Thinking About Adopting Another

[A Guinea Pig]

Hi y'all. I'm off on Monday, and I was thinking about going to the downtown animal shelter that day. I have room for another guinea pig now and they have a bunch of girls looking for homes.

The babies always get adopted so I'm not going to be taking one of those home so what age would be recommended for my current girls? Ella is about to turn 4 and Lulu is 3.

I was looking at the seniors but I've heard they can be moody and Ella can get pretty territorial.

Thank you!

 

[Piggies&buns]

While a bonding comes down to character compatibility rather than age, adding any piggies to an already bonded adult pair of sows is not necessarily straightforward - adding a single adult sow to an adult bonded pair is one which is most likely to fail or create an outsider situation.

You are right, older sows can be cranky and even yours are towards an age where they may be less willing to accept any newcomer at all.
When adding to an already bonded adult pair, you look to add in a way which doesn’t upset the existing hierarchy. They are highly unlikely to accept a piggy older than them. It’s touch and go as to whether they would accept an adult at all. Adding a baby can stand a better chance as a baby won’t challenge the hierarchy. However older sows can still reject babies.

So really all we can say is you have to try a bonding to find out whether it will work but have a plan b of a second cage (and potentially a fourth piggy) if the bonding doesn’t work.

Good luck and keep us posted

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

 

[A Guinea Pig]

Getting ready to go visit the piggies.

 

[Merab]

Hope all goes well

 

[A Guinea Pig]

The shelter I visited only had girls in pre-bonded pairs and trios which is great, but I'm looking for a single girl. So I’ll be going back again this week or next week when there are more piggies available.