Hi! I have currently got a single piggy that was found on the grounds of a cricket club last year.
Unfortunately, it has quickly become very obvious that Beryn must have been kept as a single guinea pig because she really struggles with bonding. She is currently in a pen with four adjoining cages, so she has plenty of interaction through the bars, which she is enjoying. It is the price she has to pay for being being somebody's beloved only pig before she was betrayed.
Guinea pigs are group animals. We are only just now starting to understand just how differentiated and vital their social interaction is. if you can, please get her a mate of her own kind. You just cannot give her the 24/7 companionship and stimulation that she needs for her whole life, and you just cannot replace the multi-level social interaction that guinea pigs instinctively understand and so heavily rely on.
Even Beryn is a lot less needy and attention seeking since she has piggy neighbours to flirt with and hurl abuse at if she had an accidental face to face meeting on the roaming ground. I haven't completely given up on finding her the perfect mate eventually, but it is not going to be an easy task. she is already a lot happier with having piggy neighbours, but I sincerely hope that I can make her even happier with finding her a mate to cuddle up with and be a full piggy at some point. Unless you see how your piggy is with others and how she suddenly comes alive in ways, you cannot imagine what having company of their own kind really means!
Please put your piggy's needs before your own desires and don't wait too long until it is too late for your piggy, too! It is not you who pays the price, but your piggy that relies on you day and night, every day of its life, whether you are at school/working, having a social life and falling in love...
Guinea pigs live 5-7 years, but they can live longer. One of my current piggies is turning 9 years this month. Are you sure that you'll still have time to be around for her during the day and interact with her for several hours every single day?
There are a very few single piggies that truly do not get on with other piggies, but that should be their own decision and never their owners'. There are sadly far too many shop personnel that have not the first idea (nor do they care) about the needs of the pets they are selling. They can't bond or re-bond piggies and are condemning them to a single life because of their ignorance.
Sadly even 10 years on, Switzerland is still the only country where it is legally forbidden to keep or sell single guinea pigs - but the pioneering animal protection law did come about through people power and the people's vote. Animal and pet protection is not exactly high on any government agenda.
I am sorry that it is not the confirmation you'd like to hear. Single guinea pigs are not unhappy in themselves because they don't know what they lack until they meet others of their own kind; they just get on with life.
It is you who has to make the conscious decision to withhold a vital part of what she is and could be from her. Ultimately, you deprive yourself of the interaction that is making guinea pigs so unique and endearing, too.
Guinea Pig Facts - A Short Overview
Companionship
