amber89
Junior Guinea Pig
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2019
- Messages
- 150
- Reaction score
- 262
- Points
- 370
Hello all,
Our beloved Muffin, an adult female guinea pig, sadly died on Wednesday.
We still have at home an adult neutered boar (Pufu) and a female baby, close to be a teenager (Cupcake - she will be 4 months on the 10th of May).
The cage seems to empty with only two piggies and we, the humans, need a bit of happiness into our life. Loosing Muffin hit us very, very hard and we are hoping that adopting a third piggy and completing the herd might bring us some solace.
In Germany and Austria it is constantly said that teenagers need to live together with an adult of their own sex, so that they learn how to behave in a group and are not aggressive.
This would mean that we would have around 2 weeks to find an adult female guinea pig and manage a bonding.
We saw at the local shelter that they have a female, exact age is unknown, but she is younger than 1 year. They have her weight, and the guinea pig is now at aprox. 700g. They also said that she is "full-grown", whatever that might mean... My husband didn't thought to ask them what it means when he asked for details on the phone. We also don't know anything about her character and background, is she bossy, is she laid back, was she in a group before... We only know that she was thrown away like trash in a cardboard box together with 3 other piggies.
I know that when we picked up Muffin from the shelter she was at around 860g and she was already an adult (around 2-3 years). She continued putting on weight after we adopted her, reaching around 1kg before she got ill, 3 months later.
My questions are now:
Is it really that important that Cupcake has an adult female guinea pig to guide her through her teenage phase?
Would an almost-adult female piggy be sufficient?
Any tips regarding the introduction phase? Should we put all 3 of them on a neutral territory? How long should we keep them in adjacent cages, separated by a grill?
Our beloved Muffin, an adult female guinea pig, sadly died on Wednesday.
We still have at home an adult neutered boar (Pufu) and a female baby, close to be a teenager (Cupcake - she will be 4 months on the 10th of May).
The cage seems to empty with only two piggies and we, the humans, need a bit of happiness into our life. Loosing Muffin hit us very, very hard and we are hoping that adopting a third piggy and completing the herd might bring us some solace.
In Germany and Austria it is constantly said that teenagers need to live together with an adult of their own sex, so that they learn how to behave in a group and are not aggressive.
This would mean that we would have around 2 weeks to find an adult female guinea pig and manage a bonding.
We saw at the local shelter that they have a female, exact age is unknown, but she is younger than 1 year. They have her weight, and the guinea pig is now at aprox. 700g. They also said that she is "full-grown", whatever that might mean... My husband didn't thought to ask them what it means when he asked for details on the phone. We also don't know anything about her character and background, is she bossy, is she laid back, was she in a group before... We only know that she was thrown away like trash in a cardboard box together with 3 other piggies.
I know that when we picked up Muffin from the shelter she was at around 860g and she was already an adult (around 2-3 years). She continued putting on weight after we adopted her, reaching around 1kg before she got ill, 3 months later.
My questions are now:
Is it really that important that Cupcake has an adult female guinea pig to guide her through her teenage phase?
Would an almost-adult female piggy be sufficient?
Any tips regarding the introduction phase? Should we put all 3 of them on a neutral territory? How long should we keep them in adjacent cages, separated by a grill?
