Bonding guinea pigs.

[Nemo]

I just wondered how easy it is to bond a neutered male guinea pig with a female guinea pig.

I would love for Iggy to have a friend but not sure she would ever get on with females so thought maybe bonding a neutered male with her might be better. She is living in Lavender Lodge all on her own at the moment and its a shame having such a big cage with one piggy in it if she could be happy with a friend - I would love to see her cuddled up with another piggy.

I am hopeless at bonding piggies though and must admit when they start the teeth chattering and running at each other I seperate them right away - don't know if I am doing the right thing here but I'm terrified of one of them getting badly hurt.

This is Iggy.

This is the female I tried to bond her with and they were okay for the first five or ten minutes..

and then this happened..

The teeth chattering, hissing and running at each other would start.

I would love to adopt a neutered boar for her and have seen some here.

http://www.guineapigrehome.org.uk/gp/moreinfo.asp?GpigID=2924

I love Colin and would love to adopt him but I would gladly take any neutered boar as looks aren't important as long as they get on together. I do love Abyysinians though.x)

So has anybody any tips for bonding a neutered boar with Iggy please?
Iggy is 2 years old.

 

[Nemo]

Just realised the site hasn't been updated since June so all those piggies have probably now been rehomed.:...

 

[Nemo]

It's a shame cos I would love to see her with company.
Thanks Sokel.

 

[Pumpkinpiggie]

Do not give up hope of these two bonding it takes a lot of time and a hell of a lot of nailbiting from us. First off I would let them in the run with a divide in so they can see each other but not get to each other. Yes there will be teeth chattering ect at first.
A few tips bath both pigs so they smell the same
Try swapping each others hay so they learn the smell of each other.
Give plenty of veggies to distract them on introduction.

Mine often raise like yours mostly over the same blade of grass

 

[Nemo]

Well sadly Snowy died about 2 months ago so I won't be able to bond them now. I would love to get her a friend though and thought maybe a boar might have been easier for her to bond with.

I did actually try separating them like that too with a division in the pen but even after doing this for a week or two they still looked as if they were going to fight. I do wish I had perservered more now though instead of giving up.:red

Thanks for all the good advice. I may try and adopt a neutered boar and then see if I can somehow get them bonded.

 

[Niki]

As graham's said there are no guarantees with a neutered boar - i've had the same problem with a sow; she loved HER boar but no other & had another sow who hated ALL boars & made the fact quite clear!

I would take Iggy to a rescue & let her choose her own friend, hopefully she will find one she likes

 

[Nemo]

It's much easier when you get two from the same litter or cage really isn't it - although in the past I had two boars that I got from pets at home and they started fighting after a few weeks and I had no option but to seperate them. I have two young girls now and they were bought together and they seem to get on fine. When we got Iggy though she was the only guinea pig in the cage so there wasn't an option to buy another one at the same time.