Bonding help!

MildredMaudeandEnid

MildredMaudeandEnid

Junior Guinea Pig
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I'm trying to bond my recently bereaved Millie with my bonded pair, Maude and Ethel. They've been together since 11am but Millie is terrified and refusing to eat or interact with the others. She's pushed herself into a corner, completely frozen. Should I abandon this or keep going?

The other two are eating and sleeping and seem quite happy but if they approach Millie she screams and runs away.

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What do they do when she runs away? I don’t know whether you should stop as I’m not experienced with bondings. I’ll tag @Piggies&buns @PigglePuggle @VickiA

PS there shouldn’t be any hides in the bonding area. Just hay.
 
Siikibam said:
What do they do when she runs away? I don’t know whether you should stop as I’m not experienced with bondings. I’ll tag @Piggies&buns @PigglePuggle @VickiA

PS there shouldn’t be any hides in the bonding area. Just hay.
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When she runs, Maude has a little chase for a few seconds but that's all. The rescue told me to add an open ended hidey.
 
Siikibam said:
When bonding, it’s recommended you don’t have any hides, even open-ended ones. Have a read of the bonding guide below and see. Is she still sat in the corner? What happens if you move her to the hay pile?
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
Adding More Guinea Pigs Or Merging Pairs – What Works And What Not?
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I've tried putting the hay right next to her and she won't move or eat. She hasn't eaten or drank anything since first thing this morning so I've called it quits and put them back in their cages. All of the advice I've had seems to contradict each other and I've no clue what I'm doing so I'm just going to leave it at that.
 
When I attempted to bond Mr Pig with the girls, I used the guides on here, we made a neutral area with nothing but a big pile of hay in it, Noodle wasn't bothered by him at all and sat out of the way but unfortunately Spaghetti took a dislike to him and it was a no.
It might be worth watching the videos and reading the guides again and having another go on another day, it sounds as if you didn't have obvious dislikes between them so it might be worth considering another go?
I am far from an expert! We had one attempt and it was clearly not going to work but yours sounds more on a positive side than mine.
 
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