Teddy&Patchy
Junior Guinea Pig
August 2017 we got 2 x 10 week old litter brothers Patchy and Teddy. By December, they had fallen out big time and we successfully separated them (upstairs and downstairs in outdoor hutch) with daily side-by-side interaction in adjacent runs (shared wall). From the safety of the adjacent runs, they would sniff each other, rumble strut, popcorn about showing off to each other, mimic each others behaviour (grazing/sleeping together etc) and would often be found very close together (but pretending to ignore each other, back-to-back!) They were petted daily, next to each other on adjacent knees (too close caused teeth chattering and aggressive behaviour) and during the winter, they were brought insured in adjacent cages where they could see and get up close to each other.
This was all going very well and though some may say not ideal, it worked for us. Until last week - when Patchy unexpectedly and very suddenly passed away :-( We are heartbroken :-( Teddy seems to be handling this ok. He is eating fine. He is a bit quieter in the run but I guess he is used to having his hutch to himself. And there lies the dilemma...
We are considering getting a new boar who will hopefully be Teddy's cage mate. But is this likely to work? Have we burnt our bridges after almost a year of Teddy having one level of the hutch to himself? Does anyone have experience of this situation? We are thinking that the worst case scenario is that we end up with the same situation as Patchy and Teddy - living separately but seeing each other "through the bars" However, we would like to do everything possible to give them a chance to bond and live together. Our idea is to find a young boar (Teddy is now 17m). We do not want to risk a neutering operation so a sow is not an option...
Any advice would be very welcome. Thank you
This was all going very well and though some may say not ideal, it worked for us. Until last week - when Patchy unexpectedly and very suddenly passed away :-( We are heartbroken :-( Teddy seems to be handling this ok. He is eating fine. He is a bit quieter in the run but I guess he is used to having his hutch to himself. And there lies the dilemma...
We are considering getting a new boar who will hopefully be Teddy's cage mate. But is this likely to work? Have we burnt our bridges after almost a year of Teddy having one level of the hutch to himself? Does anyone have experience of this situation? We are thinking that the worst case scenario is that we end up with the same situation as Patchy and Teddy - living separately but seeing each other "through the bars" However, we would like to do everything possible to give them a chance to bond and live together. Our idea is to find a young boar (Teddy is now 17m). We do not want to risk a neutering operation so a sow is not an option...
Any advice would be very welcome. Thank you