's named after Padmé Amidala, lol)

http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/3660/dscn5106yf2.jpg
Pearl - perfectly pregnant (named after Pearl S. Buck)

Olivia, as soon as the babies are born, I will take more pictures for you !!

Okay, I know that Olivia is little and cute and everything but what about the rest of us???? :Sob: I guess we will have to settle to live vicariously through Olivia!! ;) :D

*sniffle*

here, Carolina, have a :hug:

if this thread was for adults, I would've said WHY I was so nervous...

***

okay, I guess our little cutie-pie Olivia is too young to read, so I'll put it here:

one of my guinea pigs (Petunia) delivered 5 babies last week, but she failed to lick them clean or nurse them... and they all died,

Petunia survived but has been hiding under her hay all week... I've been giving her extra-special food, and checking on her frequently, but I'm very worried about her.

I feared Petunia was going to fail at mothering, as she is so young (6 months) and... I also got worried when I noticed that she didn't pluck any fur from her belly to line the birthing bowl I gave her, and make a soft little nest for her babies, before delivery.

and... two months ago, we lost a mom (Pansy) and her whole litter (incomplete delivery) and that was very sad, and a horrible learning experience about the difficulty of farming and raising animals.

I've been perusing a bunch of websites regarding guinea pig pregnancy, and saw some disheartening and scary facts:

Getting pregnant: This is a really bad idea. Your guinea pig can easily get hurt. A guinea pig who is under 5 months is at very high risk. Guinea pigs over 8 months old who have not bred yet are also at risk. There is a high risk for the sow if she is under 1 1/2 lbs. Never cross roan x roan or dalmation x dalmation. Over a fifth of pregnant pigs die. There is also a 25% chance of producing a "lethal," an offspring that has a high chance of dying due to mutations. You cannot forget the over-population, either. Knowing all this, you shouldn't intentionally breed your cavies.

http://www.wikihow.com/Help-a-Pregnant-Guinea-Pig

well, THAT was depressing... I'm really sorry I read it !!

The female piggy is capable of having babies from about a month or so old but obviously is only a baby herself so to breed from her at such a young age would be completely irresponsible at the very least !! She should be bred from for the first time, at approx. 5 - 6 months of age and be a weight of over 500g. She must have her first litter before she is 10 months old - as after this the pelvic bones fuse together and the mother will more than likely have problems giving birth to the babies, this may result in the death of both mother and the babies.

http://www.diddly-di.fsnet.co.uk/breeding.htm

:(:confused::(

Oh dear Kay! :hug: That's terrible. :Sob:

I hope these new little mamas do well at delivery.

me too, Koala...

I'm on pins and needles here... and it could be another WEEK of waiting and nervousness...

:(

Who knew guinea pigs were so delicate? I hope they appreciate their very devoted surrogate mother! ;)

Oh, Kay, I am so sorry. This just breaks my heart. The poor things. Why is pregnancy so hard for them? In light of this, will you continue to breed them?

I don't think I would be cut out for it. I would be best at selling eggs, I think.

Saying a prayer for Petunia, Padme, Pearl, Peyton and of course, you. :grouphug:

it's the 1 out of 5 thing... that's a horrible mortality rate...

and see, I'd never READ that before.... I only recently found it online, when I was researching guinea pigs and pregnancy care.

and my first four went PERFECT, all with gorgeous healthy babies, that were sold as pets in my village, and to a Christian camp down south...

all the moms and babies did fine and were healthy.

so I thought... "This is easy, and fun, and I'm good at it!"

I started with Paula, Patsy, Peta, and Pammie... and two boys, Pancho and Pablo.

Pancho the boy... turned out to be Poncho, a GIRL... and hiding a secret pregnancy under her "poncho", lol!

I can do this... yeah! I thought... I can chop celery, and carrots, and cabbage, and scrub water bottles, and my husband can build me cages, and I can supplement my SSDI, with only two hours a day of enjoyable work... and the rest, playing with my little sweeties...

then, one went badly, and three more good... so I thought it was just... well, I'm still learning, I'll try harder, read more, watch more closely, then two more went wrong.

so, I've lost three mommas by now, after a year of raising guineas... and now I'm not so sure I'm cut out for this.

I have to either harden my heart (and then not enjoy it so much either), or maybe I'll just ONLY raise birds (ducks and chickens) instead... I tend not to get so attached to non-mammals for some reason... maybe it's wired into our DNA?

:o

thanks for the support, ladies... you're good friends to me...

being a "mommy" to all these critters is harder than I ever imagined!

Dat's OK CayoK.....http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...eay6nrx4dp.gif