One or two and what...?

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cavies

Hello there again

Well, as you all know, I have no guinea pigs yet (well I hope you do :P). So I am trying to research and find stuff on guinea pigs.
But I was wondering about your thoughts on the matter.
I hope to spend alot of time with my piggie(s) when I get them. If I get one will it be ok by itself? Or would I be better getting 2 guinea pigs? If I get one and see how that goes, and if I decide later to get another can I introduce another to guinea piggie later on?

I also am at a lose for cage ideas. I have room for another pet but I dont have a great deal of space either. I am planning on keeping my pig(s) indoors. I have seen "the guinea pig cage forum" but I am still at a loss for cage ideas can you give me ideas on this one. Perhaps show me your cages in photo's.

I am at a loss. Should I stick to the research of guinea pigs or should I go back to researching and gaining rats??

Please help Thank you! :-\
 
Personally, if you can, I would get 2 together. It will make the transistion into your home easier for them as they will have each other. If you do only get one to start with then yes you can introduce another at a later stage but introductions always need to be done carefully and may not work out - which is another plus for getting 2 together straight away. Do you know whether you would like boars or sows?

In terms of cages - I have a shed for mine which is split in half using grids and then the piggys are free range each side so they can see each other. The set ups made from grids work well indoors as well because you can make them to fit your space. This picture shows my setup before it was split in half (I have since got another pig but they don't get on - hence the split)

P1010085.jpg


I will be out cleaning the shed later today and if I remember I will take some piccies of how it has been done now with the grids.
 
Awesome thanks for that. No I dont know which I like boars and sows seem to generally be the same? Are they? This is bound to help. Keep them coming.
 
cavies said:
Awesome thanks for that. No I dont know which I like boars and sows seem to generally be the same? Are they? This is bound to help. Keep them coming.
Click to expand...

I only have sows at the moment. In terms of the day to day care they require - yes it is the same. Personality wise - every piggy is different regardless of it's sex. There are some specific ailments that only effect sows and some that only effect boars which depending on which you get - you would need to read up on.

As a rule - boars will need more space though both sows and boars benefit from a good sized cage. Boars can be more territorial which is why the space is more important and you might find you need to have 2 bowls, 2 bottles, 2 hidey houses etc to prevent disputes. If you do introductions at a later stage, generally, sows are easier to introduce - not that boars can't be introduced, it is just usually more difficult. The other option is, if you go to a rescue, would be to go for a already neutered boar and a sow - then you have one of each. I am thinking that I may look into rescueing a neutered boar in the new year and he can have some girlfriends.

Much of this is generalisations - there will always be exceptions to every rule!
 
As others have said, your best bet is to get an established pair from a rescue. That way you know they already get on and you can put them in together straight away.

There tend to be more boars in rescues looking for homes and they seem to have to wait longer than sows :( - for that reason I personally would go for boars. Also I have only had boars and I have got on very happily with them.
If you do get boars, although babies look cute, - and we had baby brothers for our first pair with no probs whatsoever - with what I know now I would choose an adult pair because their personalities are already established. With babies, they can become rivals and fall out as they grow up.

The main difficulty with boars is when one dies and you then want to get a new partner for the survivor - introducing boars takes time and patience and you would need to house them separately to start with. But hopefully that will not be for many years and by then you will have enough experience to manage it succesfully.
 
Its so sad when no one wants the boars,girls can be so bitchy at times,ive always rehomed boars anyway and had some real cute ones so far
 
def. get two piggies.

Even if you spend say 5 hours a day playing with them - 19 hours of a day a single piggy will have no company whatsoever.

as for what sex - I always had one neutered boar with some girlies, and in my opinion that is the most natural constellation for them.
with boars I was always afraid of them falling out at some point, girls only groups were just missing this little something... I would always recommend one boy with a girl (or even better two or more girls ;) )
 
haha I look forward to mixing my two boys with two sep groups of girls ( when the boys have been neutered) ..the boys wont know whats hit them ;D
 
I have two boys living happily together - they've been together since birth - they are not kept anywhere they two girls who live together but seperately through choice. The boys are always together but the girls tend to distance themselves from each other. Then I have a single boar who is lonely and wheeks a lot.

Therefore I would say get two which could be two boars, two sows or a neutered boar and a sow.

My cages and pigs are shown here http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=3340.0
 
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