Bonding help please

I know that you have said things have changed but when we ask about diet you still recommend weibkes food plate page I copy and paste a section, I suspect a lot of people will go by what it says as they have been ‘sent’ there I don’t know if it can be chnaged? As it states on it that spring greens is suitable for daily veg, I suspect many people like myself may read this page and then go out and do what it says but actually do more harm than good. Does that make any sense?
 

Attachments

  • IMG_8539.webp
    IMG_8539.webp
    54.7 KB · Views: 1
Hmm yes I can see the conflict on it now.

I can see the second paragraph may cause confusion but the first paragraph does clearly state that not everything on the plate is suitable for daily feeding and we do state in posts that lettuce, cucumber, coriander and bell pepper are the four safe for daily feeding.
I can also see in the second section about rotation that it says cabbages are not suitable for daily but that Spring greens are the mildest form of it.

There is also the pellet element to consider (which is where most calcium (along with drinking water) comes into the diet) when looking at the calcium and oxalate balance - for example, someone who doesn’t feed pellets has the option of higher calcium veg in the diet so this is where tweaks can be made
 
I do have one question , I want to make some hanginghay wreaths, but you need pig safe string,most things from pet shops a have string, I buy woven tunnel made of Seagrass, wicker etc that they love, but don’t know what sort of string to buy that is chew safe. What does anyone use? I am thinking hanging wood sticks, hanging cardboard, hanging hay circles. For entertainment.
 
I’m afraid I don’t know - I don’t make those kinds of things. I just use cardboard boxes and loose hay piles and forage on the floor for enrichment
 
Piggies&buns said:
I’m afraid I don’t know - I don’t make those kinds of things. I just use cardboard boxes and loose hay piles and forage on the floor for enrichment
Click to expand...
they really don’t need more than just loo rolls stuffed with hay, paper bags stuffed with hay and large piles of hay with a sprinkle of forage in? (We have to put the large piles of hay in big paper bags or boxes to reduce the hay in the air for my dad) they still appear bored to me… we are going to try getting some meadow hay as well as the Timothy hay so they have a bit of different things.
 
Enrichment is about mental stimulation and using their natural foraging abilities - guinea pigs naturally spend hours foraging and eating while wandering around so replicating that is great for them.
Giving them their food in ways that encourages that is one of the best things you can do. Hence why we say don’t use food bowls (sitting and eating at a food bowl is a mindless activity) and instead scatter everything around the cage, hide it in hay piles, in boxes etc to make them move and search.
Its also why we say to use loose piles of hay (in trays etc ia fine) so they can get right into the hay and forage and play in it rather than putting it in a hayrack where they then have limited access

(The very best form is enrichment is having a friend and you are dealing with that!)
 
Pip is at the rescue haven’t heard back very concerned about him. This is the lady he is due to meet. Maybe 2; years old they don’t know, they get a lot of hoarder situation piggies
 

Attachments

  • att.X-2fDH1UjM2TL2WT5-zFa1WFijKy8aOgNRoMtUyC-QE.webp
    att.X-2fDH1UjM2TL2WT5-zFa1WFijKy8aOgNRoMtUyC-QE.webp
    80.5 KB · Views: 2
When mum left them pip was the other side of the fence In An adjoining mini cage. He will be happy he appears to get two lots of nuggets while there, we only give what you recommend!
 
I know lots of you say about cardboard boxes being the best toys for them. How do you know what boxes are safe? I mean they generally eat a lot of the box when I use one, I am happy to buy them if you think they are safer than the ones that we get through the post, some people said about pampers boxes but they have a lot of printing on? My piggies would eat that and I don’t feel that is safe? Thank you. I want to increase from:them just having a bag full of hay to a bag and a box ful so they can really play in it, without killing my father (asthma and hay fever)!
 
