Bonding after cage mate passing

[emiso]

Hello! On January 19th we lost one of our guinea pigs, Moto, to bloat. She was paired with our male Dipper her entire life. After her passing we had Dipper say goodbye to her body before cremating her and immediately moved Dipper to be next to our other guinea pig’s cage so he could still have interaction. He has shown little signs of being lonely other than squeaking for attention more, which we make sure to constantly give him.

Bonding: We plan to bond him with our other male piggy Stripes (him and Moto’s son), however since the bonding process requires full attention I’m waiting till my next break to attempt it. For now the only times they see each other is through the bars and through smelling eachothers felts. Once they are bonded they will have a bigger cage together & I will put my other male guinea pig Venom beside them so he can interact with them through the bars. (He does not like any of the other guinea pigs he is very violent and much bigger than most piggies and is much happier once we gave him his own cage.)

I am worried that they are becoming lonely, though. I have 3 2x4 cages currently, 2 next to each other & 1 on the top. Originally Dipper & Moto stayed together on the top & Venom & Stripes stayed side by side below them because they do not like each other and fight after Stripes got sick for a bit, so they only have interactions through the bars however they are happy with that.

For enrichment I switch their cages daily, so they are only on the top cage alone for about a day as well as getting new surroundings and smells of each other daily. I give their pellets in a snuffle mat, their veggies are scatter fed during floor time, they have stacking cups, toys to chew, tunnels, hay piles to burrow in as well as tons of felt, 1 hour of floor time each daily, and get held numerous times throughout the day.

I attached their cage set up below, they have more shade usually I just removed it for the photo. Please let me know ways to keep them happy and not lonely until I bond Dipper & Stripes, thank you!

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m sorry for your loss

Unfortunately a single pig being above does remove all interaction and will mean they get lonely. Single pigs do need to be side by side at al times for interaction through the bars. They do not become lonely if they live like that.

The other issue I’m seeing is the changing of the cages daily. Piggies like a stable environment and to know their territory - changing territory every day will be very disruptive to them. If you wish to continue doing this, make sure you are swapping the bedding from each cage every day as well, so they always remain on their own scent laden fleece bedding and not on each others. It helps them recognise a space as their own and doesn’t risk them smelling another pig in their territory. (We don’t recommend any scent swapping particularly when trying to bond two pigs as it can be seen as a hostile situation if they have smelled that other pig in their environment prior to bonding).

I think if you can’t move all cages to be on ground level together now, then mental stimulation will keep them occupied, but bonding with another pig asap really is the only way to ensure the pig on the top cage doesn’t get lonely.

I would also mention that a boar having previously been bonded with a sow may not be willing to go into a bonding with a boar subsequently. It can be seen as a demotion in status. All you can do is try the bonding and see what happens.

Keep us posted on how the bonding goes

 

[emiso]

Oh yes I do move their felts and bedding with them, the only things that change are their houses and toys so they can have new enrichments daily. I will try to move the top cage down though thank you!

I’m hoping that the bonding goes well, they don’t really care for each other through the bars so I’m hoping that means that they won’t feel aggressive towards each other but we will see. I was planning on bonding them over my next long weekend over a minimum of 8 hour period in a different room. I have really been wanting to bond them ASAP but I’ve been so busy, they are all finally getting over their bloat after a bad hay batch but it takes around 3 hours of my day just to do their daily cage cleans and do the floortimes for them not including the work of massaging them until their bloat is 100% gone. I also am trying to get one of them to gain weight right now so there is just a lot going on overall especially after the recent loss, but I assure you I’m trying to get them bonded as soon as I can! If you have any tips on bonding them, please let me know!

 

[Piggies&buns]

How they react/interact between the bars doesn’t give any indication as to how the bonding will go. The bond comes down to character compatibility and until they try to form a hierarchy, they don’t know if they can.

This is our bonding guide which explains how to do it.
The best tip is to read the guide several times - know what you do and don’t want to see! You don’t want to panic at normal dominance and separate unnecessarily. Equally you need to be able to know when to call a failure also!

Good luck

Thread 'Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics'

Jan 23, 2019

1 Introduction
2 Pre-bonding
- Quarantine and sexing
- The need for a plan B
- The rule-breaker: Youngsters under 4 months (sub-teenage)
3 Setting up an introduction
- Getting to know each other
- ‘Buddy baths’ – why not
- Scent swapping - why not
- Setting up a neutral bonding area
- How to start the bonding
4 Acceptance phase: Do we like...

• Wiebke
• Replies: 7
• Forum: Behaviour, Bonds and Species Understanding

•