Bonding now, but with an eye to the future

[Jon880]

As I've mentioned elsewhere on the forum, I've recently lost two members of what had been a three-pig herd up until July.

I'm left with a single two-year old sow, Sandie, and I'm desperately keen to find a companion for her ASAP. However, we've now owned four guinea pigs since 2021 and my wife is keen to end the guinea pig cycle sooner rather than later, especially as our kids are getting older and our family life is changing.

My local rescue (Suzy at GGPR) has some younger piggies available, although my first preference would be to try to bond Sandie with a sow or neutered boar of similar age.

Does anyone have any experience of managing a herd towards a future end point? Did you select pigs specifically with a view to having two or more of similar age who could grow old together? What strategies did you use to get off the merry-go-round of constantly bringing in new guinea pigs?

I guess at some stage we'll be left with a single bereaved piggie, and I hate the thought of them passing away through loneliness or being sent off somewhere strange and unfamiliar in their later years, in the uncertain hope of finding a new friend elsewhere.

 

[Wiebke]

As I've mentioned elsewhere on the forum, I've recently lost two members of what had been a three-pig herd up until July.

I'm left with a single two-year old sow, Sandie, and I'm desperately keen to find a companion for her ASAP. However, we've now owned four guinea pigs since 2021 and my wife is keen to end the guinea pig cycle sooner rather than later, especially as our kids are getting older and our family life is changing.

My local rescue (Suzy at GGPR) has some younger piggies available, although my first preference would be to try to bond Sandie with a sow or neutered boar of similar age.

Does anyone have any experience of managing a herd towards a future end point? Did you select pigs specifically with a view to having two or more of similar age who could grow old together? What strategies did you use to get off the merry-go-round of constantly bringing in new guinea pigs?

I guess at some stage we'll be left with a single bereaved piggie, and I hate the thought of them passing away through loneliness or being sent off somewhere strange and unfamiliar in their later years, in the uncertain hope of finding a new friend elsewhere.

Hi

I am currently in that situation after keeping multiple piggies for over twenty years when I returned to keeping them after I moved to the UK.

My last piggies are now all between 4-7 years old. I adopted a trio of dumped young piggies with the two sows pregnant by the boar (son and brother) and the resulting 4 inbred babies as the ones to bring up the rear.
I sadly have lost dad and one of his three sons very unexpectedly within 3 weeks in August but so far, I am still able to keep the remaining piggies in couples and trios.

I am bracing for the fact that I am now in the phase where I am facing a string of losses in quick succession (I have already lost 4 since the start of the year (the other two were around 6 years old). And that inevitably that at some point I am going to end up with living alongside singles and that like everybody else I am going to end up with one last standing oldie. What I am going to do then very much depends on whether they are OK being an only piggy with round the day human company or not or whether I am going to look for a foster piggy that I can return the rescue. That always very much depends on the personality and is not predictable.

I hope that you can find a solution for yourselves locally that doesn't involve facing the same dilemma yet again