Whether out of curiosity, or to give our guinea pig a partner, we always like to know the sex of our pet.

Normally the guinea pigs that we can find in stores are around two months old, a somewhat early age to ensure 100% whether it is a male or a female.

This causes us to sometimes buy a supposed "male" that turns out to be a female, and vice versa.

The way to correctly sex a guinea pig is very simple.

We will take the guinea pig and put it face up in our hand or lap. With the other hand we will apply light pressure on the upper part of the genital area.

Both the female and male genitalia are "Y" shaped. The difference between both sexes is based on a small dot that appears in males and not in females. This dot is located at the top of the “Y”.

In these two photographs, you can see the difference between the two sexes:

Unlike other rodents such as mice or rats, the male guinea pig does not develop prominent testicles, which makes sexing impossible with the naked eye.

In the mating season, the male begins to circle slowly around the female, purring and waddling his hindquarters.

On the contrary, the female simply accepts the male or avoids him.

Can I have several guinea pigs together?

If we want to have several guinea pigs together, it is very important for their well-being to make sure that there is only one male, or if we have a lot of space, two. In the case of females we can have several together without problem.

This is due to the territoriality of the male when a female comes into heat, since if there is more than one, they will fight to get the female.

To know more about how to sex guinea pigs, we leave you an explanatory video on how to do it: