🐹 Help! I’d love to bond my three guinea pigs

[TheMinionPiggies]

Hi everyone! I’m looking for some advice on bonding my three guinea pigs, because my ultimate goal is for all three to happily live together in one cage.

I currently have Bob, Kevin, and Stewart, and they’re all around a year old.

• Bob is my newest addition and is an Abyssinian. I ended up getting him because he had been at PetSmart for a long time, and he has such a cool personality that I couldn’t leave him there.
• Kevin and Stewart are a bonded pair and are both Coronets.
• Stewart is definitely the more dominant one between Kevin and Stewart.

Right now, Stewart and Kevin are together in a 2x4 C&C cage, and Bob has his own separate cage.

I initially put Bob’s cage next to theirs so they could get used to each other. They immediately started squeaking at each other and biting at the cage bars trying to get to one another. I was worried they were getting too stressed, so I moved Bob farther away for now.

I’ve also noticed that Stewart will sometimes do his dominant rumbling/growling and chase Kevin around a little. However, there has been no squealing, biting, or blood, and Kevin and Stewart otherwise seem bonded.

My question is: what would be the best way to eventually introduce Bob to Kevin and Stewart?

I really want all three to be able to live together happily. I’m willing to completely rearrange their setup and even get a larger C&C cage if needed. I’d also be willing to consider getting a fourth guinea pig if that would genuinely make the dynamics easier—but I don't want to add another pig unnecessarily.

Would love to hear from anyone who has successfully bonded three guinea pigs, especially when two were already a bonded pair and one was the newcomer.

What would you do in my situation?

 

[Piggies&buns]

Welcome to the forum

I am afraid our advice is don’t attempt it, and definitely don’t add in a fourth piggy.

Getting three young boars to bond is not likely to happen - most attempts end up with fights and broken bonds. They simply find it too hard to form a hierarchy and characters usually clash when there are more than two boys together.
You can expand the cage but all it would mean is that they can get further away from each other (the cage would have to be expanded to be at least a 9x3 c&c to give at least a square metre of territory per piggy). It won’t make them any more likely to bond though.
Four boars together is even worse with a 100% failure rate in a cage situation.
It’s only sows who can live happily in trios and quartets in a cage environment.

The usual outcome of an attempt at adding a third boar to a bonded pair is that the third piggy (so Bob) would be rejected. It is likely to cause stewart and Kevin to fight with bob (so possible injuries).
There is also the possibility that an attempt could cause Kevin and Stewart to fight with each other. Adding a third boar in would cause a huge amount of disruption to them and it can be enough to break their bond permanently. You could end up with three piggies refusing to live with any one of the others, so three single piggies permanently.

The best thing is to leave Kevin and Stewart as they are; and get another piggy to bond with Bob so that you have two separate pairs.

The behaviours you were seeing when they were next to each other is interaction but also some territory marking. It is not them trying to get to each other for positive reasons, they are ensuring that bob was not able to cross into their territory.
However bob, as a single piggy, does need to be beside them so he can interact with them between the bars. They can only see around 30cm in front of them so moving them further apart than that means full interaction via all senses is lost.
If you cannot have bob beside Kevin and Stewart (although most are usually ok side by side once they get used to the arrangement), then bob will need his own friend in the cage with him.

I do wish we could give you better news of the likelihood of boar trio, believe me, us boar owners would love for it to work, but sadly we come across far more failures than successes.
Any successes tend to be either in piggies who have chosen each other, not where a bonded pair have a third added to them on spec. Or where the piggies are much older 4/5+ years old and testosterone has fizzled out or are in a disabled/carer grouping

If you do still want to try it, then we can talk you through the bonding process but do be very sure you can take the risks involved

I’ve added some guides below which explain everything further

Adding More Guinea Pigs Or Merging Pairs – What Works And What Not?
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?

 

[TheMinionPiggies]

Thank you so much for taking the time to give me such a detailed response. I really appreciate the honesty and the experience behind the advice, even though it wasn’t quite the answer I was hoping for!

I definitely don’t want to risk breaking the bond between Kevin and Stewart or putting any of the boys in danger, so I won’t be attempting to add Bob into their cage or getting a fourth piggy.

I’m going to work on getting Bob and the boys comfortable being side by side again, keeping the cages close enough that they can interact safely through the bars. Hopefully, over time, they can become good neighbors and enjoy having each other around. My goal will be to eventually have their cages set up next to each other with a secure divider/barrier between them so they can still see, hear, and smell each other while everyone has their own space.

Bob is such a sweet and interesting little guy, and I really want him to have some companionship even if that means having a separate cage. Let me know if you have any more helpful tips!

 

[Ramia]

My boys have separate cages and are very happy. Bob will love having neighbors.

 

[TheMinionPiggies]

I put them next to each other in separate C & C cages. There has been a lot of rumbling, biting at the cage, trying to squeeze their heads through. When should I be concerned, or is this something they need to work out?

 

[Piggies&buns]

As long as they can’t squeeze their heads through nor break the barrier down, then rumbling and biting is to be expected as territory marking behaviours and getting used to each other.
It should settle over the course of a few days to a week.
If it really doesn’t settle, either:
have to add in a second row of grids, move the cages slightly apart by just an inch or so.
And/or Cover the bars with something they can’t move (obviously that’s easier if there is a very slight gap between the cages), and then slowly remove it a little at a time over a couple of days so they start to be able to see more of each other between the divide.