Intro/bonding questions for new lonely guinea pig

[Poohbear26]

Hi there! I have adopted an approximately 1.5 year old intact female guinea pig from a family member who was seeking to rehome her. She has been alone since her initial adoption. I am working on getting her a companion and have some questions. I am having a harder time than I thought I would finding a female guinea pig to rescue so my options are limited at the moment. My local animal shelter has young (listed as 7 weeks) female guinea pigs currently being fostered by an animal hospital. The hospital reports that they are planning to spay them in about a week and they want to keep them there for 7-10 days to recover. Here are my questions:

Is there a higher chance that my current guinea pig will not get along with such a young one? (I am ultimately looking to see if there is a way I can increase my odds of not having to return the new one if the introduction fails although I am aware that it may take a while and multiple tries to find a suitable companion for our girl). I am very interested in the thoughts of you all who have much more experience with this than I do.

My current guinea pig is in a temporary cage at the moment and I have just finished setting up her new larger cage. Is it best for her to enter now or should I wait until after a successful bonding before putting her and her new friend into the new cage?

 

[Ramia]

I hear babies are easier to bond because they just want a leader, so it might go well.

The bonding will need to be done on neutral territory so if you move your current girl into the bigger cage, it can't be done there.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Welcome to the forum

Often a younger piggy is well accepted because a piggy of 7 weeks of age is not going to challenge for dominance. However any bond still comes down to compatibility between the two piggies. Ultimately you will not know whether a bonding will work until you try.

When you bond you must do so on neutral territory.
This means that if you put her in the new cage now, then you will need to carry out the bonding in another space (one where she hasn’t been) before moving them back to the cage (once it has been cleaned again) once bonding has happened.

You could leave her in her temporary cage until the day you bond her with a new friend and then you can use the new cage as bonding space and then not have to move them again. This depends whether her temporary cage is big enough for her to stay in now though

Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated Bonding Dynamics and Behaviours

 

[Poohbear26]

Welcome to the forum

Often a younger piggy is well accepted because a piggy of 7 weeks of age is not going to challenge for dominance. However any bond still comes down to compatibility between the two piggies. Ultimately you will not know whether a bonding will work until you try.

When you bond you must do so on neutral territory.
This means that if you put her in the new cage now, then you will need to carry out the bonding in another space (one where she hasn’t been) before moving them back to the cage (once it has been cleaned again) once bonding has happened.

You could leave her in her temporary cage until the day you bond her with a new friend and then you can use the new cage as bonding space and then not have to move them again. This depends whether her temporary cage is big enough for her to stay in now though

Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated Bonding Dynamics and Behaviours

Thank you so much for your reply. I should have specified that I planned to introduce them in a separate larger neutral area BEFORE moving them into the new cage. Her temporary cage is pretty small but I plan to expand it since it will be a little while before the new baby is available to come home. Thanks again!

 

[Piggies&buns]

Thank you so much for your reply. I should have specified that I planned to introduce them in a separate larger neutral area BEFORE moving them into the new cage. Her temporary cage is pretty small but I plan to expand it since it will be a little while before the new baby is available to come home. Thanks again!

A cage she is in by herself must be 120x60cm as a minimum.
As a pair the cage needs to be 150x60cm.

If she hasn’t been in the new cage at all then it can be used as your neutral bonding space. It makes things easier as you obviously don’t need to then move them from neutral into the cage (which is then another new territory and will just cause another set of dominance)
It’s only if she goes into the new cage by herself then you cannot use it as neutral space.

Let us know how it all goes