How to determine the sex of a guinea pig?

Guinea pig is a small and shy animal. Sometimes determining her gender is difficult even for a specialist.

However, knowing the gender of your pet is very important.

• Firstly, his name will depend on this - it’s difficult to come up with a nickname for an animal if you don’t know whether it’s a boy or a girl.
• Secondly, it is important not to make a mistake with the floor, if you already have a guinea pig and you want to choose a pair for it.
• Thirdly, the temperament of males and females is different - this can also play a significant role in choosing a pet.

In order to determine the sex of the guinea pig by external signs, it is necessary to examine it. To do this, you need to choose a good time when the animal is active and not afraid of anything. The peak of activity of guinea pigs occurs in the daytime - this means that it is better not to disturb them in the late evening, but to postpone the examination in the morning. It is important that the animal is not too scared during the inspection. Otherwise, it will dodge and may accidentally slip out of hands.

And so, below are a few basic rules for inspecting a guinea pig.

• Disposable rubber gloves must be worn before inspection. This hygiene rule is especially true if you are going to examine several individuals at once. A large number of bacteria can accumulate on the genitals of guinea pigs.In order not to transfer them from one individual to another, it is recommended to use a new pair for each pig. And you can also use special disinfectant gels after examining each animal.
• To study the genitals, you need to turn the guinea pig belly up, holding it tightly in the chest area. To protect the animal in case of a fall, it is better to carry out the procedure on a soft pillow or bedding.
• The next step is to slightly extend the fur in the perineum and carefully examine it. To better see the genitals of a miniature animal, it is better to carry out the procedure in a well-lit room.
• When you finish the inspection, do not forget to reward the crumbs for patience with a delicious treat.

The genitals are formed in rodents in the prenatal period. However, sex determination in babies who are breastfed should be delayed until they reach one month of age. Mommy pig can reject and even destroy the cubs that people have touched because they smell a foreign smell from them.

The easiest way to determine the sex of a guinea pig is by the shape of the genitals. In girls, the sexual gap is V-shaped and tapers toward the anus, and the skin around it has a large number of folds. The distance between the anus and the vagina in females, as a rule, does not exceed two millimeters. Boys have a small tubercle in this area - This is the penis.

In nature, male guinea pigs mark the territory with the help of an odorous enzyme that is secreted from a special gland. This gland surrounds the anus - it is called the anal sac or anal pocket. Thanks to this feature, boys will have a more pronounced anus. While the girl's anus is much smaller - it is almost invisible and represents only a small hole.

Thus, having learned to determine the presence of the anal sac, you can easily distinguish a female from a male. In addition, in the male’s cage, you can notice a much more pronounced smell, while in the female’s dwelling it will be practically absent.

You can distinguish a boy from a girl by carefully examining their tummy, namely the size and color of the nipples. The female has pronounced pink nipples, they are clearly distinguishable upon examination and are well palpated. The male nipples are usually gray-brown in color. They are almost invisible and do not stand out to the touch.

When examining the mammary glands of guinea pigs, you can slightly blow on the tummy - so the wool will not interfere. In boys, you will see pale, small dots, and in girls, distinct and large nipples.

In addition, sex can be determined by the size and weight of the guinea pig. Males are larger than females, their weight varies from one to one and a half kilograms, and their body length is 30–35 centimeters. Females weigh approximately 800–1200 grams, and their length is 20–25 centimeters. The size of the guinea pig depends on age and breed, so this method cannot be considered one hundred percent true. You can use it only as an additional indicator to make sure of your conclusion.

One way to find out the sex of a guinea pig at home is to pay attention to the shape of the feces. For this, it is necessary that only one individual lives in one cell - this way the method will be more reliable. Since the size of the anus in the female and male is different - accordingly, the shape of the feces will also vary.

In females the litter is regular oval, and in males it is more elongated and slightly curved in the shape of an arc. In addition, the litter of the boy has a small groove resembling a longitudinal groove - like wheat grain.

Observing the behavior of animals, you can also understand what sex the individual belongs to. In the wild, the male’s task is to fertilize as many females as possible during sexual hunting.

Here are the main criteria by which you should evaluate the sex of a guinea pig:

• if several heterosexual individuals are contained in one cell, boys show more aggressive behavior, expressing a dominant position;
• boys behave more noisily - they often get into fights because of females, food, territory, but since in the wild guinea pigs live in groups, they are not able to inflict too serious mutilations on each other;
• girls are much friendlier in everyday life - they do not fight among themselves and are able to show aggression only as a last resort, for example, if their offspring are in danger;
• females practically do not make sounds, males, on the contrary, can express discontent or defend their interests with a loud hoot;
• boys are much more active and quicker, they like to explore everything around, while girls prefer to sleep in the house or clean the skin.

If you are not going to breed guinea pigs, but still want your pet to not be bored alone, you should seriously approach the issue of determining sex. By the way, boys, despite hyperactivity, can easily coexist in the absence of females. If the guinea pig lives in a single cell, it is only necessary to know its gender in order to find the right nickname.

See below for how to determine the sex of a guinea pig.