Oh.. my... god! That is the absolute coolest thing I have ever seen! It is kind of a dream for me and my husband to have a really big herd of piggies, but we can't accomplish that until we are able to buy a bigger house. How big was the cage for this amazing herd? Also... how the hell did you manage to get them all to stay in one place for the picture? I am struggling with my three girls already haha
Hi! I have slowly built up the group over the course of 4-5 years around a dominant piggy (it doesn't matter whether that is a neutered boar like in the case of my Llewelyn and his successor Hywel) or a dominant sow.
Not every piggy is right for a large group. My Tribe were all rescue adoptees. I have been very careful to only adopt submissive sows or sows with a group background. The last thing you
You have to accept that not all piggies get on and - as group behaviour is a dynamic process - that things can go wrong; with the Tribe this happened after the old (and by then somewhat frail) First Lady was toppled in a coup and the new one started a reign of terror which lead to unrest and ultimately my having to split the group. By then I also had a special group for my elderlies who were getting too frail for the large group and a dedicated cataract group. The fact that larger groups can become unstable and end with bullying and constant strife is an experience that other forum members have also made. It is not quite as easy as adding more and more guinea pigs. You always need to have a plan B and be aware of your limitations as much as anything else.
Having a group has been a childhood dream of mine. It has taken only about 30 years to make it come true. I was able to only have a pair for the first 5 years when I came back to having guinea pigs again, but it was not wasted time. I learned a lot about guinea pig behaviours and needs during that time, which has come in very handy later.
Since the Tribe years, I have adopted more and more stuck in rescue or difficult to bond piggies, which has meant that I have mostly pairs and trios and only a couple of medium sized groups (4-5 piggies) at the moment. A lot depends on the personality mix; piggies are first and foremost personalities. If you have piggies that both want to be top and neither is willing to step back, a relationship is never going to work.
That was my old set-up with free roaming in the living room
This is my current set-up; the piggies get roaming time in turn and depending on their need.
My older piggies often can't wait to get back into a cleaned cage while my younger piggies need more time to stretch their legs!
