Maternal Behaviour in the Guinea Pig (cavia Aperea F. Porcellus): a Comparison of Multiparous, and Primiparous, and Hand Reared Primiparous Mothers

Previous studies of the effects of parity and social isolation on maternal behaviour in guinea pigs were either concerned with subsets of maternal behaviour or based their conclusions on small data sets. The aim of the present experiment was to give a more detailed and complete description of maternal behaviour, including the effects of the sex of the pups on maternal behaviour. Three groups of females — multiparae (n = 23), primiparae (n = 8), and hand reared (primiparae) (n = 8) — were compared with regard to a number of measures for maternal behaviour.Differencesamong the three groupswere fairly small, multiparae were more active in grooming during the Ž rst 10 days, admitted ventrum contact more often and approached and left the pups less often between days 14 and 24. Hand reared primiparae did not differ from mother reared primiparae. Some new aspects of maternal behaviour of guinea pigs were noted, e.g. mothers lick female pups more often in the anogenital region than male pups.