Help new guinea pig!

[xAnthonyFordx]

Well iv just rehomed a new guinea pig he is a male called coco and is 2 years old. and i have another male guinea pig who i bought when he was a baby and now he's 1 and a half could anyone give me some advice on how to introduce them? what should i expect? what can i watch out for?! anything at all! thanks guys n gals (:

 

[Wiebke]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Firstly, please brace yourself that it may not work out. Adult boars can be bonded, but it very much depends on their character compatibility whether they will get along.

Here are tips for bonding guinea pigs; for boars, Suzygpr also swears on having a soft humping toy present. I also add our information thread about boar behaviour.
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38562#
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=28949

The best way of getting an idea of what you may be dealing with is probably this thread here, Suzygpr's boar dating thread. She runs a rescue in South Wales and is keeping us kindly updated on her efforts of finding single boars a mate of their liking. This thread contains several video clips, which you may find helpful.
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=59233

Best of luck! Please make sure that your boys, provided they can live together, have plenty of space (ideally 2x5 ft and everything in twos - hideys, bowls, water bottles etc.)

Otherwise, you can think about having your boars as next door neighbours with interaction through the mesh or try to have them paired up with another boar each at a rescue; although there are sadly not that many rescues in Scotland.

 

[xAnthonyFordx]

reply.

Well hi there too (; thanks for the information ok. this may sound stupid but i but the 2 guinea pigs in an empty bath (place they havn't been before) and put some lettuce in there and wow! so many poos and pees and where rumblesting or something? rasing heads and they try to get to each other bums but get nowhere, so sat for 2 hours and they didnt fight? just nibbled on the ear and thats all so i went hay! lets put them in a cage! and wow.. they flew for each other had to run and grab the towel out the bathroom and put kevin back in his own cage and coco rubbing his scent all over the cage they were in so iv sat the 2 cages togeother on the floor and gonna leave it overnight to see what happens and hopefully something works? if it doesn't i think they're just going to be next door neighbours :L thats what i get for trying to get kevin a friend :L LOL

 

[scpiggy]

Well hi there too (; thanks for the information ok. this may sound stupid but i but the 2 guinea pigs in an empty bath (place they havn't been before) and put some lettuce in there and wow! so many poos and pees and where rumblesting or something? rasing heads and they try to get to each other bums but get nowhere, so sat for 2 hours and they didnt fight? just nibbled on the ear and thats all so i went hay! lets put them in a cage! and wow.. they flew for each other had to run and grab the towel out the bathroom and put kevin back in his own cage and coco rubbing his scent all over the cage they were in so iv sat the 2 cages togeother on the floor and gonna leave it overnight to see what happens and hopefully something works? if it doesn't i think they're just going to be next door neighbours :L thats what i get for trying to get kevin a friend :L LOL

Had the cage had either of them in it before and had it been cleaned before putting them in? If one of them had been in it before it will have smelt like their territory. I haven't had experience with bonding boars, but when i bonded my sows i cleaned their cage well then rubbed it down with lemon juice so it didnt smell like any of them.
I hope someone with experience can offer a bit more advice.

 

[xAnthonyFordx]

reply.

No it was a brand new cage just out the packaging and coco went in first and about 30 seconds later kevin went in and they both chattering teeth and flew for each other so i think they might just be neighbours(:/

Had the cage had either of them in it before and had it been cleaned before putting them in? If one of them had been in it before it will have smelt like their territory. I haven't had experience with bonding boars, but when i bonded my sows i cleaned their cage well then rubbed it down with lemon juice so it didnt smell like any of them.
I hope someone with experience can offer a bit more advice.

 

[scpiggy]

No it was a brand new cage just out the packaging and coco went in first and about 30 seconds later kevin went in and they both chattering teeth and flew for each other so i think they might just be neighbours(:/

That's a shame, some guinea pigs just dont get on. Had two sows that refused to bond, they ended up as neighbors, and i've heard its even worse with boars. Do you have enough room to get them a new friend each? You could try boar dating, that way your boys could choose a friend they get along with.

 

[gogoguineas]

You could try letting them out in a run or on the living room floor for example but with a mesh division of some sort, so they can see and interact with each other and get used to each other, for some boars a few hours isn't enough and both yours are established in their own right, age wise so you could do this several times, and if all is ok, remove the divider and see how that goes and so on. It can take many hours like this to see ig they'll accept each other. If not, then neighbours works well for boars too, they have their own territory and space etc but they have a piggie next door they can smell and communicate with. What would be worse, living alone or having a like minded friend next door who you could talk to but wasn't in your face?
Don't feel just because theres a fence between them that they'll suffer in any way, it's still company so if you feel they're more relaxed and safer that way, do what you gotta do