Should Guinea's Have a Friend?

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catherine..j

I have a guinea called Lola and she is just over a year old now and she still isnt really that friendly, but when patches goes to see her she seems abit more lively and isnt as bothered by me being there.

Do you think that guinea pigs, mainly female one's should have a little friend with them?
Or so you think it is to late to introduce her to some one?
 

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Hello. I'm a 'newbie' on here but yes; guinea pigs generally do much better in pairs.

I have a pair of boars who although don't snuggle up so much as my previous pair of sows did (though it was a long time ago that I had my sows) - they definitely enjoy having each other around. When they're free ranging they follow each other around, bless 'them!

I don't think it's too late to try - a lot of rescues will try to bond them for you so that if it doesn't work out you won't end up with two single piggies.
 
Yer i didnt really think about it when i first got my babbies as i had to male piggies but they didnt get along and had to buy differnt cages, unfortunatly i lost paxo last year but patches is perfectly fine on his own .. always happy! :)

And welcome! I'm pretty new aswell!
 
guinea pigs are naturally sociable animals. they tend to do much better within a pair or herd etc. i think if you get her a friend, she'll perk up quite quickly. it is very very rare for someone to have an antisocial guinea pig, and other than that, most people would say that it's essential for piggles to be kept with one or more other pigs. there are plenty of rescues if you'd like to get another guinea pig. there are lists on here, to help you find a rescue near you.
 
catherine..j said:
Yer i didnt really think about it when i first got my babbies as i had to male piggies but they didnt get along and had to buy differnt cages, unfortunatly i lost paxo last year but patches is perfectly fine on his own .. always happy! :)

And welcome! I'm pretty new aswell!
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sometimes males won't get along together. you could always have patches neutered and have him live with lola as a new little girlfriend? i'm sure they'd both love that
 
ANY guinea pig should have company! Guinea pigs are sociable animals that live in groups and are not wired to be on their own, apart from a very few piggies that do not like anypig, but still profit from living next to other piggies. Reputable rescues, for instance, will never rehome single piggies unless it is as a companion to an existing piggy. In Sweden it is even law that piggies are kept in pairs or more!

The best way to proceed is finding a rescue within your reach that allows you to bring Lola with you, so she can choose her own friend herself - either another sow or a neutered boar of any age - under expert supervision. As Lola seems to enjoy the company of other piggies, I am convinced that she'll find a good mate forself and become a completely different piggy! And you can enjoy the chatter and the interaction that make guinea pigs so fascinating!

Here is a list of rescues: http://www.guineapigrehome.org.uk/gp/centres.asp

About guinea pig companionship:
This from the best medical website fro guinea pigs: http://www.guinealynx.info/companionship.html
This is from our reference section:
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=37654
 
i think the OP has two lone guinea pigs. i think the best action would probably be to have the male neutered. it might not be cost efficient, but adopting a guinea pig would require a donation anyway
 
Nicquita said:
i think the OP has two lone guinea pigs. i think the best action would probably be to have the male neutered. it might not be cost efficient, but adopting a guinea pig would require a donation anyway
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I agree that this could be an ideal solution. :)

My boars were neutered by the rescue they came from and they apparently came through the 'op just fine.
 
See i know that would be the ideal solution but he basically lives with the rabbit so i wouldnt want to change that as thumper wouldnt be happy then, and thumper and patches get along very well!

Hmmm.... so much to think about!
 
catherine..j said:
See i know that would be the ideal solution but he basically lives with the rabbit so i wouldnt want to change that as thumper wouldnt be happy then, and thumper and patches get along very well!

Hmmm.... so much to think about!
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guinea pigs and rabbits are really not good companions. i don't blame you for not knowing, as nobody does unless told, but bullying occurs and you don't realise. and both animals would be lonely as they can't actually communicate with one another. i think it can pretty much be guaranteed that they're not happy :( i know it's not nice to be told that, but you've been misinformed
 
catherine..j said:
See i know that would be the ideal solution but he basically lives with the rabbit so i wouldnt want to change that as thumper wouldnt be happy then, and thumper and patches get along very well!

Hmmm.... so much to think about!
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Guinea pigs and rabbits should not be mixed - ever! Rabbits are much, much stronger and bigger than piggies. Sadly there have been far too many incidents of a rabbit accidentally killing it's piggy cage-mate by jumping on it / kicking it as they have very powerful back legs. Rabbits don't 'speak' the same language either so they cannot communicate with each other.

