when is it too early?

[Pepperdog]

to introduce a new member to the family?

I am thinking in a few weeks time, not right now as I wanted to see how the girls did in the hutch and settle them in with me but I would love to get a rescued lad for them to share life with (neutered of course) and make my trio a quartet.

Now first question - would introducing a male into the group be a bad idea?
all three are under a year old and still young, fudge is the baby at now 4/5 weeks old (but quite big as she is a big girl). Although crystal is the boss in the hutch, watching them in the run minty is also rather bossy at times so I would say there is no real defined pecking order. But they do get along right at the moment so would this ruin what they have or is this a good time to introduce a new piggie because they dont have a set order.

Would a boy that is older than them bully the three of them or would he rather like being a boy in a group of females?
I dont want the boy to start to hurt the girls if he started humping - mind you with the birth of fudge, minty has already been into boys before so she didnt mind then rolleyes

I wanted a boy to go with them as they seem to have a rough deal with all the bad advice from pet shops and living on their own because people think they cant live with other pigs, and I really want to have a rescue, I have a local rspca small animal branch that I got my original lot from years ago. Thats if they think my set up is suitable enough to have a rescue piggie this time round and I would hope they do boar dating too.

Do boys make more mess than girls?
The other reason I was waiting a few weeks was to see how much cleaning out needed doing - its every 4 days for a full clean and a spot clean every day replacing the newspaper daily where they seem to like to widdle in the corner. I also wanted to find out how much hay and muesli the three ate so I can gauge how much supplies I need and use - turns out its fine and I can afford the extra veg that they would eat up - rather they eat the veggies I get for them than I throw it away because it has gone too far.

I really dont want to upset the status quo but I also want to even the numbers out - does that sound a bit mad? I feel that fudge and minty have each other, crystal and minty get on ok together but as soon as all three get close for grass time or in a snuggle, its like threes a crowd so perhaps if two are chummy for one thing, then the other two could be chummy.

last question - are the girls too young to have a friend introduced
just three in one of the local centers - this is just outside of weston, the small animal center is in weston with all their piggies in foster, they have a day to come and see them rather than a website.
http://www.rspcanorthsomerset.org.uk/RSPCA Guinea Pigs.htm
Would I have to go for a younger male, there are two at 8 months old here, one at a year, so would it have to be one of the younger ones or does it not really matter - or even would it be better to have an older boy who has grown up.

sorry for the questions, I have been mulling this over a few times :red

 

[flips]

It's lovely that you want to offer a home to a rescue boy and that you are looking into it so carefully.

What size is your hutch? As that will be the first consideration.

It doesn't cost much to feed an extra piggy but it is important to think about whether you can cover the costs of an extra pigsworth of vet's fees should the need arise.

 

[Pepperdog]

hutch is 5ft x 3 ft double tiered

 

[flips]

That's a really good sized hutch. You'd have to check with individual rescues as to whether it meets their criteria.

I can't answer all of your questions but I have just added a neutered rescue boar and a younger rescue girl to my 3 established girls. Joe had been living next to my girls for nearly 6 months as my foster boy so they already knew each other through the bars.
There was about an hour of chasing and humping in the hallway until Joe got tired. It was hard not to intervene but the girls soon learned to tell him where to go either by running off or peeing on him. Molly, my new girl, is 7 months old but only 500g (she has stunted growth) and although I was worried about her at first, it quickly became clear that she was a lot faster than Joe (he's 2 years old) and just nipped out of the way.
Joe has been good for the girls. There is much more mutual grooming than there was before. The older girls dominate Molly because she is the undersow, nothing really nasty but a few head nudges and chasing, but Joe just comes rumbling up and sorts them all out.

I wouldn't say Joe is any messier than the girls although he does tend to poop on my carpet during floortime. They are more discreet and poop on the plastic in the covered areas. |)

HTH

 

[Pepperdog]

thank you. The head nudging and pushing is what all 3 do to each other. Crystal did it to fudge in the run earlier today, fudge runs to minty who then chases crystal about. Although fudge ran into one of the igloos with the same squeeking she was doing when crystal was being bossy and so minty ran round to crystal, saw no fudge being picked on, fudge appeared out the igloo to get a telling off from minty for being a trouble maker

They are fascinating to watch.

I will have a chat with the rescue on what they do and what they think. They might think the hutch is too small for the 4 or they are too young, or even not have any boys suitable so I wont know till I ask. If fate says I can have one, then so be it on that regard, if they say no then I wont get any boys and leave it as it is.

It was more the status quo with the girls, I am hoping that adding a boy to the group would be benificial to all of them really, like I say there are times that 3's a crowd so if they can have a friend to chat to then I think they will be happier when they pair up - and its not that they pair into one set couple, they change pairs for different situations, crystal does like fudge in the snuggles.

 

[ghostbusterbunny]

4/5 weeks old, to me, isn't too young. I've just introduced 3 pairs together to make a group of 6. Four of them are around the 12 month old mark. The other two are 6 and 10/12 week old babies. Izzy, one of my rescue girls was very very shy and very scared.

Rather than keep the babies apart like I was going to do so Muffin (6 weeks) could grow a little more, I brought them out to meet the girls and to provide some comfort to Izzy. I was wary that Muffin might not be able to hold her own if one of the adults got a bit nippy with her, but actually Muffin has turned out to be the bravest of the bunch, happy with big pigs, little pigs and every other pig! Out on the grass she does her rounds saying hello to all the others and spending time with each pig in turn! As flips said babies are also a LOT faster, so if there is trouble, Fudge will easily be able to get out of the way and keep herself out of trouble!

I've always found babies to be far more amenable to newcomers than older pigs! They love making friends, so if you did come home with another piggie soon I definitely wouldn't worry about Fudge!

More Mess?
Not really! I found that my boys (I don't have any anymore ) were about the same mess wise as the girls! They did tend to rearrange their stuff a lot more, but mess wise they weren't better or worse than the girls!

Age probably doesn't matter either. Older or younger once you introduce them they rearrange their pecking order anyway to see who fits where, so age really wouldn't matter! Personally I'd quite like to add a pair of older sows to mine now, but that's cause I'd quite like to give some older piggies a home that might struggle to get a home elsewhere!

Wow, long post, sorry!

 

[Pepperdog]

Although older sows would also be fine, I just thought the chances of them having a single male over a female was greater - and on that I was right according to the brent knoll website. Like with black dogs and sighthounds that get a raw deal I thought I could offer a home to another animal that gets a raw deal, male guinea pigs plus I only really have enough room for one (and money )

I can but ask to see if they have anything suitable, and I would really like a boy in my group - I am sure even if he hasnt got the equipment anymore he can equally be as happy in a hareem of girls.