A baby for my bereaved 2 year old?

Scooter Pie

Scooter Pie

Teenage Guinea Pig
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Hi everyone,

My little girl Kona (about 2 years old) lost her cage mate Buttercup on Monday. We are very concerned about finding her a friend, because when we adopted her last May, she was in really bad shape after losing a cage mate at her original home. Emaciated and self-barbered all the fur she could reach. That resolved almost immediately when she bonded with Buttercup and now is gorgeous!

Bonding makes me VERY nervous. Ive tried with our other pair and they can’t even be side by side (one of my other pair has fear-aggression. Not going to work).

I found a rescue about an hour away that has 3 “babies” (I don’t know their exact age yet). I also do not know if they allow meetups, OR if I want to take Kona on an hour ride. Thoughts on that? My concern is the behavior wouldn’t be accurate if she was stressed from a long ride like that.

I’ve read on the forum that babies are usually accepted by adults. Wondering if I should chance it if meetups aren’t allowed.
 
Scooter Pie said:
Hi everyone,

My little girl Kona (about 2 years old) lost her cage mate Buttercup on Monday. We are very concerned about finding her a friend, because when we adopted her last May, she was in really bad shape after losing a cage mate at her original home. Emaciated and self-barbered all the fur she could reach. That resolved almost immediately when she bonded with Buttercup and now is gorgeous!

Bonding makes me VERY nervous. Ive tried with our other pair and they can’t even be side by side (one of my other pair has fear-aggression. Not going to work).

I found a rescue about an hour away that has 3 “babies” (I don’t know their exact age yet). I also do not know if they allow meetups, OR if I want to take Kona on an hour ride. Thoughts on that? My concern is the behavior wouldn’t be accurate if she was stressed from a long ride like that.

I’ve read on the forum that babies are usually accepted by adults. Wondering if I should chance it if meetups aren’t allowed.
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Hi

Babies are often more easily accepted but there is no guarantee that it will come off. It still needs mutual liking and a plan B if you bring home a sub 4 months youngster; especially if you have a sow with some major fear-aggression issues and the bonding is not coming off; the same way that bonding a bereaved boar with a baby still relies on a personality match, as we have regularly seen on here and trying to match up our own bereaved piggies.

Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics (contains chapters on sow dating and baby dating special aspects as well as charting all stages of the complex bonding process in detail with their attendant key behaviours and dynamics)
 
Thank you. Kona isn't the one with the fear-aggression, it's one of my other in the separate pair.

When Kona met Buttercup, who was dominant, it was very easy. She tolerated her ovarian cyst caused long seasons just fine.

We'll see. I have a rescue 5 miles away that allows meetups, they just have boars right now though!
 
Scooter Pie said:
Thank you. Kona isn't the one with the fear-aggression, it's one of my other in the separate pair.

When Kona met Buttercup, who was dominant, it was very easy. She tolerated her ovarian cyst caused long seasons just fine.

We'll see. I have a rescue 5 miles away that allows meetups, they just have boars right now though!
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Then it will hopefully work well. Ask for one of the more submissive babies if that is possible.
 
I bonded a 7 month old boar with a baby boar last November. It was so wonderful to see the baby just wanting to be with the older one. And the older one showing the baby the “ropes”. 😍. Good luck. Hope you can find a suitable friend soon.
 
Got good news from my local shelter this morning! A sigle female, 3-4 month old female is available. Born from a "we bought 3 babies at Pet Smart and one ended up being a boy" situation.

At this age, would you guys recommend trying her with Kona and if she's ok with her, not separate?

Fingers firmly crossed....nervous but hopeful. There is a very good chance here.

If she works out, this will be my 6th piggie, and first name ever given, first time knowing birthday, parents, siblings, etc.

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She looks really young and cute. If she’s still a baby then her need for companionship comes first and I would proceed with the bonding straight away.
 
Born 8/22/21 so only 11 weeks old! I can’t imagine how tiny she must be. Is that even old enough to be adopted?! Will be doing some reading!

Just waiting to hear now. I'm sure the shelter has to wait for the owner to meet them and do the paperwork.
 
Scooter Pie said:
Born 8/22/21 so only 11 weeks old! I can’t imagine how tiny she must be. Is that even old enough to be adopted?! Will be doing some reading!

Just waiting to hear now. I'm sure the shelter has to wait for the owner to meet them and do the paperwork.
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So cute!

Yes 11 weeks is old enough.
 
Ok! Looks like Friday may be the day we're picking Peggy up. She is still with her sister, mom and another adult female.

BONDING QUESTION!

There is a chance I will need to pick the baby up, bring her home, and leave for work within only a few minutes.