I have two piggies who have each other for companions and I have two rabbits who keep each other company - the guinea pigs and the rabbits *never* mix.

Their feeding requirements are different too and guinea pigs can get a disease that rabbits carry. :(

Even Pets At Home don't house them together anymore - although it used to be common practice for them to live together it is now widely recognised as being dangerous for the guinea pig.

ETA: There are literally thousands of rabbits in rescue needing homes. If you got your boar neutered and introduced him to your sow you could always adopt a companion for Thumper.
 
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Sorry should have said they dont share a cage together but they spend all day together, lay with each other and everything, I always owned rabbits and guinea pigs at the same time and Thumper is the only one so far who seems to love having the guinea pigs so i do agree that rabbits shouldnt really go with guinea pigs but Thumper is an exception! :))

Hutch and Shaun sniff them and walk off lol ( i know random names, they are named after walace and gromit characters, Shaun the sheep and Hutch the talking rabbit from the movie)

I just tried a little test, I played some guinea pig noises on youtube and Patches got all excited and started squeaking and all Lola did was twitch her nose ... Even Thumper seemed more interested than she did lol

I had a look at the rehoming site Thank you again Wiebke for posting the site up, but they are all a fairly long drive especially for a Piggy! All 20+ miles away which is a little anoying! :(
 
on saturday, i'm driving an hour away to fetch my rescue pig. it's not a long way at all if it will make something that you're responsible for happy. it is dangerous to keep rabbits and guinea pigs together at all, even if it doesn't seem it. and Lola may not seem interested, but recordings are different to the real thing.

there are also lots of people on here that do 'piggy trains' to help get rescues around.

i'm sorry if i sound somewhat harsh, but the advice you've been given is solid fact. accidents can happen at any time between animals of the same species. the threat is much higher with diverse animals. i stand by the idea that you should neuter your boar, and adopt a bunny friend for Thumper. that would be ideal for all the pets involved.
 
Oww i dont mean its to far for me to go, i just have found that guinea's dont seem to do so well in car's for long periods of time.

And i can completly understand that accidents can and do happen but they have been together for 2 nd half years now and still as happy together as the day i got them.

And i can understand where you are coming from with getting Patches neutered and getting Thumper a friend but I'm pretty sure it would do more harm than good simply because it completly changes everything they have known pretty much their whole lives.
 
it would change it, yes, but it would be a change for the better. it's hard to accurately interpret a guinea pigs emotions. think about it. Patches live with a rabbit, who he cannot communicate with. to make a comparison, do you think you'd fare well living in a room with a rabbit and no human contact?

i've found that my guinea pigs are fine to travel as long as they feel safe and secure, i.e a carrier with somewhere to hide. my guinea pig Allie was fine when i had to walk her to the vet, which is about a 30 minute walk for me.

in respect to the fact that it's been like that for two and a half years, i know it's hard to hear, but it's unlikely that they've been ecstatically happy for that time. it's more likely that they're somewhat lonely. i know this is probably due to misinformation etc, but what's best for them would be to be kept with their own kind, as both species are sociable animals, but literally cannot communicate with each other, so they're still technically alone.

again, i don't mean to sound harsh,but i think that's a fair comparison that you should take into account...
 
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Twenty miles is not too bad. My piggies are well travelled and most of them cope well.

But it is your decision with what you want to do about Lola. However, I would NOT recommend getting a little girl from a shop or somebody you cannot be sure has had his piggies well sexed and separated. We've already had quite a few surprise "Easter eggs" this year if you want to have a peek in the pregnancy section!
 
catherine..j said:
And i can completly understand that accidents can and do happen but they have been together for 2 nd half years now and still as happy together as the day i got them.
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I have picked this bit of your post out to tell you the story of my friends rabbit & guinea pig, they lived happily together for almost 4 years.
Cubby (pig) would lay on Gizmo's (rabbit) back & they too would lay together & "play" together.
One morning she got up to find Cubby dead, he looked like he'd been steam-rollered, he looked like a cardboard cut out :(
Thinking Gizmo had tried to wake her friend up she went out & got her another piggy friend, Tekno & all was well again, for approx 6 months, she was looking out the window & saw Gizmo (rabbit) jumping up & down on something, yes it was Tekno & she was too late :(
Why did Gizmo suddenly turn on her friends? Who knows. My friend felt so guilty about putting a 2nd guinea pig in such a situation but did not realise that Gizmo caused Cubby's death & why would she when they had lived together "happily" for such a long time.
 
