Too Many Guinea Pigs! Need Help! From 2 To 5!

[Bethany C.]

Sooooo I posted a thread a while ago about my guinea pigs Theo and Arty, both of whom I was worried about because they didn't appear to be happy and one seemed to be bullied. Not long after that I took them both to the vet for a normal check up and got very shocking news. Arty was a girl. And she was pregnant. Turns out she was pregnant when I got her at the tender age of 5 months, possibly by a sibling, and hadn't gotten pregnant during the time I had her in the cage with Theo. Thank you Craigslist.

And a couple weeks later, ABBY gave birth to Carrie, Coral, and Cosette, the cutest little guinea pigs I've ever seen (two are texel!). About a month and a half and hundreds of dollars later, Abby and the girls are in their own large makeshift cage and Theo (now neutered) is in a cage on his lonesome. Obviously, I can't keep them all like this. Theo deserves friends and unfortunately there is a fair amount of bullying going on in the girls' cage. Cosette weighs the least and isn't eating enough, and Abby steals food from her babies every time they eat to the point wear I have to strategically place veggies around the cage.

I have some known choices - (1) buy a larger cage and put Theo in, in hopes that he will mellow out all the girls, (2) have one or two of them adopted, which will make me a very sad mommy but will undoubtedly save me some of the money I have lost at having three unexpected, hungry guinea pigs and getting a surprise neutering (3) have two separate cages and figure out who gets along, which right now doesn't seem like anyone.

This doesn't even include the fact that Abby and Theo didn't completely get along in the beginning, even though that might be because she was pregnant or the fact that Theo is used to having his own cage. None of these are really good options (to my knowledge) and I'm not sure what to do at this point. I love all of them, and if/when the time comes for me to have some adopted I will not be a completely willing participant and will grill the new owners like a crazy person. If there is a way to keep them all and not destroy my budget then I want to make it work.

PLEASE HELP!

 

[Caviequeen]

Well you seem to care about your piggies and only want whats best for them, what would you like to do, like out of all your options which one would you prefer?

 

[Bethany C.]

For me it's not about preference, it's about if it will actually work. I would love to keep them all in one cage and have the money to figure it all out and for all of them to get along, but those last two things are very possibly not going to happen. I could try it, but I could end up with a ton of unhappy piggies and an unhappy, broke me. I'm trying to figure out what any other options may be.

 

[EmJW]

I had the same, two guineas went to 6. I love them all but with tqwo separate cages (dad+2 boys, mum +2 girls), I find that my girls are getting on better. The boys argue over their food, but if I find one isn't getting a fair enough share/ sticking up for himself, I take him out for 10 mins to let him have some. Although they do this with fresh veggies, they don't with hay/ pellets and get along absolutely fine. The girls don't fall out, but I do find that the baby girls eat more than mum anyway. I think you should try everyone together in a neutral zone, where you're able to separate them if any issues occur, but there may be lots of rumbling and falling out to begin with, so give it time, I think it's do too with seeing whose where in the social ladder? If this work out brill, but you may be able to work out who gets along with who if not all of them get along together? That may limit your cages to two then?