Advice for owner of bereaved guinea pig

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Cookie2013

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Hi
We very sadly lost one of our 3 year old female guinea pigs today due to lymphoma. I think we need to get our lovely remaining guinea pig (Cookie) a friend or friends. However, it seems there are very few single female guinea pigs. We are between Glasgow and Stirling. We could look to adopt a pair of bonded guinea pigs but I am worried if they would bond with Cookie and I would not want her to be left out or bullied. She is quite skittish, scared but was the dominant guinea pig before.
If you are to arrange a meeting with potential new bonded pairs, how does it work? Are they put in cages next to each other and how can you tell if they will get on?
Would it be better to get 2 new babies and is it more likely that Cookie would bond with them even though they are very young?
I'm so sad we have lost Oreo but want to do what is best for Cookie.
Any advice would be gratefully received.
Thank you
Kind regards
 
I’m so sorry for your loss.


Bonding a single piggy with an already bonded adult pair is the bonding most likely to cause issues. It’s not guaranteed to fail, but the issue is that an already bonded pair may or may not be willing to have another piggy join them.

Bonding her with babies may be easier. They will be more likely to submit to her.

In a case of dating, the piggies are put into neutral territory bonding pen together for several hours to see if they get on.
Being in side by side cages is fine for a few days to get to know each other before the bonding day but side by side is not bonding (it’s kind of pre-bonding) so doing so will not tell you whether they can get on and form a hierarchy.

I’ve added a couple of guides below to help you further

Adding More Guinea Pigs Or Merging Pairs – What Works And What Not?
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated Bonding Dynamics and Behaviours

Looking After a Bereaved Guinea Pig
 
So sorry for your loss.
Be gentle with yourself as you grieve.

I echo the advice given by @Piggies&buns .

When my Merab was left alone after the death of her cagemate we bonded her with a pair of baby sows. It worked very well.
She mothered them and they gave her a new lease of life.
 
Hi and welcome

BIG HUGS
I am ever so sorry for your loss. Lymphoma is very much one of every loving owner's nightmare diagnoses. :(

Unless your remaining girl is extremely submissive, bonding with a new pair of adult sows very often fails over none of the group leaders (a single sow still sees herself as a leader of a group) wanting to lose her top status, unless you are having a large group - and then it can be a toss up in my own experience.

It is generally better to either opt for a pair of younger sows (much as it pains me to recommend buying) or have a plan B ready in form of a divided/next door cage with companionship and socialisation through the bars.

As long as your remaining girl is eating and drinking, you have ideally 1-4 weeks' time to find a solution so please do not stress yourself out. Acute pining is actually pretty rare in our nearly 20 years of collective forum experience; it is mostly with pairs where there is an emotional dependency or - and that kicks usually in with a bit of syringe feeding - as a result of the shock from a sudden, unforeseeable deat.
Your companion knew that her mate was very ill and dying and will have taken her leave before so I wouldn't expect a problem. If your remaining sow is not handling being on her own well beyond being somewhat withdrawn, then she is more likely to accept new companionship.

Please leave your cage uncleaned for a little longer and if you notice that your suvivor is holing up in a cosy from her mate, leave it be, no matter how filthy, to allow the scent to gradually fade naturally. This is the most comforting thing you can do right now.

Be kind to yourself and try no to put yourself under too much pressure. Give your remaining girl time to grieve as well. Piggies don't grieve any less deeply than us humans; they just tend to come out of it a bit sooner because their survival instinct is a lot more immediate.

Looking After a Bereaved Guinea Pig

Human Bereavement: Grieving, Processing and Support Links for Guinea Pig Owners and Their Children
 
I'm sorry for your loss, I hope Cookie is OK whilst you find her a new friend.

Have you looked at Ayrs Guinea Pig Rescue? https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/guinea-pig-forum-recommended-rescues.196734/
Many rescues don't show single piggies on their websites as they won't adopt them out to live singly. It's worth contacting any rescue within your range to ask if they have any single sows or neutered boars that might be possible companions for your bereaved sow.
 
