NewPigMum
Junior Guinea Pig
So, after contacting a few different rescues and meeting a couple of prospective piggies we have now got two beautiful piggies of our own! We didn't adopt the lovely girl with the head tilt that I posted about previously for various reasons but we did get a beautiful 7 month old boy and 2 year girl. The sow is a short haired and I think the boar is an abyssinian. At the moment they are both a bit timid (and as we have 2 noisy boys, I'm not surprised) but they are taking food from our hands at times and will come over for an exploratory sniff when I'm sweeping the poops.
We are trying to give them time to settle but I want to get them out and let them stretch their legs. We only picked them up on Saturday, so would you suggest we give them more time or would it be ok to give them some floor time tomorrow? I'm torn between not wanting to stress them out but also wanting to let them run around.
And how soon would you allow (supervised) lap cuddles with the kids? Again, I want them to be happy but I'm not sure if regular handling is better or a slow build up is better. The rescue said that they don't have enough time for regular cuddles with their residents unfortunately but they didn't give any guidelines other than get the kids to sit on the floor rather than up high.
I'm also feeling a little sorry for our boy as he seems desperate to cuddle up with his partner but she seems to be having none of it. The rescue did say she had rejected quite a few friends after her original partner died but she'd accepted this partner. I'm just a little unsure of piggy social etiquette, so I'm not sure if it's just dominant behaviour or if she's being mean to him! I think I'm hooked tho as we found ourselves discussing whether we should add a 3rd piggy to the mix so there was a younger friend as our boy seems more energetic than our sow! The black hole of piggy slavery is very strong and deep it seems!
We are trying to give them time to settle but I want to get them out and let them stretch their legs. We only picked them up on Saturday, so would you suggest we give them more time or would it be ok to give them some floor time tomorrow? I'm torn between not wanting to stress them out but also wanting to let them run around.
And how soon would you allow (supervised) lap cuddles with the kids? Again, I want them to be happy but I'm not sure if regular handling is better or a slow build up is better. The rescue said that they don't have enough time for regular cuddles with their residents unfortunately but they didn't give any guidelines other than get the kids to sit on the floor rather than up high.
I'm also feeling a little sorry for our boy as he seems desperate to cuddle up with his partner but she seems to be having none of it. The rescue did say she had rejected quite a few friends after her original partner died but she'd accepted this partner. I'm just a little unsure of piggy social etiquette, so I'm not sure if it's just dominant behaviour or if she's being mean to him! I think I'm hooked tho as we found ourselves discussing whether we should add a 3rd piggy to the mix so there was a younger friend as our boy seems more energetic than our sow! The black hole of piggy slavery is very strong and deep it seems!