As much as Patches and Thumper might seem happy together please believe us they will both be much much happier if they have company of their own species.
 
20 miles is nothing in the car, my piggies travel with me when we go back to see mine and my parnter parents for the weekend which are both 2.5 hour journeys and aslong as they have hay and cucumber and enough room to sleep off the veggies i ply them with before leaving all good!
 
i was just wondering as to whether you've made a decision on what you're going to do to solve the lonely piggles problem?
 
Well i have asked differnt vets and some pet shops and they all have differnt veiws but they all go along the same lines that it doesnt sound needed to put Patches through all that stress as he does have contact with another guinea pig just not physically.
And some of the vets i asked have handled Thumoer in the past and say that it may be better to leave the situation as it is becuase he is very calm and this could distress him, mainly because he doesnt get along with other rabbits very well at all.

So for now I'm just going to think about it a little longer, i have brought Lola more toys and treats which is keeping her amused.

I'm probably going to wait till i start my college course in september as you deal really closely with small animals especially guinea pigs, will be great to learn alot more!
 
With all due respect to vets, most of them have little experience with rabbits and the experience they do have is of them as very disposable pets, as is the way of this country sadly. I would only trust the view of a specialist vet personally. Regardless, their job is to treat illness not advise on husbandry or behaviour. Of course Thumper doesn't get on with other rabbits at the moment, it's because he's a big fluffy bag of testosterone and other rabbits exist only for him to mate or compete with. Neutering him WILL change that, although all rabbit intros take a bit of work, that's just their nature.
 
catherine..j said:
Well i have asked differnt vets and some pet shops and they all have differnt veiws but they all go along the same lines that it doesnt sound needed to put Patches through all that stress as he does have contact with another guinea pig just not physically.

this isn't really the only problem here, though. Thumper could turn nasty for no reason whatsoever. you don't want Patches to have to go through that, and you don't want to have to clean up the mess and feel guilty forever, which you will.

And some of the vets i asked have handled Thumoer in the past and say that it may be better to leave the situation as it is becuase he is very calm and this could distress him, mainly because he doesnt get along with other rabbits very well at all.

it's unlikely that he won't get along with other rabbits. bonding males is difficult, but doable. however, if you can adopt a spayed female, or have him neutered (only around £40), he will lead a much happier life, without any risk to Patches' health.

So for now I'm just going to think about it a little longer, i have brought Lola more toys and treats which is keeping her amused.

she may seem amused, but for a guinea pig, the company of toys doesn't even compare to the company of another guinea pig. it's hard to interpret their moods, so until you get her a friend, you won't be able to properly distinguish between her moods.

I'm probably going to wait till i start my college course in september as you deal really closely with small animals especially guinea pigs, will be great to learn alot more!

honestly not trying to be offensive in any way, but you can learn a lot from what you've been told on this forum, by people that truly care about the welfare of both your guinea pigs and your rabbit. we're not telling you what you could do to make your guinea pigs a bit happy. we're telling you what you should do to make both of them completely happy
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Please think about it :( we're thinking of what would be best for your animals. there are serious risks involving guinea pig and rabbit pairings. also, vets don't tend to know a huge amount about guinea pigs and rabbits. guinea pigs are exotic pets and tend to function in different ways to other 'rodents'. also, a diet fed to both your rabbit and guinea pig can only be adequate for one of the two, as they need different diets. here's a recent thread to portray just how little most 'domestics' vets know about guinea pigs:

http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=49743

this poor piggle was nearly murdered due to the lack of knowledge of a vet.
 
Hey,

Yeah its usually better for them to have a friend but as you said she isn't very friendly and it might be hard to introduce her to another pig and for them to actaully get on.

Saying that we have a 5 year old boar who didn't get on with any other pigs (besides the ladies obviously...) and we recently managed to get him a little friend and i have never seen him so happy. He even popcorns now, miracle work!

x
 
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