Bonding Lone Guinea Pigs

[3pigsinapod]

Hi, new here.
I have gotten a 4 year old sow called Ted, who has sadly been alone for around 9 months after her sisters had passed away. On the 8th October, I am getting two 8-week-old sows to bond with her and create a group of three. Because of the age difference, and the fact Ted has been alone for some time, how should I bond them? I've never had to go through the bonding process before so I'm quite new to it all!

Thank you.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi, new here.
I have gotten a 4 year old sow called Ted, who has sadly been alone for around 9 months after her sisters had passed away. On the 8th October, I am getting two 8-week-old sows to bond with her and create a group of three. Because of the age difference, and the fact Ted has been alone for some time, how should I bond them? I've never had to go through the bonding process before so I'm quite new to it all!

Thank you.

Hi! Please give your sows some time to get to know each other in adjacent cages or a divided bonding pen; ideally at least a day or overnight.

Then please follow the bonding tips in these guides here; you will hopefully find them very helpful.
As with all bondings, have a plan B at the ready if the bonding is not coming off. There is no magic wand method or trick in the world that can turn a bonding into a success. All you can do is create the right frame, take as many extraneous stress factors out of the equation and read the dynamics with as little interference as possible.
Brace yourself that dominance behaviour with recently weaned babies always looks very harsh as they are so vocal and dramatic (including protests and submission squealing) when they are emphatically put at the bottom of a group hierarchy and chucked our of hideys (make sure that you have got only hideys with two exits until things have settled down after a few days.
Older sows can be much trickier to bond than young ones - they go the opposite way to boars who generally mellow with age.
Bonding: Illustrated Dominance Behaviours And Dynamics
Sow Behaviour
When Sows Experience A Strong Season (videos)

All the best!

 

[3pigsinapod]

Hi! Please give your sows some time to get to know each other in adjacent cages or a divided bonding pen; ideally at least a day or overnight.

Then please follow the bonding tips in these guides here; you will hopefully find them very helpful.
As with all bondings, have a plan B at the ready if the bonding is not coming off. There is no magic wand method or trick in the world that can turn a bonding into a success. All you can do is create the right frame, take as many extraneous stress factors out of the equation and read the dynamics with as little interference as possible.
Brace yourself that dominance behaviour with recently weaned babies always looks very harsh as they are so vocal and dramatic (including protests and submission squealing) when they are emphatically put at the bottom of a group hierarchy and chucked our of hideys (make sure that you have got only hideys with two exits until things have settled down after a few days.
Older sows can be much trickier to bond than young ones - they go the opposite way to boars who generally mellow with age.
Bonding: Illustrated Dominance Behaviours And Dynamics
Sow Behaviour
When Sows Experience A Strong Season (videos)

All the best!

Thank you, this is really helpful. I have a backup cage which the older sow lives in now, but I'm getting a 2×5 c&c with baby bars, so I think for the first 36 hours I'll split it up like you said.