I was thinking Id have the bonding pen set up, possibly have Kona in it, and maybe set the carrier with Peggy in it till I'm back (only 4 hours later). Our carrier is mesh so they could see and smell each other.

My husband will be home but not sure I want to have him totally responsible for watching the bonding on his own (he'll be online working).

Do you think that would be ok? Or if I have 15 minutes to observe them together, would that be long enough to get a feel for if they are going to be ok?

Again...Kona's 2, petite 950g and Peggy 11 weeks. Kona was not the dominant pig when she lived with Buttercup.
 
Scooter Pie said:
Ok! Looks like Friday may be the day we're picking Peggy up. She is still with her sister, mom and another adult female.

BONDING QUESTION!

There is a chance I will need to pick the baby up, bring her home, and leave for work within only a few minutes.

I was thinking Id have the bonding pen set up, possibly have Kona in it, and maybe set the carrier with Peggy in it till I'm back (only 4 hours later). Our carrier is mesh so they could see and smell each other.

My husband will be home but not sure I want to have him totally responsible for watching the bonding on his own (he'll be online working).

Do you think that would be ok? Or if I have 15 minutes to observe them together, would that be long enough to get a feel for if they are going to be ok?

Again...Kona's 2, petite 950g and Peggy 11 weeks. Kona was not the dominant pig when she lived with Buttercup.
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I would not put Kona the bonding pen in advance - Kona could end up seeing it as her space and then it wont be neutral for when you put Peggy in there.

15 minutes wont necessarily be long enough - you need several hours for bonding and I personally would not want to leave them unsupervised within 15 mins of going in the bonding pen.
Best to keep them separate (in separate cages) until you can do the bonding. But do do it that day as Peggy is too young to be alone
 
Ok...can do. She could be in the room with Kona and my other pair, just again like I said for about 4 hours till I get home.

I usually use the smaller mesh carrier, but I also have a large hard sided cat carrier I could keep her in while she waits. Does that sound ok?
 
Scooter Pie said:
Ok...can do. She could be in the room with Kona and my other pair, just again like I said for about 4 hours till I get home.

I usually use the smaller mesh carrier, but I also have a large hard sided cat carrier I could keep her in while she waits. Does that sound ok?
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As long as she has enough space and isnt totally alone (can interact through bars), then its a solution until you can do the bonding
 
Piggies&buns said:
As long as she has enough space and isnt totally alone (can interact through bars), then its a solution until you can do the bonding
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Thanks :) Id rather have her wait here at our quiet home than keep her at the shelter till later where she'd be in a kennel by herself. If I have her in the cat carrier, it's pretty big and secure and she could sniff through the side vents if I had it next to Kona's cage.
 
Well, I checked with my shelter contact to see if 10am Friday was a definite.

Now the owner is being “difficult” and has not confirmed a time, and has the litter posted on a Facebook rehoming group (with “our” piggie marked “pending”, which I hope means she is still going to take her to the shelter)

😔

I'm very superstitious and should have known better than to give her a name before she was here.

This is making me realize in all this focus on finding a friend for Kona, I haven’t allowed myself to grieve for Buttercup properly.

The tears are sure flowing now though.

Hopefully my next update will be better 💖
 
:hug:So sorry you don’t know for definite what’s going on, I’d be upset too. Hopefully the ‘pending’ does mean she’ll be coming to you, she’s a beautiful little girl.
I’m so sorry you lost little Buttercup :(
I hope today gets better and you get some good news, big hugs from me and my gang x
 
alpacasqueak said:
:hug:So sorry you don’t know for definite what’s going on, I’d be upset too. Hopefully the ‘pending’ does mean she’ll be coming to you, she’s a beautiful little girl.
I’m so sorry you lost little Buttercup :(
I hope today gets better and you get some good news, big hugs from me and my gang x
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Thank you, it means so much to me.

I got a nice card from the vet yesterday. Now more pigs in my area have a doctor because she learned with Buttercup 💕
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Awwww...I recently just got a baby for my bereaved piggy (she lost her sister last year) last month, & it couldn't have gone better. She LOVES the baby.
The baby isn't a 'threat' to her since she's younger. The baby latched on quickly to her, they bonded instantly.

I think it will go well, & I'm sorry, I hope the pending is also for you, not anyone else. Keep us posted. :(
 
PoptartShop said:
Awwww...I recently just got a baby for my bereaved piggy (she lost her sister last year) last month, & it couldn't have gone better. She LOVES the baby.
The baby isn't a 'threat' to her since she's younger. The baby latched on quickly to her, they bonded instantly.

I think it will go well, & I'm sorry, I hope the pending is also for you, not anyone else. Keep us posted. :(
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That is such a sweet story 😍 Exactly what we hope will happen here. For now I'm going to "keep calm and carry on" and hope I can hold back the tears while I'm at work!
 
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