Bonding - A couple of questions!

S

Sugarpuffs

New Born Pup
Joined
Sep 10, 2016
Messages
36
Reaction score
37
Points
175
Our 2.5 year old female guinea pig lost its mate a few weeks ago. We have bought a baby female and kept them in separate accommodation 4 days and swapped fleecy items during this time too. We didn't do the quarantine period because the older one was bereaved. I have a few questions:

1. Now we have placed them in the older one's C and C cage with baby bars divding it into two. We cleaned out and rearranged before doing this. Could this be an issue for the older one? Could we be causing the older one to feel like baby is on her territory at the moment?

2. Our plan was after a few days to introduce them properly in neutral territory. How long should we wait to do this?

3. They are going nose to nose through the grids a lot. Older one has done some rumblestrutting and tried to dig under the grids. Baby has popcorned and ran around a lot. Are these good signs?

Thank you!
 
I'm sorry for your loss

1. Any introductions must be done on neutral territory, somewhere that does not form part of your older piggy's normal living space.
Please put both piggies into such a space and leave them in this space for several hours. No hides, just a pile of hay and the piggies. During the time they are in the bonding pen, you clean down and rearrange the cage they are to live in so your original piggy no longer sees it as her territory. Please also remove the divider in the cage. After several hours in the bonding pen, they hopefully have gone through the acceptance stage successfully and started to form a hierarchy. Provided introductions are successful, then you can move them to the cage to start their lives together. The full process of establishing their relationship continues for a further two weeks.

2. Please dont wait at all - go ahead bond them properly today. Babies under four months of age are so desperate and in need of constant companionship and leadership that they shouldn't be put into separate cage at all and you should instead carry out the neutral territory bonding process on the day you bring the baby home.

3. How things go through bars are not indicative of how things will go during the time they are actually bonded.

Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
Sows: Behaviour and female health problems (including ovarian cysts)
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs
 
Thank you for the advice. We should be able to create a neutral territory for them both later today. Let's hope it goes well and we haven't messed up with our approach so far. The baby was on her own for a while in the shop too so fingers crossed - but she does seem very happy at the moment with having our older the other side of the grid.

Just have one concern as several hours with just a pile of hay and nothing else is not something that the older one would ever seem to have enjoyed and it makes her very nervous not having a tunnel or something else that provides her with some overhead cover when she feels the need.

Can we put more in the neutral introduction territory than just a pile of hay? What is the reason for no tunnels etc? Is it to prevent any scuffles between them inside tunnels etc and also to ensure they can't just spend the whole time hidden away from one another in separate tunnels? And food wise, why just hay?

Thank you.
 
Sugarpuffs said:
Thank you for the advice. We should be able to create a neutral territory for them both later today. Let's hope it goes well and we haven't messed up with our approach so far. The baby was on her own for a while in the shop too so fingers crossed - but she does seem very happy at the moment with having our older the other side of the grid.

Just have one concern as several hours with just a pile of hay and nothing else is not something that the older one would ever seem to have enjoyed and it makes her very nervous not having a tunnel or something else that provides her with some overhead cover when she feels the need.

Can we put more in the neutral introduction territory than just a pile of hay? What is the reason for no tunnels etc? Is it to prevent any scuffles between them inside tunnels etc and also to ensure they can't just spend the whole time hidden away from one another in separate tunnels? And food wise, why just hay?

Thank you.
Click to expand...
Tunnels and hides, particularly those which the original piggy already sees as her own, should not be used in the bonding pen as they can create a territory which can cause issues if the other then tries to enter.
You can cover the cage with a blanket if you feel she would feel more secure but as long as it is something you can access quickly should they fight

Sorry, that should have been clearer - you can add any food, just as long as it is free scattered and not something the older piggy can hog (so best not to use bowis), and of course hay being the only food they should have constant access to in any event

The guides all explain how to carry out a bonding, the process they will go through and the behaviours you are specifically looking for to know things are going well
 
Thank you for all the help. We put them together for 3 hours this afternoon in a run ( one designed for outdoors) in the hallway which is somewhere the 2.5 year old has never been before. This seemed to work well and we now have them housed together for the night, no barriers, in the older one's C and C cage which we thoroughly cleaned and also made them each fresh new hidies out of cardboard boxes each with two entrances so they cannot corner one another in one of them. Fingers crossed they will continue to get on over the next two weeks and then we can fully relax.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top