Meet Our Rescues: Rosemary & Sage!
Meet Our Rescues: Rosemary & Sage!
Meet Rosemary & Sage! These two have to be my favorite rescue case to ever have the pleasure of working on!
We were contacted on Jan 18th about a local in our very town who found 3 guinea pigs under a shed! It was going to be under 30 degrees that night so we where very concerned about collecting these sweet guinea pigs. Arriving at the scene we spent the next 3 hours trying to get them from under the shed but the crack was just to thin and any time you would spot a pig they would run right back underneath, cutting our losses, we set up some cat and squirrel traps, hoping we would get lucky
The next morning we still had no sign of the piggies so we refreshed the traps with new sweet treats and several hours later we got a call. The lovely person who had informed us of the piggies continued to check the traps while we where gone and the traps finally sprung! So we rushed back to collect them and was happy to collect 3 healthy guinea pigs!
Taking a closer look at them we believe this was unfortunately a breeder dump as the oldest with them had a ear tag adorned. But otherwise, They seemed to be in surprisingly good condition for how long they've been outside! Although, to our surprise the eldest pig with them was male! Meaning that we likely had 2 pregnant piggies in our care!
And just as we thought a few weeks later they began to show!
Within only a few weeks you could feel the babies kicking hard and squirming around inside. This was our very first time caring for pregnant guinea pigs but with the help of Austin Guinea Pig Rescue. We were very confident and excited to see these babies be born! We set up a camera inside their cage so we would be able to be present when they gave birth and so, we waited.
on Feb 23 we woke up to see two little pups appear! To our surprise Sage had found the one and only blind spot in the entire enclosure from the camera to give birth so we weren't able to be present at her birth, luckily she gave birth to two very healthy pups and momma pig seemed to be free of any complications!
These babies were named Nutmeg & Ginger to go with their mom's spice theme! They looked just like their dad!
to Rosemary's disappointment, She was still pregnant...Very pregnant. While she watched sage enjoying her babies, poor Rosemary was miserable carrying so many pups, She would lay down at every chance and would constantly complain about her precarious situation.
on March 1st Rosemary finally had her pups! At 5am that day I woke up to hear her squeak and going to check on her she was in labor! Having already given birth to her first pup. She gave birth to 4 beautiful babies! Unfortunately, at birth she ignored one of her pups, leaving him in his sack, where we rushed in and broke it so he could breath. Even after cleaning him off Rosemary didn't pay much attention to this baby so we wrapped him in a towel and warmed him up until Rosemary seemed like she was finished cleaning the other babies. Then, We put him in and hoped for the best!
After a while Rosemary finally started looking after our little runt and the four started to grow! We named them cinnamon, Juniper, Cilantro and Basil. Basil, the runt, Luckily had a strong fighting spirit and clung to mom the whole 3 weeks to gain a healthy weight.
We will share a separate Blog about the silly babies but Rosemary and Sage successfully nursed their pups and before we knew it, it was time for the pups to find their forever homes! We gave these mommas a few weeks break after the adoptions and then we found them a lovely forever home... With one of their babies!
The person who adopted cilantro (Now toffee) loved her so much she decided to adopt the mothers as well. Now the three of them are living happily in a lively household filled with love! Getting lots of adventures every day!