Guinea Pig Babies: Cycle of Life

So on Wednesday, our Chloe finally gave birth to 3 babies. Mom did great and we had a great lesson on understanding more about the wonders of birth (as part of our health curriculum).

This video was shot the day of the guinea pigs being born.  If you look closely enough, you can even see the placentas.

Unfortunally today, the smallest one, died.  On Friday we noticed that he was no longer latching on and so I started bottle feeding him.  He took to it until 6 am this morning, and then he seemed to give up.  Homer passed on around 1:45 p.m.  

The students have chosen to have a proper funeral tomorrow followed by their version of a feast in the afternoon.  Here are some pictures to share with you all of the babies:

The baby you see on the left is the one we lost :(

Mom Chloe

Chloe and Homer (now deceased)

Chloe and babies

Guinea Pigs Being Happy

So here is a video of our two guinea pigs in their brand new cage that we built them.  The girls were responsible for building the girl cage, and the boys were responsible for building the boy cage.  It was very interesting how the groups built their cage.  There was definitely a different way of thinking between the boys and the girls!  We used the opportunity to teach about perimeter.  Studies show that students do better when they can relate a concept to something personal.  It worked pretty well I think!

Right now our guinea pigs are in the same cage as Chloe is expecting (we're pretty sure-3 weeks today), but they will soon be separated.

This video is of when they are first put in their new cage.  The behavior they are exhibiting is called popcorning.   The guinea pigs pop like hot corn kernals, a sign that they are happy.

Enjoy