Bring in the girls.

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slackalice2k

slackalice2k

Teenage Guinea Pig
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Hello,

I'm hoping to pick up a couple of girlies who've been advertised on preloved at the weekend. They're heading into mid life and haven't found a home yet, and seeing as I have plenty of room I thought why not.

Because I have paired boys would it maybe be better to keep the girls at the opposite side of the garden for now? I'm so worried it will cause fighting.

Also would like some advice as to whether it would be an idea to have 1 of my single boars neutered with the aim of making a trio of pigs. Though I am a bit concerned about doing this have heard horror stories of aftercare and infections that it's put me off doing it, I was going to wait until spring and try pairing my 2 singles with baby boars.

Oh dear I promised I stick to 6, (with fingers crossed behind my back), and stick to just boys, but these girls need a home through no fault of their own (marriage break up) and I'm a sucker for a sob story.

Any advice will be more than welcome.
 
I keep all my guineas (in pairs, apart from a trio of girls) in the shed regardless of what sex they are. In fact they are housed next to each other and can squeak at the ones next door to them if they want. Obviosuly house the males seperate from the females so you don't get any "surprises".

I have yet to have any fighting (apart from sorting out social order when first paired). So I really don't think you need to put your girls far away from the boys at all.

As for neutering, I considered getting my oldest male "Phoenix" neutered after one of my sows died to keep my remaining girl company. I thought against it because GA's for guinea's are so very bad for them. In the end I ended up getting a baby boar for my older male (as he'd never had a friend and I'd always wanted him to) and a baby sow to keep my older female company.

If I were you, I'd leave your boars alone if they seem happy enough together.
 
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We had our boar neutered and he loves being in with the girlies (he also sorts out any tiffs they may have, and they get extra exercise trying to escape his advances :D ). It depends on how old your single boar is; the younger (e.g. 4-months), the better. I think the operation can be much harder on older ones. I agree that's it a tricky decision to make; we're glad we had ours neutered but that's because it suited our circumstances so well. [We rescued him from a pet shop - he was scabby and thin with mites - we wouldn't have put ourselves in this position, otherwise.]

As to the op, our boar ended up chewing his stitches and we had to take him back to the vet for antibiotics, which we had to syringe feed (as well as a pro-biotic and Critical Care). I put lavender essential oil on his wound after that, because guinea-pigs don't like the smell of lavender; it stopped him from chewing his stitches again (plus lavender is antiseptic and aids healing). I wish I'd thought of this before. The vet told us that once they start chewing their stitches it can be difficult to get them to stop (so it looks like the lavender did help).
 
It depends on how stable you judge you boy-bond to be! The scent of girls especially when in season) where there never has been any can trigger fights.

As to neutering, with a good and experienced vet the vast majority of boys make it and don't have major problems. It is worth asking around for the right vet, though! Like with all ops, you will never be able to completely exclude any risk. Asking local rescues for which vet they would recommend, might not be a bad idea.
 
Well on the whole the 2 pairs I have are stable, it was a bit of a shock to the older pair when they realised they weren't the only piggies in the garden, but it all settled eventually.

I've arranged to go see the girls tommorrow, it seems they were once 4 and are now 2, and will be coming with their hutch with run underneath combo. Warning bells are ringing since I've been told they're not handled much, so we shall see tommorrow.

I'm not making any decisions until I've seen how these girls behave and settle in, should I decide to bring them home (although it is looking exceedingly likely).
 
Well so far so good, Lulu (pink eyed off white) and Daisy (red dutch abby some rex in there too I think) arrived on Saturday, so far I think my boys haven't realised, either that or all they think about is their stomachs. So all is well in their tower.

They came with no food, no hay in the hutch, but they seem in to be in good health, it might just be me being used to big strapping boys but I think they're slightly on the small side for full grown girls. They're clearing their food bowl, just leaving the peas lol, and were tucking into a small pile of carrot and cabbage when I left this morning, I don't want to overface them with veggies because I'm not too sure how often they had them at their previous owners, I did ask but they were pretty vague.

When they're more into the routine I'll take some photo's, they are a bit skittish but will soon come round I hope.

Thanks for all the well wishes.:)
 
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