I have just rescued a little girl and my others hate her! Help

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Mellierose

Hi :-) I am new to the guinea pig forum but thought another guinea pig Mummy might be able to give me some advise.

I have just rescued a little girl piggy today who is 18 months old as her friend had to be put to sleep. The girl who had her did not want her to be on her own. I have tried her in with my girls ( I have a group of four) in the run and two of them are fine with her but the other two attacked her and I was afriad of them ganging up on her so I have taken the two causing the trouble out. I am now not sure what to do for the best. I have kept piggies since I was a child and have always found females quite easy to keep together espeshially in the run. I wonder if they may accept her in time if I try them every day for a while? But for tonight do I take one away from the four to keep her company or leave the four as they are as they get on well and put her on her own?

Any advise would be much appreciated! Many thanks xx
 
I would keep her with one of the older girls as she would feel very lonely without it.
 
What do you mean by 'attacked'? Was blood drawn? Was it teeth chattering very loudly and them lunging with teeth out to bite the head or face?

Headswinging, some obvious bullying moves, chasing and butting up the rear even are all normal and can settle down fine. It looks awful though. Biting is not fine, and shows a serious problem. So blood drawn will result in a separation of five piggies to a three and two possibly. Even loud rumble strutting and teeth chattering is ok, it is all designed to put the newbie firmly at the bottom of the pecking order.

Do they all have separate places to stay? Is the food available in more than one place? Can the newbie be bullied away from shelter, food and drink? If not, then try them again, in a BIG neutral place, and let them get it out of their systems. Just watch for blood drawn.

It can take a few days for them to settle. Bathing all of them helps, as the new girl will smell different too, but the longer you leave them separated the less likely they are to see themselves as a single herd.

Very best of luck, I do hope it works out for you and them, Sarah x

PS All this is just from own experiences mind!
 
if you find that you can't keep two lots of girls or it really isn't working out there is a rescue section here that you could put her on.i would definantly keep her with a friend though piggy depression from being lonely sets in very quickly and come come with drastic health issues if left to long xxxxgoodluck
 
Thank you for your responses. By attacked I guess I mean chasing her and they would persistently not leave her alone. I don't think they bit her, there was no blood drawn. I think I will try them again tomorrow. I took Jemima and Lottie out as Ruby was so scared and she is such a tame docile little thing, but I think I need to leave them to sort it out amongst themselves within reason. It would have to be the same run though and I don't know you would call it a really large space as I bought a square tall one to stop my little dog jumping on the top. But it has adequate room for them all as long as they behave! They do have little houses that they can get away in although there is three houses and five of them. That is not normally a problem as they can get three of them in one! She did spend the rest of the day in the run with the other two though quite happily which is good and I have put her with Pandora for tonight who has not kept on with her at all out of the four. Ruby was crying though and Pandora was not anywhere near her so I think she may be a bit of a drama queen which I will have to bare in mind!
 
A fair bit of chasing is quite normal from my experience. I have a few bossier piggies and notice that it quite often takes a good few days before they start to relax and not chase all the time and about 2 weeks for everything to go completely back to normal.

And I have a drama queen too. When she was a baby she would scream at the top of her lungs if one of my other piggies got near her. Now 3 years on she's still a bit pathetic and always has a worried look on her face. She will not take her eyes of us humans when we are in the room so she always knows where we are and where danger is coming from. Although the only danger she has ever known is of me picking her up and giving her a good cuddle.
 
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