Breeding Cavies
This article covers general cavy breeding.
I am assuming the you've
already thought about the pros and cons of breeding your cavies - no one should
breed animals just to have cute little babies. Your breeding should be
planned with a distinct purpose (raising show pigs) and commitment to provide
housing for all offspring produced. If you are a pet cavy owner, please read the breeding
articles at
Guinea Lynx before you decide to breed your pet.
It is important that your breeding pair is healthy,
parasite-free and in excellent physical condition (not too fat!) before you try
to breed them. It is imperative that your sow is under 6 months old
for her first breeding; the pelvic cartilage/bones of sows that have never had a
litter, actually 'fuse' together as the sow ages. There is conflicting
info as to when this event actually occurs - some say by the time the sow is
about 1 year old, some say it happens later, and in some sows it may never
happen. If the cartilage/bone stiffening has already occurred in a bred
sow - her labor will at the very least be very difficult and painful, with the
pups born dead or damaged or the pups may be impassable and cause the mother's
death. We never felt it necessary to risk a sow's life by breeding her if we
thought she was too old for her first litter.
Sows that are bred and deliver their first litter when they
are young will be safe to breed again at a later date because their pelvic
region will not stiffen or fuse once they've had their first litter.
Genetics - I do not have room to go into detail on genetics
here - a simple warning- do not breed two
roan cavies together - this will result in a 'lethal gene pairing' This is
true with dalmation colored cavies also (they actually have spots!) If you
don't know if your cavies are roan colored - you can
email me for help -
generally, roan cavies have a predominantly-white body
interspersed with another hair color, like black or brown, and their head is
usually a darker or solid color.
Click here
to see Mergie and Furball, both examples of roan cavies.
The cavy to the right is also a roan cavy. >>>
Breeding cavies is rather simple - put the sow and boar
together in a large cage. A certain amount of squeaking, scuffling and picking on
each other usually occurs but separate them if fighting becomes intense or
prolonged. You will rarely see the actual breeding take place, but you
will see the boar 'strutting his stuff' often- he will 'walk tall' and slow while
purring, frequently marking the sow and cage with his anal glands. The sow is
only receptive to breeding 1-2 days approximately every 2 weeks, and you may not
even notice she is 'receptive to breeding', so you should leave
them together
for at least 1 1/2 months to ensure she has been bred. Some breeders
keep several breeding sows in a large pen with one main breeding boar in it.
After this time, take the boar out and put him back in
his own cage. Although boars do not usually hurt their young, he will
rebreed the sow immediately after she gives birth!
Because you don't know the exact date your sow was
bred, it is almost impossible to pinpoint her due date- we just mark the
calendar for the approximate delivery dates. The gestation period is
between 63 and 72 days - a long time compared to other small animals!
During her gestation, her nutritional needs increase, she will need more vitamin
C, extra protein and calcium (go easy on the calcium - not much is needed). We provide extra supplements such as
sliced oranges and kale for Vitamin C, and a few small sprigs of alfalfa hay for
added protein and calcium. Satin breeds should be provided with some
additional calcium because they are prone to this deficiency which can cause
problems during the pregnancy- both alfalfa hay and Tums will offer more calcium
to the pregnant Satin sow.
As her pregnancy progresses, she will develop a
huge, pear-shaped abdomen. If you must handle her now, take special
care - her entire body must be fully supported when you pick her up.
Towards the end of her pregnancy, you will be able to see the pups
moving around inside her, this usually means she will deliver within a day or
so.
The sow will not make a nest and makes no other
preparations for the birth. The actual birth doesn't take long, most of
ours (the ones that we've seen) have taken less than 20 minutes from start to
finish. She will deliver each pup, clean it off and deliver the next,
continuing until all are born. Some of our sows will let out a few squeaks
and grunts during the birthing - this is not the same as a pig with a stuck
labor as I will describe later. She will usually eat the afterbirth, but
sometimes it will be left behind. If the birth is not progressing
fairly rapidly, as described above, or if the sow appears to be straining and
straining or in pain, you'd better get her in to the vet quickly unless you are
comfortable trying to pull stuck pups out! We have never had this happen,
but we have always made sure ours were very young the first time they were
bred-to avoid this type of fiasco. After the birth, remove any soiled
bedding and make sure your sow has plenty of fresh water and food! One
note: keep your sow's area calm and quiet if you happen to catch her during the
birthing process - this is not a good time to upset her!
If the sire is still with mom as she delivers, he will
most likely not harm the babies, but he will immediately rebreed the mom when
she is done delivering - so unless you planned in immediately rebreeding her,
you should remove the boar before she is done giving birth.
The pups are born fully-furred and begin running
around soon after birth. They are really cute! "squeak-powered" as we say
because they squeak with every little step they make! Within a few hours they are
usually nibbling at solid food, and they actively chase their mother down for
nursing!
The male pups should be weaned by the time they are three weeks old or they will
try to breed sisters and mom. We leave all the females together longer unless
they begin bickering too much.
If you put a few males together while they are still babies,
most likely they will be able to live together as a group, as they age - as long
as they are never separated. Once you separate the males you most likely
will not be able to put them back together as they will probably fight.
The females seem to get along fairly well, even if they are
separated then put back together at a later date. Of course there are
exceptions for both the males and females.
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