Do you put a limit on the number of piggies you have at one time?

sport_billy

sport_billy

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We have always put a limit of piggies we would own at one time.

We started off with two and at one point went up to four, we are back to a pair now and sticking at this number for a while. When Cookie lost her sister we got her two friends as we didn't want to have to get another piggy so fast should we lose another, we then end up as a failed fosterer so our 3 became 4 :)) After losing and adding again we are happy with just our two girls.

My factors in just having two piggies now are
a) potential time needed if they are ill, we had 2 piggies ill at once and it was so difficult with syringe feeds etc.... More than two ill at one time I know this would be rare (but i am a stresshead) and I don't know how we'd cope
b) space, we are lucky we have a huge cage, big enough for 5, but it is nice to let our two have lots of space and means we never need run time as the current cage is bigger than the run we used to use
c) Our pair are closely bonded. After a rocky start they adore each other and will sleep together something that rarely happened since our first girls way back.... I don't want to break any bond by adding in a third. I do know however God forbid when we lose one we will have to rush out quickly to get a new friend something never ideal and stressful

So was just wondering, if others had limits on how many to have at once and reasons.
 
For me it's two. Two can be stressful enough as it is for the reasons you mentioned, and because I live alone (and have done for all of 18 months in the last 13 years), even something as simple as nail trimming can be stressful (especially if you have a Blitzen).

Edit: I also prefer keeping boars, so I'm never going to be keeping trios anyway.
 
I have 4 forever piggies and will stick at that. My reasons being:
if I have to travel with them I want them to have space in the cage
I give each pig fuss time daily, more would limit this
I have a poorly boar which is time consuming

I have had rescue piggies in too but since our boar has been ill I've paused to concentrate on him.
 
We have a limit of two. We need to be able to pack them up and take them to the cottage and back with us in the summer, any more and it would be hard to transport a cage large enough for them to and from. I would actually love to see the dynamics of an actual herd, but it's just not practical. We also have two hamsters, by the time we get all the cages, the three kids, my husband and I, and our luggage into the van it is REALLY full and no more pets or people are getting in!
 
My limit is 4. Ideally I would like to stick at 3 but that's always left me with a bit of an outsider situation so I end up going up to four which works better. The hutch would be a much better size for 3 and I feel bad when they don't get extra run time because of bad weather etc. I cannot manage more than 4 due to space but also mentally. When they get ill it's never at a convenient time or more than one gets ill and it's exhausting. Last time it was trying to give eye drops 4 times a day while tired and in pain and attending hospital appointments for myself. I would consider going down to a pair in future but I know this could leave me needing to find a companion as an emergency if the worst were to happen and I struggle to re-home in colder months as rescues keep indoors over winter and it would be too harsh on a newbie to be shoved outside
 
I don't really have a limit.. I've never managed to have a small number for very long! To start with I promised myself this time I would only have a couple but that didn't last long, then I promised myself I would space them out so they didn't all hit their senior years within the same sort of 12 months, again..failed miserably XD
Space wise right now I could fit a 12th piggy in with the trio but that's about all I'd be comfortable with otherwise I'd have to start compromising on space which I'm not willing to do. I don't see myself getting back up to 16 but then I never saw myself with as many as 12 this time round so who knows!
 
I have had 4 for quite a while now and in no way, shape or form would I ever have anymore. Crunchie takes up so much time that I would never manage anymore, and I am certain that no more piggies will be coming through my door again- as sad as that is. Crunchie is nearly 8, dolly is 2 years 10 months, Rowan 2 years 9 months and Poppet 3 years 2 months. My 3 younger girls will all be growing old at the same time and I know how much work elderly piggies are.. with my last girl.getting to 8 and a half.

With potentially 3 elderly piggies at the same time in the future, that alone is terrifying never mind adding to my numbers! Old crunchie is £90 A month for laser therapy and £100 A month for meds and supplements... it's so much more expensive than you can contemplate. That's before she's saw the vet!
 
We don't go beyond 10. If we go above that, we tend to lose one. Floor time timing gets too short above 5 pens and floor time is very high on our list of piggy qualities of life. I remember @Wiebke once telling me she would not go above 12, time tells. Cleaning out twice a week takes about 2 to 3 hours each time.
 
I don't really have a limit so to speak, i just consider each one individually and ensure i have the time and money to devote to it :) I also have to factor in the foster pigs I have on top. I am lucky that I don't work full time and a hubby who loves the pigs too :D
 
I am definitely at my limit with 8 and I probably won’t have this many again. Luckily I have enough space and money to keep the 8 that I have and I think they have a good life. I have a good schedule for feeding, cleaning, floor time, and of course cuddles! I am realizing that they would each get more attention if I had less, but I love them all and they are healthy and happy so they are with me for life!
 
