I have decided to get my two girls a husboar. We are in lockdown here in NZ, like most places, so it will have to wait until its over unfortunately. I have a couple of questions about this. Also any advice around this is welcome or your experiences.
Lola is only young, about 10 months old and not desexed, she can be a feisty teenager sometimes and challenges Bindy but mostly she is the submissive of the two, only just. Bindy is 3 1/2 and is desexed. i will be getting a neutered male from Auckland Cavy care.
I am a bit concerned about the drive there which is about 40 mins away, how will the guinea pigs deal with driving, will this stress them too much?
Also how quickly can you work out if its a good match when dating at the rescue? I really want my girls to be happy and feel that this husboar has enriched their lives not become an imposition in their cage. They have an 11 by 2 sized C & C cage and I will put hidys in with two entrances when he comes home.
Hi!
Piggies travel generally well. My own various 'local' guinea pig rescues (where most of my piggies come from) are about a drive of 45-90 minutes away, but I have adopted piggies from all over the UK, all corners of England, Wales, even Scotland.
The furthest were an emergency intake from the Channel Islands next to France that took several days to travel in stages provided by volunteers. One of the piggies was a 9 year old who took things surprisingly well and went on to live for several more months despite a rather rough ferry crossing and an over 3 hours train journey in between several legs by car! The two piggies staying with me lived for another 2-3 years; the older of them to around the very good age of 8 years.
It would help if you could get your girls used to being in their carrier for a time and have a nap in there, so they are comfortable with it. I would also recommend to bring your boy home in a separate carrier in case of a panic that could result in a tussle during the trip; stage a re-intro on neutral ground that is not part of the normal territory after your arrival at home before transferring to the cage so the roughest of the dominance is sorted out by then; if necessary give it another day. It pays not to rush these things.
Here are our travelling tips:
Travelling with guinea pigs
You usually get a fairly good feeling for how a bonding is going within half an hour to an hour; in this time acceptance should have happened and you should get an idea just how the hierarchy is working out or whether there are potential problems. Take the time so you can if necessary try more than one boy.
With cross gender bondings a bonding can occasionally fail some days later in the post-intro dominance phase when a usually adult/older sow doesn't want to submit but hasn't got the kudos to lead.
However, Hartley is very experienced despite her comparatively young age; I had the pleasure to having her and her family drop in for a short visit during a trip to the UK last autumn. You get a good feeling for whether a bonding is worth pursuing or not with practice, I can assure you!
Here is our own very comprehensive bonding guide with a wide range of interactive key behaviours and dynamics which may help you spot better how things are heading:
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
All the best! I have currently got a reserved sow coming off her 10 weeks pregnancy watch stuck in rescue because of the lockdown - we missed the handover by 3 days when our PM ordered a full lockdown after the public treated the countrywide school closure as an early holiday weekend... I've been waiting for my little girl since January!
Hope Bindy falls for him too, how could she not?!
