Bonding Questions!

Hadams33

Hadams33

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hello everyone! Today we were cleared with the 4 new additions at the vet and tomorrow we can start introductions. Although excited, I am nervous. Quick backstory for those who don’t know. Nora and Sylvia are our resident pigs. They turned 1 in August. We adopted Adaline as a single Guinea Pig almost a month ago. She is about 3ish months old, the rescue wasn’t quite sure. Then I fell into the trap of an email from a local shelter, with absolutely adorable pictures of 3 girls. So we adopted Elaine, Josephine and Beatrice a week after Adaline. They are around 2. Now that we’ve ended quarantine, I’m really not sure what to do. We have considered just bonding Adaline with Nora and Sylvia as she’s a baby and I don’t see it being much of a hassle for either group to accept her. Also that means we would have 2 equal groups of 3. Or do we try to bond our 2 residents with a group of 3, plus Adaline. I don’t know how to go about bonding so many new Guinea Pigs at once. We have the space for one large cage or 2 seperate large cages as well, so really either way works for me. My main priority right now is Adaline, we moved all of them into the same room tonight so they could hear eachother and the poor girl just wheeked and wheeked. She’s been terrified since coming home and tonight she came out of hiding talking to the other girls and eating with me right next to her cage. Our littlest one definitely needs some piggy sisters! So any advice or comments would be appreciated!
 
Hadams33 said:
Hello everyone! Today we were cleared with the 4 new additions at the vet and tomorrow we can start introductions. Although excited, I am nervous. Quick backstory for those who don’t know. Nora and Sylvia are our resident pigs. They turned 1 in August. We adopted Adaline as a single Guinea Pig almost a month ago. She is about 3ish months old, the rescue wasn’t quite sure. Then I fell into the trap of an email from a local shelter, with absolutely adorable pictures of 3 girls. So we adopted Elaine, Josephine and Beatrice a week after Adaline. They are around 2. Now that we’ve ended quarantine, I’m really not sure what to do. We have considered just bonding Adaline with Nora and Sylvia as she’s a baby and I don’t see it being much of a hassle for either group to accept her. Also that means we would have 2 equal groups of 3. Or do we try to bond our 2 residents with a group of 3, plus Adaline. I don’t know how to go about bonding so many new Guinea Pigs at once. We have the space for one large cage or 2 seperate large cages as well, so really either way works for me. My main priority right now is Adaline, we moved all of them into the same room tonight so they could hear eachother and the poor girl just wheeked and wheeked. She’s been terrified since coming home and tonight she came out of hiding talking to the other girls and eating with me right next to her cage. Our littlest one definitely needs some piggy sisters! So any advice or comments would be appreciated!
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Hi and welcome

I would recommend to put all your girls together for a bonding session on neutral ground and then see whether they get on as a group as the dominance is sorted out, or whether you'd best create two groups around any conflicting piggies. Please be aware that as a group hierarchy is established, it starts at the top and then works gradually downwards with the strongest dominance behaviour generally exhibited against the guinea pig just below in the rankings. Look out for piggies that cannot resolve their issues and where dominance between them cannot be settled. The whole dominance phase takes about 2 weeks.
It may be rather dramatic at the beginning, but this way should allow you to decide who is best with who if you have to split, whether you end up with one group of 6, a couple and a quartet or two trios.
Trios, while pleasingly symmetric for humans, are the most difficult to get right without creating outsider problems in the long term - especially when adding a single to an established pair. You may find that a couple and a quartet with mini-group dynamics may work better socially.
Make sure that you have got a full weekend to allow the piggies to work through to establishing a rough hierarchy or to decide that they will not get on. Take your time on the bonding ground to work out all the dynamics, especially keeping an eye out for fear-agressive/confrontational behaviour, which may require pairing off with a more submissive piggy if the sow in question cannot settle down in the group or ends up being bullied.

Please take the time to read this very detailed and extensive guide here; you may find it very helpful in reading the goings-on and understanding the dynamics: Illustrated Bonding / Dominance Behaviours And Dynamics

It is going to very nerve-wracking and tense for you. Don't be tempted to interfere unless absolutely necessary. You can add fresh hay or grass, but you have to let the piggies establish a hierarchy after initial acceptance, and that is never a nice phase. You will notice a sudden shift at the onset of the dominance phase when the piggies start measuring up against each other; sometimes that can take several rounds of teeth chattering, chinning and chasing between two closely punching girls none of which is willing to step down. If an agreement cannot be reached, I would split your sows between these two.

As long as it is within the limit, you have to let the piggies get on with it and trust that unlike you, they have the instinctive manual to know what they are doing.
 
Great reply from Wiebke above, bonding is nerve wracking but hopefully will go smooth for you and your girls
 
Thank you so much! Wednesday and Thursdays are my “weekend” so we will try today!
 
Oh best of luck. It sounds like you have the opportunity to create an amazing herd.
 
Well so far everything has been alright! They went in the kitchen at 11am and it’s now 4pm. Adaline, Sylvia, Beatrice and Elaine have all been pretty quiet for the most part. Heard some squealing from Adaline and Sylvia, but I’m not surprised as Sylvia especially is scared of her own shadow. Some rumbling from most of them but mainly from Elaine (she’s my moody piggy of the group lol), but really nothing more out of those 3. Beatrice could seem to care less about any of the new ones, she went straight to the grass pile and laid in it as usual. She’s sniffed at the others but would rather eat and sit next to me :)) Nora and Josephine which are the 2 leaders from the groups have been a bit more rowdy. Lots of teeth chattering, chinning, and a few nips, but no all out fighting thankfully. For a while there I was really worried about an actual fight, it seemed to be getting pretty tense but they settled it. I am almost 100% certain Nora has taken the leader position which I had predicted she would as she has always been a very dominant piggy. Still not ready to put them in the new bigger cage together yet!
 
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