HeatherRose said:
I am definitely at my limit with 8 and I probably won’t have this many again. Luckily I have enough space and money to keep the 8 that I have and I think they have a good life. I have a good schedule for feeding, cleaning, floor time, and of course cuddles! I am realizing that they would each get more attention if I had less, but I love them all and they are healthy and happy so they are with me for life!
Click to expand...

There is something special about a happy healthy piggy! Unfortunately not all are as pampered. My friend says I have the most spoilt piggies in the world :D
 
I've always had a pair but then with the other pets I have and the contemplation of vet bills I've not had more for costs!
I have the nickname of Noah, animals coming two by two!
But with a pair of OAP cats, my chin (who did have his sis who had bad teeth and vet bills were obv a lot) and my pigs, along with what was two fish tanks (and now 3 to cater for the accidental snail babies last year!) my funds were stretched!

When I'm with only one pig though I'm definitely thinking of a c&c cage and changing it up a bit. I've always loved boars but guessing as my Jess will be the lone pig I think may have to expand and get a few girlies and a husboar, depends on her temperamental ways and what I'm allowed! She's a madam! :evil:
 
My limit is 6 boars in 3 pairs, it's all the room we have! I would like it to be 4 really but when we went down to 5 recently the 'can't live together' boars living alongside each other didn't work anymore. I'd paired the bereaved boar with one of the singles and they totally ignored their single neighbour, we couldn't bear to see Red so lonely and dejected standing at the divider looking for his old friend, so we are back to 6.
I really thought I wouldn't have any more after all the illness last year, 6 sick piggies at once, eye pokes, nose bleeds, stones, the vet bills ran to more than my annual income I still wouldn't want to be without them, what else would I do with my time now I'm retired?! The vet did say I'd just been very unlucky!
 
What a great question.

We currently have 4 and I personally would love to go back up to 5, but the reality is that loss is tough on all of us, but particularly emotional teenagers.
Plus we are currently dealing with long term health issues with Eddi which takes a lot of time and energy, in addition to dealing with an elderly rabbit who won't be with us for much longer.

I also feel our current group of piggies is complex (don't get me started on Ruby's hatred of all other animals and people who are not DD), and Eddi doesn't ever seem to have recovered from the loss of his beloved Oreo, so I can't even imagine introducing a newcomer to any of our current pigs.

So for now I think my limit is the four piggies we have, and if the group decreases I don't know I would be rushing out to add more.
Although we have also just been given the details of the local guinea pig and rabbit 'rental' scheme, so I haven't ruled out 'renting' a guinea pig in the future when Eddi recovers enough to be able to cope with a friend.
 
You have to be honest about how much you can cope with; that differs from person to person as circumstances, time and money you can invest in them varies due to family and work commitments and any other interests you have.

My numbers have slowly built up over the years having kept to only two for as long as we could take them with us on our regular visits to my mother-in-law in Wales before they became a bone of contention.
Piggy numbers made a jump especially during the time our social life completely collapsed during my mother-in-law's last demanding years of life when dementia and frequent hospital stays took their toll on us and again when my husband was ill for two years only a few years later.
I do work from home from the piggy room with free hours so I can fit my workload around my piggies and the pretty much daily cleaning and washing although I am very much at my upper limit with around 30 piggies. I sincerely hope that I won't have to find any more new companions for a goodly while yet and can get my numbers gradually down a bit.
But somewhere there seems to be always another piggy or two... Not helped by my job, which involves being in contact with lots of rescues and seeing lots of adoptable piggies looking turning up in my newsfeed every day!

It has taken me three decades of realising my old childhood dream of a large group; admittedly I ended up running with it!
These days I have more pairs and small groups and a fair number of complex personalities who haven't been easy to match up.

Please be aware that the more guinea pigs you have, the more tough times you'll have when illnesses, health problems and deaths happen in hard to digest and very expensive lumps rather than nicely spaced out. You will have times when you doubt you are a good owner when several crises and losses happen in a matter of mere days or weeks instead of months. :(

Just as an example, last month I had to unexpectedly euthanise 3 year old Heini only 3 months after the death of her beloved but older husboar Carwyn. Three days later, Heini's sow companion Llawen started bloating and then went into full GI stasis (the guts stopped working). She needed round the clock syringe feeding and medication for three days and nights; it was touch and go for one night. As soon as Llawen was starting to pick up, my old frail lady Hafren went into organ failure and died exactly a week after Heini.

