Baby squeaking a lot

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Sw75

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Hi, we lost one of our sows last week (I posted Previously) and our remaining 2.5yo seemed quite lost for a few days. Having started to wander around more and seen more interested in things, we decided to get a baby On Saturday to be her new companion.
We’ve put them in individual hutches indoors but next to each other.
In the daytime, the older one goes in her playpen and baby in a hutch nearby. The baby (willow) is extremely chatty, whilst the older one (Elsa) seems to largely ignore her.
Willow has been really squeaky tonight and I was worried about her; we got her out and she’s currently just sitting on my husband- we are trying to work out if she just wants attention or if she’s not enjoying the company of the older one.
Any advice would be great as we haven’t done this before. Thank you
 
Sw75 said:
Hi, we lost one of our sows last week (I posted Previously) and our remaining 2.5yo seemed quite lost for a few days. Having started to wander around more and seen more interested in things, we decided to get a baby On Saturday to be her new companion.
We’ve put them in individual hutches indoors but next to each other.
In the daytime, the older one goes in her playpen and baby in a hutch nearby. The baby (willow) is extremely chatty, whilst the older one (Elsa) seems to largely ignore her.
Willow has been really squeaky tonight and I was worried about her; we got her out and she’s currently just sitting on my husband- we are trying to work out if she just wants attention or if she’s not enjoying the company of the older one.
Any advice would be great as we haven’t done this before. Thank you
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Hi!

I am very sorry about your loss.

Babies are incredibly dramatic and very vocal. They are also incredibly desperate for company; yours was just crying for help when it felt lost and in a bad situation. Guinea pigs live in dense underground, so nonstop baby squeaking is giving the group a constant update on their whereabouts and status while they are at their most vulnerable. Once they have mastered their environment from about 4 months onward (i.e. teenage), they will gradually quieten down.
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With babies, you have to waive quarantine and slow intros; belonging is the overwhelming need. You still need to stage the intro on neutral ground. You can find several baby bonding videos in our very comprehensive bonding guide, which takes you through all the stages of the complex bonding process from the run up to the post-intro 2 weeks dominance phase.
New guinea pigs: Sexing, vet checks&customer rights, URI, ringworm and parasites
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
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Are your hutches outside or under cover? Please be aware that babies are not hardened off for living outside at this time of the year and can be very prone to opportunistic illnesses; their immune system is still under construction when their world is turned upside several times.
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Please take the time to read the guide links in this post. You will find them very helpful and hopefully also interesting because you will understand better where your baby comes from.
I can only touch upon potential issues but not explain in two words what usually takes me several days to write.
 
Thank you. They are both indoors in separate hutches currently. Do you think the fact that the older one seems uninterested is an issue?
Thank you for your advice. I’ve looked at a few of your guides but I’ll go through the others now.
 
Sw75 said:
Thank you. They are both indoors in separate hutches currently. Do you think the fact that the older one seems uninterested is an issue?
Thank you for your advice. I’ve looked at a few of your guides but I’ll go through the others now.
Click to expand...

You won't know until they meet to be honest. She will either accept or reject the youngster, but you will only know when they are directly interacting. Older sows usually play it cool in my own experience of over 100 bondings and bonding attempts; by far not all come off.
What guinea pigs don't do is 'play dates'. For them, every meeting is a full-on bonding session.
 
So first meeting today! Lots of bum sniffing and following each other around. They did lie next to each other briefly then were independently eating hay.
matter about 45 mins we put them back in their individual hitches next to each other. Hopefully this is a good sign.
 
Sw75 said:
So first meeting today! Lots of bum sniffing and following each other around. They did lie next to each other briefly then were independently eating hay.
matter about 45 mins we put them back in their individual hitches next to each other. Hopefully this is a good sign.
Click to expand...

this isn’t how bonding works - they should not have been separated if the meeting went well, they should have been moved to the hutch together and left together permanently from then on.
When you now put them together again, they will now need to start all over again. Please put them together in a neutral area and if successful, leave them together and move them to the hutch together. separating them after they’ve gone through part of a bonding process only to have it interrupted by being separated is stressful for them and as wiebke has said a young baby needs to be living with another piggy immediately and not be on its own.
 
Will it be ok to leave them overnight together? We had them in a playpen together, where would you advise we put them together overnight? Can you advise if I can out both on the bigger hutch (belonging to the older one?) thanks for the advice
 
Sw75 said:
Will it be ok to leave them overnight together? We had them in a playpen together, where would you advise we put them together overnight? Can you advise if I can out both on the bigger hutch (belonging to the older one?) thanks for the advice
Click to expand...

if the introduction goes well, then yes they would have been fine to be left together and moved to the hutch. Put them in the bonding pen for several hours and leave them to it. Once they are settled (as per the guides), then clean down the hutch they are to live in And move them both into the hutch. They will continue establishing a relationship and hierarchy for the following two weeks
 
Please read through the guides carefully that were linked to earlier. There is lots of info in there which can’t be repeated for each post. Once you’ve done that then do the bonding again. Make sure you also rearrange the hutch they’ll be moving into together.
 
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