My 2 yr old guinea pig had babies on Saturday. My 6 year old picked up a baby guinea pig 3 days later and accidently dropped it. After examining it, I didn't see any immediate harm. Today the baby guinea is dead! My daughter loves all her guinea pigs and is very sweet to them. She is a sensitive child and will be heartbroken. How do I console her and let her know it was an accident? I know I should not have allowed her to hold them unsupervised and take full responsibility for that.

If I were you I would let her know that it didn't die from when she dropped it. She would have so much guilt over that. Just say that it got sick, and sometimes baby animals don't always survive. I think lying to your daughter would be much better than letting her think she killed an animal, especially a baby one.

I don't even know that that would be a lie. You don't really know why it died.

I'd just say, "Sometimes there are things wrong with baby animals that we can't see, and they just die. I don't know what was wrong with that one, but it must have been very sick and we just didn't know it."

I agree with this poster.

I agree with what the others have said. Just say you don't know why it died, these things just happen sometimes and, if your daughter wants to, have a little funeral for it.

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I agree with the others. Just tell her that sometimes baby animals die for unknown reasons.
Judy.

Thank you so much for all your replies. I took your advice and told her the baby was sick and we just didn't know it. She gave it a funeral and picked some flowers for it. She's currently outside showing her friend the stepping stone she placed by the burial spot. Thank you again.