Introducing New Guinea pigs

[Hobiandsuga]

Hi there!

I currently have two 6 month old guinea pigs named Hobi and suga. Tomorrow evening I am planning to adopt two New Guinea pigs, jin and tannie. I am confused as to how I should introduce these guinea pigs as I have never done This before. I have read that I should introduced them slowly day by day and also that I should give them hiding places and introduce them right away (with supervision for the next few hours). Any advice on how I should go about introducing my New Guinea pigs? Thank you!

 

[Piggies&buns]

To confirm, are you guinea pigs female? If they are Male, then you cannot introduce them to the new ones. You can only keep two males together, any more than that and they will fight.
If they are all female then you can keep several females together. However, all of this depends on character compatibility. There is no guarantee that hobi and suga will accept any new piggies. You must always ensure you have a plan b of separate cages as the two newcomers may need to live totally separate from hobi and suga.

i have linked below some useful guides on how to do bonding. Doing it bit by bit can be stressful for them and introducing them and separating them is not what you should do, so you need to make time to do the bonding and see it through regardless of the outcome.
You need to make sure that you have a totally neutral area to introduce piggies to each other.

But before any bonding sessions take place (assuming your pigs are female and can be introduced to each other) a quarantine period needs to take place first. The new pigs need to be kept separate for a few weeks to ensure they aren’t carrying any illnesses which could be passed to your hobi and Suga.

Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics

Adding More Guinea Pigs Or Merging Pairs – What Works And What Not?

Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs

EDIT: and to add, if your pigs are female and you are going ahead with the bonding, make sure you sex the newcomers yourself to ensure that they are also female.

 

[Bill & Ted]

Hello and welcome to the forum
Your two piggies are gorgeous! If you have males then you can only keep them in pairs
There is great advice there from @Piggies&buns

 

[Wiebke]

Hi there!

I currently have two 6 month old guinea pigs named Hobi and suga. Tomorrow evening I am planning to adopt two New Guinea pigs, jin and tannie. I am confused as to how I should introduce these guinea pigs as I have never done This before. I have read that I should introduced them slowly day by day and also that I should give them hiding places and introduce them right away (with supervision for the next few hours). Any advice on how I should go about introducing my New Guinea pigs? Thank you!

Hi and welcome

What gender are your piggies? Please always double-check the sex before any bonding. Also consider whether a quarantine is necessary (only not when you adopt from a good standard rescue with mandatory quarantine and vet care).
What to check and look out for in new guinea pigs (vet checks, sexing, parasites&illness)

Sows can make a quartet; boar quartets have a near 100% fall-out rate, especially the more sub-adults are involved. If you have a working boar pair, please leave be and rather keep them in two pairs!

Please keep any piggies next to each other with a divider for at least a day or more so the newbies can settle in and get their bearings, and the piggies can get to know each other through the bars. I know that there is a school of 'mini-meetings', which is extremely frustrating for piggies. Each meeting is a full-on bonding session for them, but they never get to work through all the different stages if the meetings are aborted at the first sign of dominance behaviour. And how can you work out the hierarchy that is at the very core of any successful group and any social interaction if that cannot happen?
Once you commit to a bonding, you have to let it run without interfering (unless there are serious fights) until at least the hierarchy has been roughly established, and ideally until the piggies have settled together and moved onto the fine print, which takes on average about 2 weeks.

Please take the time to read our illustrated bonding guide. It is very detailed with pictures and videos that take you through every stage of the bonding process with its attendant behaviours and dynamics, including preparation and post-bonding dominance phase. You will hopefully find it very helpful in understanding what key interactive behaviours to look out for and in judging whether things are going ok or not.
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics