Breeding Cavies:  Pregnancy, birth and sexing babies.

Firstly your cavies must be fit & healthy, not fat.  For the sows first litter,  you must breed her before she is 12 months old, or the possibility of the pelvic bones fusing is much greater, so not allowing the babies to pass naturally.                                                                                        The age of her first litter should be around 4 months old, unless she is small, then wait until  5 months old, weight should be around 1 & 1/2 pounds.  The Boar should be 3-4 months old at least,  Once you have put your pair together, a number of things happen, the boar will sniff the sow, start to purr & dance around the sow, waving his rear & circling her, if she is not in season she will avoid his advances, if he persists, a well aimed jet of urine, in his face, will stop him in his tracks, if she is in season, (every 14-18 days), she will stand still with her rear raised,  mating takes place several times, after which he will plug her with a white glue like substance, which will stop her losing sperm & the possiblity of another boar mating her.                                                       If the mating is sucessful, pregnancy will begin, the first 4 weeks, you will not notice much, after 5 weeks she will be getting bigger, handle her carefully, by 8 weeks, the babies growing inside are getting hair, move & eyes start to open. If you haven't already separated them, do so now, with pregnancy lasting 63-73 days, 70 is normal, she will often go quiet before littering.  When ready to litter her pelvic bones will be about a thumbs width apart. As contractions start, she will raise herself up & push.  Reaching under as the baby appears, she will wash its nose, breaking the sac from its mouth & nose, as its shoulders appear, she will wash it quickly, if it appears not to be breathing she will pumel it around until it does, this can look as though she is killing it. The baby will cough & squeak, & stuggle to its feet, while its mother is having the next one.       PROBLEMS in birthing:  Breach birth, (hind legs first), unless you are their to help it, often result in the death of the baby as they suffercate, not every baby in the litter will be breach, just because one is.  A genetic problem called 'BULL BACK' often result in a stuck baby, unless removed, both mother, problem baby & remaining litter will die.      If you find a litter, that has a number of babies still in their sac's, it probably means that they followed each other out too quickly, to save one, she will ignore the rest, rather than try to sort all babies out & risk the whole litter, if you are their, remove the sac, from the head, wipe the mouth & nose, wipe dry with a soft cloth/tissue, tweaking the ears is said to help, bring a baby round.  A mother can get TOXAEMIA  (common in very over weight (fat) mothers) before Pregnacy/littering.  If your sow is sat, facing the corner of the cage, rocking, hair stuck up on end & moaning, she is likely to have Toxaemia, Veterinary Treatment is vital, in the early stages.  BLOOD LOSS is normal in small amounts, excess is fatal.  MILK FLOW is normally there after birth, sometimes just before, it can take upto 12 hours to come through, check to see if babies are feeding & she has milk by 12 hours.  MASTITIS is where the milk glands, become hard with thick infected milk.  If should be expressed regular, hot compresses (cotton wool soaked in warm water) with help, if ulceration occurs, antibiotics will be needed, can be caused by poor hygiene standards, like a dirty cage, can also be caused by a baby biting hard on a nipple, causing the sow pain, so she will not allow any baby to feed, causing a build up of milk that becomes infected, do check your sows nipples, for problems at least twice a week.  SEXING of babies from birth is easy, see photos (right) of two three day old babies.  first is a baby boar, second is a Sow.    Boars are quite capable of getting a sow pregnant from 3 weeks of age (I know, the only boar in the cage, he got pregnant an older sow, he was 3 weeks old).  So make sure you have split the babies by four weeks old, boars in one cage or with their father or other boar, that will except them, the sows can stay with their mothers.   They can be found homes from 6-8 weeks old, depending on their weight & size.  Young Children do better with an older cavy baby, around 10-12 weeks old, they are of good size then.