Ophelia

I would say that it is worth giving one more go but be prepared for it not to work.
I would not attempt another bonding for at least a week though.

Cage size - you are looking at them each needing a minimum of a 2x3 but the solid grids between them won’t work

I'm on my lunch break and don’t have long so I can’t answer more fully at present but I will read your post more thoroughly later today
 
So. This is what we have decided to do, as we realised that to fit the cage in we were going to have to halve Ophelia's space anyway. We have scrubbed and scrubbed all possible wee-stains off every hard surface: the 'hutches' and the transluscent panels. The run is now divided (fleeces washed again again again). However, we have put the transluscent panels across (all finished only just now, before I saw the above post), knowing it to be temporary. I have found some grids (from a dismantled hutch) with which we could replace the dividing panels. I wondered about starting off with the transcluscent and then putting the grids -- or should we go straight to grids?

Poor Betsie has been hiding under a pile of hay in the cage right up until now. Once in her half, she was quite exploratory and clearly happier. We will be getting her a carrot cottage too.

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We'll put a grid across now, since that is what they have had since Betsie came home and not to have it is probably going backwards.
 
I think the size looks good, it looks as if they have roughly 3x2.

Hopefully they can get along. Older sows are set in their ways.

I have boars that are neighbors. Will you return her to the rescue if the bonding fails? Or have them live side by side? My boys love having their own territory.
 
Just an update: Betsie was sitting in the open, her side, and Ophelia came to the bars, whereupon Betsie ran away into her 'hutch'. They have each teeth-chattered at the other, at different times.

I can't have them living side by side long-term as it creates so many complications. I had decided a week, as piggies&buns said, before trying again, but given Betsie's fear, I am now wondering if we should return her to the Blue Cross now, rather than prolong this for her. The poor little thing had already come to the Blue Cross rescue from a different rescue (which was closing down), and before that from her home of 4 years. Ophelia seems fine but poor Betsie. We feel really bad for her. She was bereaved about two-and-a-half weeks ago and has had so much upheaval.
 
Side by side living isn’t for everyone.
The only reason I am get away with it for Wilbur and Hugo is because they live in my shed and they are now the only two.

While I would normally say you cannot gauge how a bonding would go based on interactions between the bars; the fact things took a turn when you did have them together may mean they just aren’t going to be compatible.
If I were you, I would give them a week side by side - see if you can see anything positive during that time and then decide if you want to give them another chance in neutral territory. If it is continuously acrimonious while they’re side by side then you can make the decision based on that without attempting bonding again.
 
Sorry this is proving a challenge for you but don’t worry yet.
When Ruth went to live with @PigglePuggle the first attempt at bonding was not successful.
They gave her more time living alongside the herd and the 2nd attempt was a success and Ruth was very happy with her new friends.

Hopefully with some time living side by side Ophelia and Betsie will decide to live amicably together
 
There are five much calmer, happier females tonight.

Betsie stayed in her mini-hutch all afternoon, so we put her supper-vegetables just on the threshold for her to eat. However, this evening, when I put in her new, very own, carrot cottage, pieces of dried carrot showered down and she came out. She wasn't timid, ate some of the pieces, pottered about, had a drink, and started gnawing away at it.

Ophelia was near the bars and at one point, at the very beginning, there was the slightest bit of teeth chattering from one of them. Then Betsie went over and the two nuzzled their noses against each other; then they both went away; then came back again to nuzzle each other's noses again. It was repeated a few times. It was emphatically not chin lifting (it might look like it in the first photo) and instead looked as though it may even have been licking. It was very gentle and didn't deteriorate.

Ophelia is very relaxed, resting on or in the snuggle-sack out in the open, eyes closing, rather than being constantly hidden away as she had been for at least a year. (The snuggle-sack is near her mini-hutch so I don't think it is a territorial staking of the boundary.) She appears to like this smaller set-up. They both have about 3 x 3 foot each.

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Merab said:
Sorry this is proving a challenge for you but don’t worry yet.
When Ruth went to live with @PigglePuggle the first attempt at bonding was not successful.
They gave her more time living alongside the herd and the 2nd attempt was a success and Ruth was very happy with her new friends.