Thank you all for your help, really appreciated. We are just so upset and gutted. I don't think I've cried this much in years :-(
I think it sounds best to get some babies for her. She is more scared at the moment as Oreo was the chilled, rarely scared one and I think Cookie whilst being more dominant fed off this and it gave her confidence. They were not best pals but think more companions.
I'm quite worried about her as want her to be happy.
I've looked at some of the guides for introducing baby guinea pigs and am I right that we need to keep them completely separate i.e. in separate runs in separate rooms so they don't smell each other. SHould the babies be kept for 2 weeks on their own then we start to introduce them in a neutral area? And if they do not get on...... we have to keep them separate?
 
Cookie2013 said:
Thank you all for your help, really appreciated. We are just so upset and gutted. I don't think I've cried this much in years :-(
I think it sounds best to get some babies for her. She is more scared at the moment as Oreo was the chilled, rarely scared one and I think Cookie whilst being more dominant fed off this and it gave her confidence. They were not best pals but think more companions.
I'm quite worried about her as want her to be happy.
I've looked at some of the guides for introducing baby guinea pigs and am I right that we need to keep them completely separate i.e. in separate runs in separate rooms so they don't smell each other. SHould the babies be kept for 2 weeks on their own then we start to introduce them in a neutral area? And if they do not get on...... we have to keep them separate?
Click to expand...

Hi

The need to belong in piggies under 4 months (i.e. sub-teenage) is so great that a prompt introduction comes before any other considerations and they will have to be treated together all three for any problems that arise - hopefully not.
You can give any over 4 months old arrivals time next to each other after a quarantine if you wish.

With guinea pigs over 4 months, unless they have undergone a mandatory quarantine in a different room at a good welfare standard rescue (by far not all rescues do this, sadly, but all our recommended rescues do), you want to conduct a quarantine yourself in another room.
They can hear and smell each other; that is not the issue unless you introduce sows into a boars-only household, which is not the case with you.
Quarantine is about the transmission of germs and parasites; specifically ringworm, mange mites and other skin parasites or URI (respiratory bacteria) etc. with any piggies that are from a place that hasn't done that themselves (pet shops, breeders, sub-standard rescues).
If there is a problem, it should show up within two weeks of arrival. Ringworm takes 10-14 days between infection and outbreak and that is the one you'd rather not want to spread around - hence you look after Cookie first and only then after a quaranting piggy so you are not carrying anything accidentally across. Hand washing and good hygiene apply. ;)

How old are the piggies you are looking at?

Ayr's Guinea Pig Rescue is the only one we can recommend; they offer dating at the rescue so Cookie could come and make her own choice - this would also allow looking at submissive older sows or neutered boars.

Cookie sounds a bit like she could be a bit on the high-wired fear-aggressive side - nothing you can do about it. These piggies tend to set their mother's high stress levels as their own normal re-set while still in the womb. They generally don't deal as well with piggies that could challenge them in any way and may end up with preferring a next door neighbourship while keeping her own territory. :(

If you live in the Scottish Border area, Northeast Guinea Pig Rescue in the Newcastle area may rehome that far.

Guinea-pig-forum-recommended-rescues
 
Hi,

Thank you, so if they are under 16 weeks they just need to be introduced and don't need to be kept separate? Is that what you mean? Or they should be next to each other?
Thanks
 
Cookie2013 said:
Hi,

Thank you, so if they are under 16 weeks they just need to be introduced and don't need to be kept separate? Is that what you mean? Or they should be next to each other?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Under 16 weeks, they should be introduced as soon as possible. If needed, give them a few hours in a divided bonding pen or overnight if you are coming home in the later afternoon but they should not be quarantined.
See how your own lady is reacting and if needed give them time to settle down first but babies are generally much more likely to be accepted and they themselves are ready to accept any older piggy that is willing to take them on.

A couple of babies is going to enhance Cookie's standing while they cannot challenge her leadership. While one baby can be rejected, two rarely are and they will hopefully have each other so you can avoid the seesaw for at least the next notch. Just make sure that there is no furniture but a sheet/beach towel pegged over part of the top if needed and nothing without two exits in the cage. If you are not sure how the bonding is going, leave them in the pen overnight; that often helps to settle down things.
Expect some pretty emphatic but fairly short group establishing dominance behaviour in the days after the intro. The first two days are usually worst. :)
 
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