Plain brown cardboard boxes can be used

I would not use any glossy or printed boxes like the pampers boxes you mention
 
Most boxes come with a lot of tape on too… do you have a problem with them eating the tape, I learned the hard way that they love adhesive. My boys once tried chewing some duct tape I had holding something together.mit is so sticky yet they had to be dragged away from it they loved it so much (needless to say all sticky adhesive products are now banned from the cage,
 
I am feeling very uneasy but I need advice what to do. So we left our little boy with Maria’s last Saturday. On the understanding it was £15 per week to try and bond him. Believing it would be about 1-2 weeks of them bonding. Mum left him and the girl Sharing a 2x4 cage with grids down the middle so each in a 2x2 cage. Believing they would stay like that for a couple of days then be introduced, I thought nothing of it. We have ch3cked on him a couple of times with very slow replies from Maria’s. Today we recieved a reply saying he is a lovely boy settling in well. Last time she said she had not introduced them. I do t think she has introduced them yet. So I think he has spent all week in a 2x2 cage! Next to her in a 2x2 cage! He has been rumblestruting at her, but this doesn’t seem like a good way to bond them, each so used to their tiny bit of cage then I presume removing the internal grids so they are together in one cage that each half smells strongly of the other, so will be territorial. I am feeling really unhappy about this. I know the charity is doing its best but I don’t feel this bonding is well set up. I would have to ask them is he still in a2x2 , I assume he is, it looked set up for bonding. I don’t want to get grumpy with them but I don’t feel it is best for his well-being, and he isn’t getting the 10 human cuddles a day he is used to. Seems to me he is worse off than being alone here! I don’t know whether to complain, leave him there, bring him home and buy a girlie. What would you advice I do? I did think 2x2 was too small but I thought if it is only for a few hours or a day it won’t matter.
 
Being kept side by side is important to allow them to get to know each other but to be clear though they are not bonding at this point - this is pre-bonding. If you were doing this pre-bonding in your own home then we would say to leave them side by side for as long as it takes for you to be confident about carrying the bonding out (could be a few days side by side or it could be a few weeks - however I suspect bonding would be done on the quicker side given it’s done in rescue and it is taking up resources).
Being in a 2x2 isn’t ideal but it also isnt completely terrible as this isn’t a permanent arrangement; and while I’m sure you are missing the cuddles, for him he has side by side piggy interaction which is more important than human cuddles.
In a case where they have been side by side, you then have to move them to a neutral area to carry out the bonding. What is highly risky is just removing the grids between them. If they were to rub the bedding in each half onto the other half therefore making both areas smell like both of them then that might reduce the risk of just removing the grids being seen as a territory invasion. But for me, it is not how i would bond - it’s just a bit of risk that I wouldn’t be happy to do myself and would rather them be moved to somewhere totally neutral.

However, the rescue are used to doing bondings their way in the way their resources allow.
I would ask them what their timeline and plan is going forward.
Given you are tight on space, I am not sure I would risk buying a piggy when you could end up in a failed bond situation and then three permanent side by side cages.
 
Ok how long do you think a 2x2 situation will be acceptable? We will definitely ask if the bonding will take place in neutral territory!
 
In this bonding situation as it is then I’d be ok with the 2x2 for another few days but i would be thinking they would do the bonding soon because you would really want them to have been together in the same cage for several days before you bring them home
 
We have written to the rescue asking about procedure. I won’t be so worried but they have had 3 failed bonding with this little lass before. If they are doing the bonding in the same cage no wonder! It is a lot of money to give a rescue if the bonding is predestined to fail because of the way they are doing it. Will let you know what I hear back from the rescue!
 
Piggies&buns said:
In this bonding situation as it is then I’d be ok with the 2x2 for another few days but i would be thinking they would do the bonding soon because you would really want them to have been together in the same cage for several days before you bring them home
Click to expand...
Do you think he will remember us as we had bonded so closely to him.
 
