Age Guinea Pigs Can No Longer Be Bonded

CheifoNibSqueak

CheifoNibSqueak

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Hi All

You've all helped me out before so hoping you can again, I've had the unfortunate event of finding one of my girls has died during the day completely out of the blue. I know guinea pigs should not be kept solitary but after speaking to my ex (their previous owner) she said that she had been told that they were at an age where they should/couldn't be bonded with another pig?

I know it might sound heartless thinking about getting another and as upset as I am, I'm also really worried about the health of my other girl and not wanting to run the risk of her effectively dying from loniless. Also for a bit of context I do also have a boar side by side with them who was constantly nuzzling through the bars with the one I just lost where as the other one ignores him so thats also a worry.
 
I’m so sorry for your loss.

It’s not true that there comes an age they can’t be bonded.
However any bond comes down to compatibility so whether it works is purely down to the pigs.

She with the boar next door to her, she will still have some interaction which is good for her.
A lot of piggy interaction is via body language and scent so even if they don’t appear to be communicating, they will be.

Is he neutered?
If so, could you try bonding the two of them?
 
Thank you

Thats good and bad news then. I did intend to get him neutered by decided against it when I was quoted around £170 just to register another guinea pig (not one of mine) and the same place also refused to give any indiction on success and survival rate so stayed well away from there. Then by the time I thought about it again they'd made a nice dynamic between the three of them being side by side with Nibble (the one I lost) being the one who would go between them. Unfortunately Squeak is a bit of a princess and thinks everybody should come to her for fuss and interaction where as after Nibble after alot of effort and getting Chief (The boar) was the ridiculously social
 
I have had piggies who would never accept a piggy they had not lived with before they were 6 months old (although they would go back with any they had lived with even after a break of several yars and eventually even make up with a fallen out sister) but on the other hand, the oldest bereaved piggies I have successfully rebonded with totally new mates were 7 or even 8 years old. You just can never tell. Most piggies are of course in between these extremes.

They all profit from neighbouring contact through the bars, though. I would put your bsreaved sow next to your boar and see how they get on through the bars before making any expensive plans. Brace yourself for a few weeks of territorial behaviour. You can always change your mind later on if they fall in love eventually.
Single Guinea Pigs - Challenges and Responsibilities
A - Z of Guinea Pig Behaviours
 
I'm sorry for your loss. There is really no age at which pigs are unwilling to make a new friend. They don't have to meet as young pigs to make friends. Personally I've bonded a couple of pigs aged 4 or 5 with younger pigs and it has worked out fine. The good news is that she does still have the option for pig interaction through the bars, which is certainly better than being completely alone.
 
My Old Diva Thea was 7 when she was bonded with her younger neighbours after her friend died.
 
Hi all

Hoping to revive this thread a bit. Ended up decided to pick up two young girls who have now gone through quarantine and had an extra few weeks side by side. Started my first bonding session today and it hasn’t gone as expected from what I’ve seen from successful and unsuccessful videos. All we’ve had is a couple of butt sniffs then everyone wandering about doing their own thing, bit of hay sharing, the odd jump from a sniff that wasn’t expected and some general exploring noises. Can anyone give me an idea if this is a good sign?
 
CheifoNibSqueak said:
Hi all

Hoping to revive this thread a bit. Ended up decided to pick up two young girls who have now gone through quarantine and had an extra few weeks side by side. Started my first bonding session today and it hasn’t gone as expected from what I’ve seen from successful and unsuccessful videos. All we’ve had is a couple of butt sniffs then everyone wandering about doing their own thing, bit of hay sharing, the odd jump from a sniff that wasn’t expected and some general exploring noises. Can anyone give me an idea if this is a good sign?
Click to expand...

The first thing to say is that you say ‘first’ bonding session. Do you mean simply that this is first time you’ve bonded piggies or do you mean you intend on putting the piggies together for a while today and then separating them and then putting them together for a while tomorrow etc?
If you mean the latter then be aware, that now you have put the piggies together together you cannot separate them unless the bonding fails. Now they are together they stay together for the rest of today in neutral territory and then move them together to the cleaned out cage later on today. Once in the cage you can add some two ended hides

To the bonding - so far, it sounds to be a great bonding! Uneventful, just straight through acceptance and building a relationship is exactly what you want!
It will take two weeks for them to get through the full hierarchy setting but it sounds so far so good!
 