Hopefully with some time living side by side Ophelia and Betsie will decide to live amicably together
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Thank you for this. It's really good to know that it can work out.
 
Great news! Their setup looks lovely. I have everything crossed with time they will want to be friends 🤞

Make sure to look after yourselves as well. Bonding is incredibly stressful. They’re both gorgeous piggies 😍
 
JaseChase said:
Great news! Their setup looks lovely. I have everything crossed with time they will want to be friends 🤞

Make sure to look after yourselves as well. Bonding is incredibly stressful. They’re both gorgeous piggies 😍
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Thank you! I agree that it is very stressful. And so much washing and cleaning! If only I did for us what I have done for them :)
 
Betsie is a frightened piggy. She stays hidden in her hutch all the time. She did emerge to have a long drink and look around late last night when Ophelia wasn't out and she was unaware that she was being watched. There has, therefore, been next to no interaction between them. Ophelia teeth-chattered to her when we lifted the lid off Betsie's mini-hutch and she came out, only to dart into the carrot cottage. We do feel bad for her, trying to gain her trust whilst knowing that if bonding doesn't work out -- and it looks like it won't -- then she faces more upheaval and trauma as she will have to return to the rescue and start yet again with different adopters.
 
I’m sorry to hear this.
If you feel this isn’t going to work then you wouldn’t be wrong if you decided to return her now rather than take it further into settling and potentially trying bonding again.
 
I just now peered around the door and Betsy was out in the run, drinking (alot) and eating hay. Ophelia was at the bars throughout and eventually Betsie went over to her, and they put noses up against one another briefly, before Betsie turned around to go back in. I was watching for 10 - 15 minutes.

I don't really know what to do.

@Piggies&buns I have meant to say how much I have appreciated your input, even finding time to help whilst you were at work. Thank you.
 
KHBz said:
I just now peered around the door and Betsy was out in the run, drinking (alot) and eating hay. Ophelia was at the bars throughout and eventually Betsie went over to her, and they put noses up against one another briefly, before Betsie turned around to go back in. I was watching for 10 - 15 minutes.

I don't really know what to do.

@Piggies&buns I have meant to say how much I have appreciated your input, even finding time to help whilst you were at work. Thank you.
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I should add that the younger slave is in the room, quietly studying, most of the time, which makes it unlikely that we had missed previous interactions. My daughter had been out for about 45 minutes when I saw this. Perhaps it is just/mainly us whom Betsie is frightened of.
 
How long has she been with you now? My two sows (who I believe were living together with four others when they were at their last home) have taken just over a week to start being brave enough to come out of hiding when I am around.

They mainly prefer to hide though. Usually separately. I know not all guinea pigs are the same and that Betsie has already had upheaval but thought I would share my experience.
 
She has been with us for 4 days. I would not find it worrying taking it at her pace were it not for the fact that bonding might well not work and then it's more upheaval for her just when she's beginning to feel more settled.

Bonding! Easy-going sows! Such fun! 😭

We'll see how tomorrow goes.
 
There was some more positive interaction yesterday afternoon; Betsie becoming marginally bolder. (Youngest slave showed me a video of it much later in the evening.) Ophelia hangs around the bars quite abit and was trying to get through at one point when Betsie wasn’t there. But I don’t know how to read that and I’m bearing in mind that Piggies&buns said interactions at bars don’t necessarily predict how it’s going to go.

This is all very wearing.
 
It is wearing and stressful
I’m sure once you try bonding you will know for sure 🥰
 
If it doesn’t work, I think we go for a husboar (if we can) and hope that he’s as easy-going as my husband :)

If it does, Betsie will have to learn to speed-eat. She clearly doesn’t know it’s a competition and that the winner gets the other’s as seconds! 😋
 
You’re doing really well in a very stressful & exhausting situation. I’m glad there have been some more positive signs 😊 I think with a little more time for Betsie to settle in and grow more confident, it’s worth seeing if they’ll be friends. If not though, I hear husboars with girls can be a more stable bond. It’s what we’re probably going to do next time we need to find a single piggie a friend

🤞🤞 Betsie continues to grow bolder
 
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