Our first pair of guinea pigs were Abyssinians. We bought them from a breeder at Sulit.com.ph. The seller was not home (though we informed him we were going) when we went to buy our cavies. His grandmother sold us the pair instead and she mixed up their gender. We did not know this until after a month or so when we noticed one of them was getting fat. We thought he was pregnant and researched the web on how to care for a pregnant cavy. Then upon inspection, discovered that the one we thought was the boar, was actually the sow and vice versa. We kept the name of the female though, because she was still "Frisky" even though she was the sow. (She's the black and white one in the photo) We named our boar "Cholo" (because I could not decide between Choco and Milo).
The breeder we bought our cavies from did not inform us that we should separate them while they are young. Luckily, Frisky did not get pregnant early. Upon research on the web, we read that sows should be bred before they are 6 months of age because their pelvic bones will fuse later on. But upon joining local forums on guinea pigs, some breeders say this is not true and that cavies should be bred after they are 6 months old. It was quite confusing... so we decided to play safe and breed them at 4 months old.
UPDATE
Frisky's pregnancy was uneventful (thank goodness!). We suspected she was pregnant when it seemed like she was eating non-stop! We confirmed it when her belly got really big by the 2nd month. Doesn't she look like she's wearing a ball gown? :)
Frisky gave birth to 4 male pups on April 3, 2011. Read about it HERE.
UPDATE (June 26, 2011):
Cholo died today. He had not been eating for days. He started crying continuously on Friday but we could not find what was wrong with him. The nearest vet was not available until Monday. We tried to get him to eat to no avail. Sigh.... At least he is no longer in pain. We will miss you Cholo. We love you!
