What killed my piggies? :(

[NiceNeverNaughty]

So our 2 guinea pigs lived in a hutch with a run attached right by the back door, sheltered under a porch. It is one of the pets at home hutches with a ramp down to a run. Yesterday afternoon they were larger than life, every time i go out of that door they are very noisy and friendly, paws up on the side of the run wondering what Ive brought them.

I got up this morning to find them both dead out in the run They obviously hadn’t been dead too long but the only sign of injury was one of them looks to have had his back feet chewed

Would rats have done this? I thought if a stoat or weasel had got in there would have been bite wounds and more devastation. Im absolutely gutted, they were a lovely little pair and Im dreading my 5 year old coming home from school

 

[alainax]

Was there sign of how the intruder got in?

 

[meleeka]

Aww so sorry to hear this. I don’t think a rat would kill a fully grown gunea pig, but it’s quite likely his feet were chewed after he died

 

[sheep]

Oh no, I am so sorry, that must have been really distressing to find nothing useful to add but wanted to pass on my sympathies.

 

[Redders]

Years ago we had rats that chewed in to the hutch and eaten through one on my GPS skulls. It was traumatising as a child. Knew it was rats as one was still in the hutch

I’m so sorry for your loss xx

 

[NiceNeverNaughty]

thanks, poor little boys I do think it was probably a rat, the hutch is by the bird table and we’ve been putting lots of extras out for the birds with the colder weather. There is a small section of the wire pushed in where it joins the top of the run which is about the perfect size too.

 

[honetpot]

GP are a bit like sheep, they tend to die very quickly, its not very often you see an ill GP. The only sick one we had was treated with Yakcult and survived.
My fittest longest lived GP escaped one winter with snow on the ground, I could not shut the cage door properly because of the damp. He would hop back in the cage to eat his food. He lived for nearly three years outside, free ranging over three gardens and his cage was our garage which he would defend, buy eeking. The cats, fox, rats and magpies didn't bother him.
They are so lovely but you never seem to buy a GP that is not pregnant. One breeder said a male got out and managed to cover 6 cages of females.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

Sorry to read this-could be rats, I had a rat attack one of my does when I was a kid-she wasnt a small breed either.

 

[Carlosmum]

So sorry to hear you have lost your piggies. We had a rat chew its way into the rabbit hutch once, we found the rat dead in the hutch in the morning and one rather smug looking dutch dwarf bunny in with it!

 

[Redders]

Amazing!! Well done dwarf bun!

 

[Pinkvboots]

I am so sorry about your piggies that is so sad they are such lovely little things I got given 2 years ago one died within the year but the other one lived until he was 8, he was an indoor living guinea but I really was devastated when he died he had such a character he would sit on the sofa with us and the dog in the evenings, I never wanted another because I thought I would never get another that was so lovely.

your poor daughter we have a local rescue near us maybe worth looking into you may have somewhere near you that have a pair that need a home.

 

[Alec Swan]

OP, it would be rare and to the point of all but impossible for a rat to kill a fully grown GP and to kill two — even more unlikely. Could it be a stoat? If you still have the carcasses I'd pop them down to the vet and ask that they check very carefully for puncture wounds to the nape of the neck and up to the base of the skull. The puncture marks will be tiny and there will be little in the way of blood. A stoat would kill more than they need but a rat probably wouldn't.

I'm sorry for you loss and hope that your little-un comes to terms with it.

Alec.

 

[Goldenstar]

They are prone to sudden death due a infection of the gut that they can get when the temperature suddenly drops .
I just remember this from a friends who suddenly lost her children’s .

 

[OldFogie]

They are prone to sudden death due a infection of the gut that they can get when the temperature suddenly drops .
I just remember this from a friends who suddenly lost her children’s .

I'd go along with this. We took over a whole gaggle of miscelanous animal life when friends emigrated - my missus used to adore the G.P.'s and bunnykins! But just as above - one morning - all dead, after being as right as ninepence the day before, no access to their cage possible ( I built it ). One of the bunnies escaped - it looked almost like a wild one - and lived in ours and surrounding gardens for years, at least six which is a good age for a bunny.