Introducing New Guinea Pig to Two Adult Females

[eaber]

Hello,

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this as this is my first time on the site. My had 3 adult guinea pig females for the past 18 months and one of them has passed away. My youngest daughter would like to get a new guinea pig to add to the mix. Obviously we would be getting another female, but would it be a better idea to get an juvenile or an adult. How do you go about acclimating them and making sure they are a good fit.

Thanks,
Sad from Ohio!

 

[Piggies&buns]

Welcome to the forum

I'm sorry for your loss

Any bond comes down to character compatibility rather than age - the piggies must like each other to be able to form a relationship. Taking your piggies to a rescue centre so they can choose their own new friend is the safest way to ensure things will work out.
If you are going to buy a new piggy, then opting for a youngster would be best as she cannot challenge the existing hierarchy and are more likely to be accepted by the older two. It’s not a guarantee as it still comes down to character, but it helps improve the chances.
There is little you can do to influence a bonding - the piggies need to like each other and you can’t make that happen. This is why rescuing is best where possible as you will have a fallback plan if the bonding fails as the rescue will help you out. If you buy a pet shop piggy and the bonding fails, then you would need a plan b, which would be for the new piggy to live separately and then she would need her own new friend (ie two separate pairs).

If you do get a young piggy from a pet shop for example, then you cannot quarantine the new piggy as she will likely be young and therefore not able to be alone at all and you must instead bond her with your older piggies straight away. Again, this Is why using a rescue is safest as they will guarantee the new piggy is healthy and not likely to bring in any illness and won’t already be pregnant (as is a risk with pet shop piggies).

Bonding is a specific process of putting them all on neutral territory, ensuring they have accepted each other and start going through the process for several hours.

The guides below explain further how to bond piggies.

Adding More Guinea Pigs Or Merging Pairs – What Works And What Not?
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics

 

[Merab]

Welcome to the forum.
So sorry for your loss.
Excellent advice there from @Piggies&buns .
Hope things work out well for you.

 

[eaber]

Thank you for the kind words and good advice. We are in the process of building a larger cage and are planning on making it so we can section off an area in order to introduce them slowly together. I'll have to take a look around at rescues as I'm not sure there are any in our area.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Thank you for the kind words and good advice. We are in the process of building a larger cage and are planning on making it so we can section off an area in order to introduce them slowly together. I'll have to take a look around at rescues as I'm not sure there are any in our area.

You can put a new piggy in a cage next to the others so they can meet through the bars for a few hours before carrying out the actual bonding but if piggy is under four months old, then the actual bonding needs to take place sooner rather than later as young piggies need to be in the same cage with others all the time.

What you cannot do is introduce in a bond pen and then separate them into different cages, and then put them together again the next day and then separate etc. This interrupts everything and causes stress. Once they go into the bonding pen, If it all goes well then they remain together in the same cage permanently from then on.

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you for the kind words and good advice. We are in the process of building a larger cage and are planning on making it so we can section off an area in order to introduce them slowly together. I'll have to take a look around at rescues as I'm not sure there are any in our area.

Hi and welcome

You could consider a neutered/de-sexed boar if you can rescue date. Older ladies are generally a bit less accepting but it all very much depends on mutual liking and character compatibility more than age or gender.

There is a good guinea pig rescue in Bloomington to the west of Cincinnati called the Pipsqueakery, which I can recommend. It is likely your closest good welfare standard rescue but you and your girls would be in good hands if you can get in contact with them? They are not on the Guinea Lynx list, which is sadly somewhat outdated.
Facebook: The Pipsqueakery
Website: Rescue Center — The Pipsqueakery

Here are some considerations about the advantages and challenges of the different places you can get piggies from:
Rescues (Adoption and Dating), Shops, Breeders or Online? - What to consider when getting guinea pigs

(PS: I am UK and international rescue coordinator for Guinea Pig Magazine and have been in contact with them and their associated rescues and sanctuary in some other states. We only feature good welfare standard guinea pig rescues in our 4 adoption pages.)

 

[eaber]

Thanks for all the advice. There is a place close to us called the Ohio Pet Sanctuary (The Ohio Pet Sanctuary Rescue in Cincinnati). It looks good from the website but I don’t really know how to vet a place!

 

[Siikibam]

Have a look at the link below to see which rescues may be within reasonable distance. Also have a look at a link to pop squeakers above. Good luck.
Guinea Lynx :: US Guinea Pig Rescue and Shelter Organizations

 

[eaber]

Thanks for the replies to this thread. As an update, we did get two new females and successfully introduced them over the course of a week by splitting the cage and letting them sniff each other our. We had a great 6 week run with them together but the other morning we had quite the surprise...2 new baby guinea pigs! Turns out one of the new females was pregnant without us realizing it!

 

[Wiebke]

Thanks for the replies to this thread. As an update, we did get two new females and successfully introduced them over the course of a week by splitting the cage and letting them sniff each other our. We had a great 6 week run with them together but the other morning we had quite the surprise...2 new baby guinea pigs! Turns out one of the new females was pregnant without us realizing it!

OUCH!

Please take the time to carefully read our surprise babies' information bundle.
It contains all the practical tips on what to look out for in mother as well as the babies; baby development and if needed extra support; diet recommendations for your mother; sexing and separating advice in terms of any boar babies.

Here is the link, which you may want to bookmark, so you can read and then re-read the necessary passages as you go along in the coming three weeks. If you want ongoing knowledgeable support, please open a thread in our specially monitored Pregnancy and Baby Care section. The monitors are the ones with the badge in their signature and apart from me are experienced rescue fosterers.
Pregnancy, Mother & Baby Care Guides

We have also included information on your customer rights if you have bought your piggies. Any decent rescue should conduct a 10 weeks' pregnancy watch with any incoming sows over 10 weeks and not adopt out potentially pregnant piggies. I would strongly recommend to make that rescue aware and advise them to please change their policy to ensure that this is not happening again; the last thing they should want is giving adoption a bad name.