It sounds like the perfect bonding to me.
For future reference, I used to live in Bletchley and found the vets for pets there very knowledgeable for my boys. Dignified Sir George has a history of uti's and dog strength metacam was prescribed as standard. I didn't need to pay for registration either. It's the one near Matalan.
I think we need pigtures.....
 
First time ever bonding guinea pigs and I was planning to do another tomorrow but if it better to leave them to it I can remove the divider in their cage if thats best. Both cages have already been cleaned out as while they were doing their thing seemed the best moment for a clean as the babies love to burry under and play with their fleece and have obviously done their buisness under there. Unfortunately it not practical to leave them in there all day as I'm in the standard UK two bed open plan type house and have a small dog who needs to be able to move about and do her own buisness and already have cages stretching the full length of the house.

The only time Ive ever expefrienced any problems with pigs before is when my surviving adult sow have a boistrious heat and had to seperate her and her partner overnight incase anything happened as she decided to do it at 1am but the next day she was back to her happy self
 
Hi

Please be aware that guinea pigs have a strict instinctive bonding manual with clear distinct phases from acceptance (if it happens) through to establishing the leader and then working out the group hierarchy rank by rank. It takes about a further two weeks to establish the group fully in their territory.

Each time you abort the bonding, your piggies have to start back in square one. You are not helping the bonding process; if your piggies bond, it is despite your constant interference. The bonding in small sessions is the human cop out because of fear of any dominance behaviours which are an essential part of establishing a group but it totally ignores how guinea pigs work.

Please take the time to read through our very detailed bonding guide, which takes you through all stages with the behaviours you can expect to see at each stage, what they mean and which behaviours are good or not.
Here is the link: Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics

A - Z of Guinea Pig Behaviours

What you can never change whichever way you try to bond is that on the bottom line your guinea pigs want to be together and get on. You cannot make them.

But so far, it sounds perfectly normal for the 'getting to know each other' phase before they really start interacting and the bonding process gets underway. Just please sit it out and do not interfere.
 
fluffysal said:
It sounds like the perfect bonding to me.
For future reference, I used to live in Bletchley and found the vets for pets there very knowledgeable for my boys. Dignified Sir George has a history of uti's and dog strength metacam was prescribed as standard. I didn't need to pay for registration either. It's the one near Matalan.
I think we need pigtures.....
Click to expand...
I actually got the the girls from the Bletchley store, unfortunately I'm not overly keen on the Rooksley one as my friend had issues with one of hers I was looking for a Vet to help her and they quoted an stupid fee just to register her with no appointment and didnt offer much information when I asked about my boy being done. However they actually vets have been good in the past when I had the girls nails done and the stack of general questions I had and were amazing when I lost my staffy
 
CheifoNibSqueak said:
First time ever bonding guinea pigs and I was planning to do another tomorrow but if it better to leave them to it I can remove the divider in their cage if thats best. Both cages have already been cleaned out as while they were doing their thing seemed the best moment for a clean as the babies love to burry under and play with their fleece and have obviously done their buisness under there. Unfortunately it not practical to leave them in there all day as I'm in the standard UK two bed open plan type house and have a small dog who needs to be able to move about and do her own buisness and already have cages stretching the full length of the house.

The only time Ive ever expefrienced any problems with pigs before is when my surviving adult sow have a boistrious heat and had to seperate her and her partner overnight incase anything happened as she decided to do it at 1am but the next day she was back to her happy self
Click to expand...

Yes they need to stay together now they are together. You can’t separate and then do it again tomorrow as it’ll just disrupt everything.
They need to stay in neutral territory for a minimum of several hours before being moved back to the main cage together.
How long in neutral territory depends on how things are going.
 
Thank you for all the advice and information guys I'll leave them a few more hours and if nothing changes I'll remove the divider and set them loose in what will hopefully be their new cage. One last question I'm assuming the odd head flick to say I dont want sniffing is ok aslong as theres nothing agressive following it
 
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