TL;DR: my piggy unfortunately lost her cage mate and we don’t know what the best option is for her
Long version: Unfortunately (and very suddenly), my 3 year old girl Betsy passed away in her sleep. She and her sister Sandy were holidaying with my partner whilst I was away, and he rang me in tears this morning telling me our Betsy had passed away overnight. We are taking Sandy to the vets this week to make sure she is okay, and we let Sandy say goodbye to her but there is definitely a change in her attitude since. (as of writing this it’s been two days since we lost Betsy)
Now, we aren’t too sure what our next step should be. These are our first piggies so we haven’t had to go through this yet. Betsy was very calm, docile and submissive, whereas Sandy is very vocal, outgoing and dominant. In the past we tried very patiently to introduce another sow their age to the group - Betsy accepted her, Sandy did not, and that sow got rehomed to a friend who had a larger herd. But Sandy’s reaction to another piggy has us worried that she won’t take to a new friend.
I have read the sticky articles about how to care for a bereaved piggy, how to bond piggies, what options there are and what to do if it just doesn’t work out.
We are most keen on the idea of introducing one or two babies to her and see how she takes it. We have enough money and space to house them all if it goes pear-shaped, and I know Sandy will still benefit from having their cage next to hers if that becomes the last resort.
We were looking into bonding days or guinea pig rescues, however there are no services or rescues within a 3 hour drive of us. Of course, if this was the best option for her then we would commit! But neither Sandy nor Betsy took well to travel longer than 30 mins or so, and with her clearly being hit hard by her sister’s death, we don’t want to put her through any more stress.
So, here are my questions:
Long version: Unfortunately (and very suddenly), my 3 year old girl Betsy passed away in her sleep. She and her sister Sandy were holidaying with my partner whilst I was away, and he rang me in tears this morning telling me our Betsy had passed away overnight. We are taking Sandy to the vets this week to make sure she is okay, and we let Sandy say goodbye to her but there is definitely a change in her attitude since. (as of writing this it’s been two days since we lost Betsy)
Now, we aren’t too sure what our next step should be. These are our first piggies so we haven’t had to go through this yet. Betsy was very calm, docile and submissive, whereas Sandy is very vocal, outgoing and dominant. In the past we tried very patiently to introduce another sow their age to the group - Betsy accepted her, Sandy did not, and that sow got rehomed to a friend who had a larger herd. But Sandy’s reaction to another piggy has us worried that she won’t take to a new friend.
I have read the sticky articles about how to care for a bereaved piggy, how to bond piggies, what options there are and what to do if it just doesn’t work out.
We are most keen on the idea of introducing one or two babies to her and see how she takes it. We have enough money and space to house them all if it goes pear-shaped, and I know Sandy will still benefit from having their cage next to hers if that becomes the last resort.
We were looking into bonding days or guinea pig rescues, however there are no services or rescues within a 3 hour drive of us. Of course, if this was the best option for her then we would commit! But neither Sandy nor Betsy took well to travel longer than 30 mins or so, and with her clearly being hit hard by her sister’s death, we don’t want to put her through any more stress.
So, here are my questions:
- How do we figure out what is the best option for her given her personality?
- If we get a baby, is it better to get one or two? And from the same litter or not? If we got two babies, will the babies bond and reject Sandy?
- How soon should we look for potential new cage mates? Is it “the sooner the better” or see how she goes for a week?
