Three Piggies living along side each other.

Elizabeth Beadle

Elizabeth Beadle

Junior Guinea Pig
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Could anyone give advise on Piggies living along side each other. We have three boys as sadly we lost Ollie's partner a few weeks ago. We have two large pens next to each other which we made from wood and there is a wooden divide in the middle. When we lost Ollies Partner Ollie wasn't very well himself and he was grieving too. So we have been concentrating on building him up. We have seen a massive improvement in Ollie who is 6 and a half he has gained weight and his eye problem has improved. We would like to try him living alongside his neighbours but we are reluctant because of what happened in the past. When we had three Piggies before we put up a metal cage devide across the middle of the two pens. The two boys use to put their teeth on the bars as they became very excited at seeing another Piggy next door and it caused them to have teeth problems through the rest of their lives. My husband is scared this will happen again. Can anyone think of a different way to help Ollie live along side them. We could try and find a partner for Ollie but we do not live near any rescues. Thanks.
 
Living alongside is essential as he doesn’t live with another piggy. There is simply no way of avoiding it as he needs the side by side companionship and you can’t let previous dental issues worry you and stop you putting him beside them.

There are many of us who have side by side piggies and never had dental issues due to bar chewing - the majority will never have issues due to bar chewing.

What you can do to ease the transition is cover the bars with something and then slowly remove the cover over several days.
 
We have piggies who live side by side.

Wally werepig is the worst bar chewer I have met in the 5years of piggies living in or visiting our home. He hasn’t done any damage to his teeth.

We also currently have Herman Pig living with us who had an abscess by his tooth which was discovered while he was at the rescue centre & continues to have dental vet visits. He has not chewed the bars since being with us.

We use cardboard along some of the divide as a preventative. You can also get acrylic to attach to the bars. We currently have a bit of acrylic(with holes) in the playpen on the divide instead of bars. Although I have noticed the pigs can see their reflection sometimes & it seems to confuse them!

I hope you find a way to let your piggies live side by side safely.
 
Piggies&buns said:
Living alongside is essential as he doesn’t live with another piggy. There is simply no way of avoiding it as he needs the side by side companionship and you can’t let previous dental issues worry you and stop you putting him beside them.

There are many of us who have side by side piggies and never had dental issues due to bar chewing - the majority will never have issues due to bar chewing.

What you can do to ease the transition is cover the bars with something and then slowly remove the cover over several days.
Click to expand...
Thank you. I thought so as they need the contact so they can smell, talk and sniff each other.
 
AidaB said:
We have piggies who live side by side.

Wally werepig is the worst bar chewer I have met in the 5years of piggies living in or visiting our home. He hasn’t done any damage to his teeth.

We also currently have Herman Pig living with us who had an abscess by his tooth which was discovered while he was at the rescue centre & continues to have dental vet visits. He has not chewed the bars since being with us.

We use cardboard along some of the divide as a preventative. You can also get acrylic to attach to the bars. We currently have a bit of acrylic(with holes) in the playpen on the divide instead of bars. Although I have noticed the pigs can see their reflection sometimes & it seems to confuse them!

I hope you find a way to let your piggies live side by side safely.
Click to expand...
Many thanks for your advice.
 
I use acryllic sheets bought on Ebay which are thin and bendy. They have holes in the corners where you can thread cable ties through to attach to C and C grids as dividers. You can also get perspex panels to replace wire grids from Kavee. I put a hide in front of the gap between the perspex panel as piggy could still chew the side a bit, but they work well otherwise. I hope you are successful with this 🙏
 
We have overlapping CC grids along the divide in the boys permanent home.

If you are using grids, I would recommend not using the grids with narrow bar spaces, as a bar chewing piggie can get teeth caught when trying to pull away, after a bar chewing episode.
I watched Wally almost get stuck once. All our bars with the narrow spacing are now covered up.
(Does that make sense?! Not quite sure how else to explain it.)

The acrylic I brought from a company online that cut to size. I had to shop around quite a bit to find the most cost effective & drill our own holes.
I can’t remember where I ordered it from in the end sorry.
(I was trying to avoiding ordering from Kavee).
 
Hi everyone sorry for late reply. Thank you all for your help. I thought about all you said and decided to go for it. I bought grids with the big spaces. Its going well and although one piggy chews its not all of the time and its not frantic chewing. I have attached a picture. We are pleased how it is going and Ollie seems happier. Thank you again.
 

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