We tried to be as tactful as possible while finding out about my baby bonding schedule. I think we have put her front up though! We just wanted to find out exactly what 2am going to happen. When we first asked, surprised that he was still alone after a week, she got quite shirty saying that was she was going to do it slowly. We said fine, we will need to give you more food though. And she sent us her bonding plan for rabbits and said it is similar with Guinea pigs. And in it she talk as about a week of scent swapping between the cages! Which I know you guys had been dead against and I think could be why button did not get on with the little lad. So we did gently ask, is the scent swapping something you do, we really want this bond to work, the lady pig has already turned down 3 male suitors, and she is pretty much our last hope for a friend for our boy, apart from buying someone. She said she will try bonding them on Tuesday and if it fails come and get your boy… if anyone here prays please pray it works out for him. I think we have upset the lady running the rescue but I do also feel like I have a right to know what they are going to do. At £15 per week for three weeks minimum, that is fine if they are doing everything possible to make the bond work, but if I am paying for a week of scent swapping which this forum says will make the bond fail or more likely to fail… I am not saying that they do the scent swapping but she avoided telling me if they do or not. I know that rescues know what they are doing but they must be open to new ideas, as you say here we don’t know the best piggie care yet! I just hope it works out for him and for her, with 3 failed bonding she could be destined to be alone too 😢
 
Oh bless you. It is hard when they are in someone else’s hands.

You are right, we do not recommend scent swapping. As a rabbit owner myself, I would also never do it for rabbits either. Rabbit bonding and piggy bonding is often a very different kettle of fish.

I’ve got my fingers crossed
 
Hi, ok so whether or not the lady tried to bond them or not who knows but she says it wasn’t successful but she was very sharp in her email so who knows. She probably resents us interfering but I personally would be glad for any advice for a piggie who doesn’t want to bond! If you have tried everything else it is worth listening to advice from a Guinea pig forum. Needless to say I don’t think we will be going to her rescue again (generally she prebonds females in pairs so you HAVE to have a pair…) (from her bonding instructions she does a week in a 2x2 cage, then a week in a 2x2 cage with swapping items or even swapping the pigs from one end to the other, then a week in a different cage, I think you will agree that this is not a good procedure and I don’t feel happy about sending any piggies there for bonding at any point ☹️).

What would you suggest I a ) do now and b) do in the future if we loose a piggie? Buy a baby when I need a bonding and pray that it doesn’t grow up to hate its friend? I really don’t know. I don’t like the rescues way of doing bonding, and she appears unwilling to listen to any advice…
 
I can’t imagine a week of being in a tiny cage forced to have the smell of someone else in your territory you haven’t bonded with.
 
Guineapiggirl34 said:
Hi, ok so whether or not the lady tried to bond them or not who knows but she says it wasn’t successful but she was very sharp in her email so who knows. She probably resents us interfering but I personally would be glad for any advice for a piggie who doesn’t want to bond! If you have tried everything else it is worth listening to advice from a Guinea pig forum. Needless to say I don’t think we will be going to her rescue again (generally she prebonds females in pairs so you HAVE to have a pair…) (from her bonding instructions she does a week in a 2x2 cage, then a week in a 2x2 cage with swapping items or even swapping the pigs from one end to the other, then a week in a different cage, I think you will agree that this is not a good procedure and I don’t feel happy about sending any piggies there for bonding at any point ☹️).

What would you suggest I a ) do now and b) do in the future if we loose a piggie? Buy a baby when I need a bonding and pray that it doesn’t grow up to hate its friend? I really don’t know. I don’t like the rescues way of doing bonding, and she appears unwilling to listen to any advice…
Click to expand...
I am not saying that she should be doing the bonding in a different way, that is her choice and her belief it works best , but I don’t feel comfortable putting my babies through that procedure.
 
I’m sorry to hear the bonding didn’t work. A sow has to accept the boar (not the other way round) so for some reason the sow didn’t like your boy.

You have two choices:

1. See if your sow pair will now be happy to have your boy living beside them. I know your dominant sow was not happy with him beside her previously so there isn’t a reason to think she will be happy with him again now.

2. If he cannot live side by side with your sow pair, and you cannot find any other rescue to help with bonding - your only option for him to have a friend will be for you to buy a baby sow and for you to do the bonding yourself at home.
If you get a baby sow, you will need to bond them straight away as babies shouldn’t be alone.
 
I really don’t think putting the cage beside theirs again is a good plan, button seems quite peaceful and her soggy poos have pretty much gone away, we find the very odd pointed poo but that is all. I wish there were more rescues around here. I know that is I get a baby it should initially get on with him, what is the chance as she gets older the bond breaks? I do love Cornwall but it is not well placed for Guinea pig care, I am lucky to have a specialist vet in Newquay whch is ‘only’ half hour each way for my mum.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top