A week ago, I bought a guinea pig pup. She died today. This is not the first time I bought a young guinea pig that died. I have gotten maybe 4 young guinea pig pups altogether that have died. Finally one survived and grew up (3 years old) and I was trying to find her another cagemate. I was wondering if anyone else has had problems with very young guinea pigs dying within days to a week of purchase? Any suggestions?

Can't say I ever had this problem myself,
If you brought the pups from a pet store then I would have took them back and explained the problem and asked if they had any problems,

How old was the guinea pigs when you brought them, and did the seller give you a care sheet telling you what they had been feeding it and if any extra suppliments were given,

If feeding fruit and veg there are some fruits and seed that are poisonous, i.e. apple seeds, iceburg lettuice etc have you ever fed these to the young pups?
If so then it could have been that, flat lettuice is the best lettuice for them if you can get it as these do not contain the toxins the iceburg lettuice has...

I don't know why you are having the problems but I wish you good luck with the next pup you buy as a friend for the one you have... and umm have you considered buying a small rabbit to keep him company and not another guinea pig as these do go very well togather, not trouble on sex as they are different species so doesn't matter what sex you get

Katie

Thanks for the input. I got that one from petsmart. They give you a 14 day health contract so I exchanged for another today. They did not give me a care sheet listing what has been fed the pigs. However, I noticed there were absolutely no fruits or veggies. I do know iceburg lettuce is bad for guineas and have never fed them this. I did not know about the apple seeds but I have not fed this to the pup. The only fresh veggies I fed her was celery and romaine lettuce.

If you do get this happen again in any more young ones I would perhaps suggest a post mortem on the young pup as it may be an underlying illness within the breeders stock or it could be something that may have lurked in your house from one of the other past pigs you have had that can go into hibernation... either way a post mortem would tell you in a lot of cases why the pup is dying..

I'm not really into guinea pig illnesses so couldn't tell you what they can catch but there are all sorts out their and where 1 has immunity from the diseases others don't have the same immunity..

I really do hope all goes well with a new pup though , hope you find one that suits :)

Katie

Are you feeding guinea pig food? Guinea pigs and humans are the only animals that can't make their own vitamin C, and if you have been feeding them something not for guinea pigs, it's possible that they have had a vitamin C deficiency. I'm not sure that that would kill them, though.

Do you buy them from the same store because if so then chances are it's the stores fault rather than a natural occurrence. I don't know of it being the same with guinea pigs but friends of mine have brought rabbits and hamsters from stores and they keep dying within the first week or so

If this keeps happening, don't support the store but try a rescue centre nearby. They will most likely have babies and will have done a full medical so you will know that the creature is sound and most likely to last. Also, having rescue guinea pigs really doesn't make that much of a difference and can be really rewarding

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Originally Posted by bacforever

Do you buy them from the same store because if so then chances are its the stores fault rather than a natural occurance. I don't know of it being the same with guinea pigs but friends of mine have brought rabbits and hamsters from stores and they keep dying within the first week or so

If this keeps happening, don't support the store but try a rescue centre nearby. They will most likely have babies and will have done a full medical so you will know that the creature is sound and most likely to last. Also, having rescue guinea pigs really doesn't make that much of a difference and can be really rewarding

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I rescued a guinea pig from my local shelter 2 years ago and it died the next day. It was bleeding from its genitals and had diarrhea. I guess they didn't do a full medical...

http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/guine.../Gpsaspets.htm
http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer..._guineapigcare
http://www.pimms-pages.co.uk/
http://www.guinealynx.com/healthycavy.html

I am no expert,
Hope these links help you in caring for your next pet!! :)