BatWing
Junior Guinea Pig
I am posting this in the hopes of helping someone else avoid our mistakes.
We had successfully gotten two youngish boys to live together and at first they seemed happier together than they had been alone. But now they are separated again and I think we, the humans, made a couple of mistakes that contributed to the problem.
First, they were both young, not adults, and one was older/bigger than the other. But as the younger/littler one grew, I think he wanted to renegotiate the hierarchy. So that's the first warning. If they're both young, the hierarchy/bonding they originally establish might not remain stable as they grow into adulthood.
Second, we originally had them in a very big cage, 4x4 C&C, for two pigs. And we had two or more of everything. Three water bottles, two large haypiles, two pellet dishes, and multiple hides, all with two exits. But both their cage and another cage for another pair of boys we have, were in my daughter's room. And they took up half the room. So when my daughter started feeling annoyed by it, we made the cages smaller, by removing some of the grids from each of the cage setups (I can't remember exactly what we did, but I think we removed a 2x2 area from both 4x4 setups and made them into L's). That's warning number two. We did this within weeks or a couple months at the most of having first put these two together. Knowing what I do now, I would wait much, much longer and probably until they were both adults to reduce the cage size.
Third, around the same time as we made the cage smaller, we went down to one haypile. Then, possibly further exacerbating the situation, we then tried to make the haypile into a "kitchen area" to keep things cleaner. But this made the haypile slightly more complicated to get in and out of. That's the third warning. I wouldn't again go down to one haypile until the pigs were much further along in their lives together and we will not try kitchens in any of our cages again. I think they need to be able to run in and out of their piles without any obstruction if you want to keep two unrelated boys in minimum sized cage.
So anyway, what ultimately happened was this. My daughter had been telling me that she felt like they weren't getting along and that they were acting "depressed." But whenever I was in her room and observing them, everything seemed peaceful, although they did seem "depressed" as compared to our other two. Then one night, these two were having floor time together in a different (large!) room of our house. And we could sort of hear them pestering each other under a coffee table. But it in no way sounded like actual fighting. More like just jumping around and pestering. But then when she picked up the younger one to cuddle him, he had open, bloody wounds on his face and shoulder. It was extremely disturbing. It was so shocking and unexpected and seemed inconsistent with what we had heard from them that I got down to look under the coffee table. I realized there was a jagged piece of plastic (but very hard, sharp plastic, more like metal or wood) that had broken from the drawer construction and pointed downward. The little guy definitely theoretically could have cut himself on that thing just from jumping or startling as they were pestering each other. On the one hand, that seems so much more likely. On the other hand, we also found a couple of older, healing scabs on his rump.
Obviously, we separated them immediately. And it did seem like the littler one became immediately, viscerally happier to be in a cage by himself. (And he healed with no issues.) But it's sad for both of them because now they live alone again (albeit right next door to each other and can touch and pester each other through the grids, which they do seem to very much enjoy).
So that's our warning story. Don't make the cage area smaller or more complicated, or reduce the availability of resources, especially if you've only recently gotten them together or they're still growing. And take it seriously that all hides need to have multiple entrances and exits; you can't risk one of them getting trapped. I'm interested in other people's thoughts and especially if anyone would ever try bonding these two together again (we would wait until they were both fully grown this time and go back to the large cage setup, obviously). I've read in multiple places that once blood is drawn, that's it, you're done. But it's ambiguous whether he maybe just got cut on the jagged piece of the coffee table. And it's a hard situation because we really, really love them both and don't want to get rid of either, but we also don't want to make them live alone forever, but we also don't want to get two more guinea pigs since we already have four. Thoughts?
Sarah
We had successfully gotten two youngish boys to live together and at first they seemed happier together than they had been alone. But now they are separated again and I think we, the humans, made a couple of mistakes that contributed to the problem.
First, they were both young, not adults, and one was older/bigger than the other. But as the younger/littler one grew, I think he wanted to renegotiate the hierarchy. So that's the first warning. If they're both young, the hierarchy/bonding they originally establish might not remain stable as they grow into adulthood.
Second, we originally had them in a very big cage, 4x4 C&C, for two pigs. And we had two or more of everything. Three water bottles, two large haypiles, two pellet dishes, and multiple hides, all with two exits. But both their cage and another cage for another pair of boys we have, were in my daughter's room. And they took up half the room. So when my daughter started feeling annoyed by it, we made the cages smaller, by removing some of the grids from each of the cage setups (I can't remember exactly what we did, but I think we removed a 2x2 area from both 4x4 setups and made them into L's). That's warning number two. We did this within weeks or a couple months at the most of having first put these two together. Knowing what I do now, I would wait much, much longer and probably until they were both adults to reduce the cage size.
Third, around the same time as we made the cage smaller, we went down to one haypile. Then, possibly further exacerbating the situation, we then tried to make the haypile into a "kitchen area" to keep things cleaner. But this made the haypile slightly more complicated to get in and out of. That's the third warning. I wouldn't again go down to one haypile until the pigs were much further along in their lives together and we will not try kitchens in any of our cages again. I think they need to be able to run in and out of their piles without any obstruction if you want to keep two unrelated boys in minimum sized cage.
So anyway, what ultimately happened was this. My daughter had been telling me that she felt like they weren't getting along and that they were acting "depressed." But whenever I was in her room and observing them, everything seemed peaceful, although they did seem "depressed" as compared to our other two. Then one night, these two were having floor time together in a different (large!) room of our house. And we could sort of hear them pestering each other under a coffee table. But it in no way sounded like actual fighting. More like just jumping around and pestering. But then when she picked up the younger one to cuddle him, he had open, bloody wounds on his face and shoulder. It was extremely disturbing. It was so shocking and unexpected and seemed inconsistent with what we had heard from them that I got down to look under the coffee table. I realized there was a jagged piece of plastic (but very hard, sharp plastic, more like metal or wood) that had broken from the drawer construction and pointed downward. The little guy definitely theoretically could have cut himself on that thing just from jumping or startling as they were pestering each other. On the one hand, that seems so much more likely. On the other hand, we also found a couple of older, healing scabs on his rump.
Obviously, we separated them immediately. And it did seem like the littler one became immediately, viscerally happier to be in a cage by himself. (And he healed with no issues.) But it's sad for both of them because now they live alone again (albeit right next door to each other and can touch and pester each other through the grids, which they do seem to very much enjoy).
So that's our warning story. Don't make the cage area smaller or more complicated, or reduce the availability of resources, especially if you've only recently gotten them together or they're still growing. And take it seriously that all hides need to have multiple entrances and exits; you can't risk one of them getting trapped. I'm interested in other people's thoughts and especially if anyone would ever try bonding these two together again (we would wait until they were both fully grown this time and go back to the large cage setup, obviously). I've read in multiple places that once blood is drawn, that's it, you're done. But it's ambiguous whether he maybe just got cut on the jagged piece of the coffee table. And it's a hard situation because we really, really love them both and don't want to get rid of either, but we also don't want to make them live alone forever, but we also don't want to get two more guinea pigs since we already have four. Thoughts?
Sarah
