So my 6 year old neutered male has recently lost his friend. I adopted a new girl from a rescue local to me and attempted to bond them today. I’ve bonded many guinea pigs over the years and believe I know what I’m doing (ive also read the guides a few times over the years) but I’ve never had it go quite like this. Pip himself has been bonded to three different females over the years and is very laid back (although can be a bit humpy at times which was today’s problem).
So we have neutral territory with lots of hay inside. They spent the first 10-15 minutes being fine with eachother although pip was being very persistently humpy but would relax for a minute in between. Then the new girl probably had enough and they had a scuffle and there was lots of teeth chattering, but I let them be as didn’t want to separate too soon. After another scuffle I was tempted to seperate but I thought I’d just let them stay together in the hope it would calm. Then they properly went for eachother and looked like they were actually latched on and were pretty much rolling around in a ball. This only lasted seconds but it was awful. So my question is, is there no going back for them now? I’ve never had a bonding go so badly so I don’t know if it would even be possible to reintroduce at a later date, although I’m thinking probably not and the thought of it stresses me out to be honest.
Just to add I checked them both over and couldn’t see a mark on either of them but it definitely looked like a proper fight to me.
So we have neutral territory with lots of hay inside. They spent the first 10-15 minutes being fine with eachother although pip was being very persistently humpy but would relax for a minute in between. Then the new girl probably had enough and they had a scuffle and there was lots of teeth chattering, but I let them be as didn’t want to separate too soon. After another scuffle I was tempted to seperate but I thought I’d just let them stay together in the hope it would calm. Then they properly went for eachother and looked like they were actually latched on and were pretty much rolling around in a ball. This only lasted seconds but it was awful. So my question is, is there no going back for them now? I’ve never had a bonding go so badly so I don’t know if it would even be possible to reintroduce at a later date, although I’m thinking probably not and the thought of it stresses me out to be honest.
Just to add I checked them both over and couldn’t see a mark on either of them but it definitely looked like a proper fight to me.
