introducing new guinea pig

[jaynibel]

Due to our guinea pig Squeak (3 years old)missing her pal (Fluffy had to be put to sleep last week due to a tumour) We have just had a new 12 week old. They are just making noises and strange actions to each other how long does it take for them to settle? What is this best way to introduce and settle them ?

 

[Poison]

You need to introduce them on neutral territory that neither pigs have been on, a lot of people put a towel down in the bath and introduce them in there. Place one pig on one side and the other on the other side and just let them find each other. As for how long it depends on the pigs, some pigs get aking straight away, other times it might take longer. I prefer to do introductions over a few days, so I would leave them together (supervised of course) for a couple of hours each day before returning them each to their individual cages, and once you feel that they will get on together, clean out the cage they will be living in together and put the two of them in there together and see how they get on.

This site has some brilliant info on introductions.

 

[Dacota]

I've just had to go through the introductions with my two neutered boys and their respective girlfriends so read up alot on it first.

The way I interpretted it is that if you keep introducing and separating then the piggies have to keep going through the dominance thing every time i.e they go back to square one.

From what I read it seams that as long as you throughly clean out the cage, houses, feed bowls, water bottle etc then introduce them on neutral ground before putting in the cage.

When you introduce for the first time it said to be ready with a towel to separate if things get heated. If no blood is shed then leave them to it in their new cage. They will go through the humping thing which is all part of the sorting out who is the dominant piggy.

Also ensure that you provide two feed bowls and two water bowls in their cage so that if one gets protective the other won't go without.

I followed this advice with my four and all went well. Expect them to hump for a few days (this is what one pair did) but they will sort them selves out, just takes some longer then others depending on the individuals personality.

However I am relatively new to piggy keeping (only kept them for a year) so am happy to be told otherwise!

I think the golden rule is that if there is no blood shed then leave them to it.