Texel Guinea pigs are social animals. They used to live in herds. They communicate with each other by different types of voices as squealing, purring, chirping and rumbling. They also can understand each other by body language. But in captivity one guinea pig is a lonely guinea pig. If you Contemplates Texel guinea pig, you will find that it has a quality of hair like long hair Silkie guinea pig and coat like short hair Cobby guinea pig. This makes you wonder how it is happened? is it result from breeding of two types? or it is just coincidence. And what is the origin of Texel guinea pig?
Texel guinea pig is originated from England in 1980. Its hair and coat are characterizing it. This feature was not easy to be achieved by breeding of different guinea pig types, because not all guinea pigs types can breed together. It refers to genetic formation and its ability to combine together. Silkia and Rex guinea big was the beginning. Over years, Texel guinea pig resulted from selective breeding.
Texel guinea pig is unlike other rodent. It has long gestation period range from 59 to 72 day (average 68) and large size of pups at birth. Breeding in Texel guinea pig is affected by many factors like dietary supplement and surrounding environment. Excessive food intake can affect sow fertility. It may lead to obesity which cause formation of adipose tissue around reproductive system. This leads to infertility and dystocia. So you should give your guinea pig daily opportunity to exercise. Also overcrowding and poor light affect Texel guinea pig fertility. Heat is affect greatly on Texel guinea pig. The approximate temp suitable for its living is 65-75 Fahrenheit. In addition to, Texel guinea pig has sensitive hearing, so it is very sensitive to noise.
Determination of Texel guinea pig sex is important for breeding. In young guinea pig ,you can find (y) shape in female anogenital region due to vaginal closure membrane, and dotted (i) shape in male due to urethral opening (penis). After maturation, it is easy to identify male from female, because testes appear in scrotal pouch. Male starts breeding from 5-10 weeks and female starts breeding 4-6 weeks. During breeding, put male and female together in the same cage. You can put one male with two or four females. Copulatory plug appears after successful mating. There are two ways to diagnose pregnancy. The first one is by palpation of the sow 15 day after breeding (early way). Fetus will be smaller than kidney and larger than fecal pellets. The second one is ultrasound (late way). It can be used 3 weeks after gestation. You should remove pregnant females to another cage. In this stage, sow needs special care. It needs special food to face pregnancy and lactation demands. It needs more protein, calcium and Vit C.
Finally, you should keep your Texel guinea pig in clean place away from pollution, heat, noise and predators to keep it safe and suitable for breeding.