Creating A Quartet

Eriathwen

Eriathwen

Adult Guinea Pig
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Ok so in 6-8 weeks I will be having a 7ftx3ft pen delivered for the girls (decided to keep Bramble and Ebony separate due to Bramble and Shellys disastrous attempt at bonding, her ongoing fungal issues, her E.cuniculi and Brambles determination to be top pig in spite of all her issues!)

So that leaves 4. I have had a read of the merging pairs sticky thread and feel like the age difference will help it work in my favour, Shelly is very much the top pig, Ivory is almost fully grown now too but does not challenge Shelly that ive seen. Daisy and Delilah still have growing to do and are not quite sure who is boss, neither want to be by the looks of it, but Delilah, being bigger and slightly grumpier seems to be top pig by default, I feel she would very willingly hand over the reigns to Shelly when introduced and well, Daisy just wants to run, popcorn and have fun!

Now, my question is: In 6-8 weeks Daisy and Delilah (obviously) will be 6-8 weeks closer to adulthood.. I understand with boars the worst thing you can do is to keep splitting and introducing due to breaking down the bonding process. Would this hold true for sows also? My old herd used to live in 2, sometimes 3 groups but all meet on the lawn together very peacefully so I assume it may work, may not.

My plan was to intro the 2 pairs now, see how they get on and then hopefully reintroduce 'old friends' when they're placed into the new pen...or is that not going to work? I obviously between now and then do not want to damage the bond between the existing pairs, especially the youngsters as they're already a bit iffy with each others company. But I'm hoping to not miss the window of opportunity with the 2 newer girls being young enough for it to go smoothly.

Many thanks!
 
Eriathwen said:
Ok so in 6-8 weeks I will be having a 7ftx3ft pen delivered for the girls (decided to keep Bramble and Ebony separate due to Bramble and Shellys disastrous attempt at bonding, her ongoing fungal issues, her E.cuniculi and Brambles determination to be top pig in spite of all her issues!)

So that leaves 4. I have had a read of the merging pairs sticky thread and feel like the age difference will help it work in my favour, Shelly is very much the top pig, Ivory is almost fully grown now too but does not challenge Shelly that ive seen. Daisy and Delilah still have growing to do and are not quite sure who is boss, neither want to be by the looks of it, but Delilah, being bigger and slightly grumpier seems to be top pig by default, I feel she would very willingly hand over the reigns to Shelly when introduced and well, Daisy just wants to run, popcorn and have fun!

Now, my question is: In 6-8 weeks Daisy and Delilah (obviously) will be 6-8 weeks closer to adulthood.. I understand with boars the worst thing you can do is to keep splitting and introducing due to breaking down the bonding process. Would this hold true for sows also? My old herd used to live in 2, sometimes 3 groups but all meet on the lawn together very peacefully so I assume it may work, may not.

My plan was to intro the 2 pairs now, see how they get on and then hopefully reintroduce 'old friends' when they're placed into the new pen...or is that not going to work? I obviously between now and then do not want to damage the bond between the existing pairs, especially the youngsters as they're already a bit iffy with each others company. But I'm hoping to not miss the window of opportunity with the 2 newer girls being young enough for it to go smoothly.

Many thanks!
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Please do not do a trial intro and then separate again. That means, your piggies have to start all over again with the whole dominance.

What you do with sows and cross gender bonding is split overnight once the bonding process has moved past acceptance well into the dominance phase but things are very tense and clearly not moving on after some hours together; then give another go on the following day. If tensions remain or go straight up again as soon as they back together, I usually call the bonding off. The whole bonding process takes about 2 weeks until it is fully settled.
 
I bonded 2 girls and 2 girls, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be! I'm always nervous with bondings though :))

I had them living side by side, would swap cages on the weekly clean and it took a few attempts at bonding before I was happy and knew it was going to stick.

I know it's best not to stress them with several bondings but I have found having the break in a few attempts with sows or mixed sex bondings to be very successful when it's getting a bit heated. Especially as my timing wasn't great and they were all in the hormonal stages of life :blink:
 
Another tip, try not to do the bonding when one of the sows is in season (if you are able to tell). I did this once when Paris was in season (She's awful when in season) and we had to separate. A few days later when she had settled down we started the bonding again and had no issues. She's sweet unless she's in season lol.
 
Flutterby said:
Another tip, try not to do the bonding when one of the sows is in season (if you are able to tell). I did this once when Paris was in season (She's awful when in season) and we had to separate. A few days later when she had settled down we started the bonding again and had no issues. She's sweet unless she's in season lol.
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Good shout! I hadnt thought of that, the only one that really behaves differently during her season is Ivory..so ive no idea when the others are, but i'll keep an eye out as I imagine even the quiet ones might get a bit more of a nightmare with new friends about!
 
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