In the last two years I have lost six piggies each year, some of them in a very short space of time. Despite starting with two losses already this year, I have another four piggies that are 7-8 years old and that won't be with me forever - and that doesn't account for any unexpected illnesses and deaths that can hit out the blue at any age. :(

While you can learn over time to cope better with some aspects of the grieving process and you can mostly work out the criteria that matter most to you for making the decision when it is the right time to send a piggy to the Rainbow Bridge, the pain of the loss is never going to be any less. And as each bond is unique, you never stop missing your past piggies. You are never replacing them with another, not even when they look similar; you are only ever starting a new journey into the unkown, with all its excitement but also its worries.

On the other hand, seeing my rescue adoptees blossom in confidence and come into their own, finding them exactly the company and setting that the more difficult adoptees need and seeing even those piggies from horrible backgrounds often live a decent life span (and some even a great one!) makes all the hard work, sleepless nights and the multiple losses worth it for me!

PS: And of course there are times when you yourself are ill or very busy as life doesn't always happen to plan; lots of piggies can REALLY stretch you then!
 
My limit is 2 because I like to bring them indoors during extreme weather and I haven’t got room inside for anymore. They’re both almost a year old but I do worry about losing one and having to finding a new friend, hopefully it’s a long time before I have to cross that bridge. I’m always looking on RSPCA though. I’d take them all if I could xx
 
Wiebke said:
You have to be honest about how much you can cope with; that differs from person to person as circumstances, time and money you can invest in them varies due to family and work commitments and any other interests you have.

My numbers have slowly built up over the years having kept to only two for as long as we could take them with us on our regular visits to my mother-in-law in Wales before they became a bone of contention.
Piggy numbers made a jump especially during the time our social life completely collapsed during my mother-in-law's last demanding years of life when dementia and frequent hospital stays took their toll on us and again when my husband was ill for two years only a few years later.
I do work from home from the piggy room with free hours so I can fit my workload around my piggies and the pretty much daily cleaning and washing although I am very much at my upper limit with around 30 piggies. I sincerely hope that I won't have to find any more new companions for a goodly while yet and can get my numbers gradually down a bit.
But somewhere there seems to be always another piggy or two... Not helped by my job, which involves being in contact with lots of rescues and seeing lots of adoptable piggies looking turning up in my newsfeed every day!

It has taken me three decades of realising my old childhood dream of a large group; admittedly I ended up running with it!
These days I have more pairs and small groups and a fair number of complex personalities who haven't been easy to match up.

Please be aware that the more guinea pigs you have, the more tough times you'll have when illnesses, health problems and deaths happen in hard to digest and very expensive lumps rather than nicely spaced out. You will have times when you doubt you are a good owner when several crises and losses happen in a matter of mere days or weeks instead of months. :(

Just as an example, last month I had to unexpectedly euthanise 3 year old Heini only 3 months after the death of her beloved but older husboar Carwyn. Three days later, Heini's sow companion Llawen started bloating and then went into full GI stasis (the guts stopped working). She needed round the clock syringe feeding and medication for three days and nights; it was touch and go for one night. As soon as Llawen was starting to pick up, my old frail lady Hafren went into organ failure and died exactly a week after Heini.

In the last two years I have lost six piggies each year, some of them in a very short space of time. Despite starting with two losses already this year, I have another four piggies that are 7-8 years old and that won't be with me forever - and that doesn't account for any unexpected illnesses and deaths that can hit out the blue at any age. :(

While you can learn over time to cope better with some aspects of the grieving process and you can mostly work out the criteria that matter most to you for making the decision when it is the right time to send a piggy to the Rainbow Bridge, the pain of the loss is never going to be any less. And as each bond is unique, you never stop missing your past piggies. You are never replacing them with another, not even when they look similar; you are only ever starting a new journey into the unkown, with all its excitement but also its worries.

On the other hand, seeing my rescue adoptees blossom in confidence and come into their own, finding them exactly the company and setting that the more difficult adoptees need and seeing even those piggies from horrible backgrounds often live a decent life span (and some even a great one!) makes all the hard work, sleepless nights and the multiple losses worth it for me!

PS: And of course there are times when you yourself are ill or very busy as life doesn't always happen to plan; lots of piggies can REALLY stretch you then!
Click to expand...
The last part of your post reminded me of my old 7 year old boar sky, he was sick and got i taken into hospital with a ruptured appendix, only just caught it in time( thought it was a stomach ache) anyway, whilst i was in hospital, sky suddenly got better, i dont know how. I was so worried, because only i knew how to syringe feed him at the time.
 
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