Could Adding A Female To My Trio Work?

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Swissgreys

Swissgreys

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I have been given the chance to consider homing a 10 week old female.
She is very nervous, and her 2 sisters (who she currently lives with) will be re-homed on the 19th July.

I have 1 male and 2 females in a 2 x 7 C&C.
All of them are between 6-7 months old, and they have a clear, and very stable hierarchy.
There is no obvious 'pair' within the trio, and very rarely any 'bickering', so I would say it is a very solid group. Ruby (the youngest female) is in charge, Lucy (the oldest and biggest female) accepts this, and Eddi just rumble struts around and thinks a lot about blueberries!

So how would adding a young female to this group be likely to affect them?
The last thing I want to do is upset the balance we already have, but if it could work I am also happy to consider trying to introduce this girl to my 3 (following all the guidelines on introductions obviously).

If the introductions do fail then the breeder will willingly take her back, but the real problem is my children*. Whatever happens they will fall wildly in love with her the minute they set eyes on her, and once she is through the front door, I am worried I will never be able to send her back!
But then I really don't want to end up with 2 separate groups either.

*Technically I am blaming the children here, but I also worry that I would be far too useless to return her too.
 
A 10 week old baby is not physically not able to upset the existing hierarchy; she will go straight to the bottom of the group but you may see some rather strong dominance, which all babies experience once their special protection as nursing babies is withdrawn and they are firmly pushed to the bottom of the pecking order - including by their mum.

From 4 piggies onwards, you are dealing with slightly different minigroup dynamics. From my own experiences, the baby is likely to attach itself to one of the older piggies (boar or sows) at first. At that age, they are simply desperate for company and she'll fit in around the others.
 
I had four together and have I introduced four more girls and a neutered boar.They all get along great and I love watching the dynamics of the herd.I have another boy that was castrated a week ago so may be adding another girl with him or taking a couple of girls out of the herd. Haven't decided yet.
 
I honestly feel my group was better off and more balanced by adding a baby for my 4th. It really hasn't added any extra work just more food and hay.
 
Thanks everyone.
The best part is that I knew I could come on here for a totally unbiased opinion :D
DH isn't yet convinced, but I told him I was researching it on TGPF - he may have rolled his eyes :roll:

Even my DD is in on the act - I always joked about having a guinea pig I could actually name myself (previous pigs were rescue and came with a name, or named by the kids) and she keeps telling me now is the chance to finally get 'Oreo'.
I told her that maybe this pig wasn't actually an Oreo (we haven't seen a picture yet), and she said she is certain this pig is 'my Oreo'.

I guess I should start washing things and preparing a neutral territory then.....
 
Sorry to put a dampener on things - you said this guinea pig is from a breeder ? I would never rehome from a breeder
 
PiggyOwner said:
Sorry to put a dampener on things - you said this guinea pig is from a breeder ? I would never rehome from a breeder
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Things are VERY different in Switzerland, @PiggyOwner ! There are much fewer rescues and rescue piggies because of the strict pioneering laws that regulate the sale of pet guinea pigs and prevent unlicensed, uncontrolled breeding (i.e. the backyard breeding that causes so much heart-break in other countries).
I also know from my sister's experience that rescues are (or at least were in the first years after the introduction of the new law) not allowed to rehome single guinea pigs, not even as a companion for a bereaved guinea pig that had been adopted from that rescue!

Shops and breeders can only sell sows and neutered boars, but not full boars, to prevent any accidental or uncontrolled non-licensed breeding; cage sizes have to comply with minimal standard (and any seller of guinea pigs has to make absolutely sure that their guinea pigs only go into proper conditions!). Guinea pigs are not allowed to be sold or owned as singles; their legal requirements are the same as those of good rescues in the UK. The law is strictly enforced and has been voted on by the majority of the population!

Boars in Switzerland are typically neutered as babies just before they reach the age they can start making babies themselves (typically at ca. 200g), so they can live preferably in mixed pairs and groups rather than as boar pairs; this means that there are not many fall-outs. This practice has been in use for about 30 years in German speaking countries, with good experiences. It means that boars can go straight back to their family after the op and heal very fast; there is no painful separation and they can stay on safely and be sold paired up with any sisters at the same age as shop babies in the UK.

It is not at all cheap to get and keep guinea pigs in Switzerland, and both shops and breeders will be prosecuted, fined or even closed down if they break the law. To buy from a Swiss breeder is something very different from buying from a UK breeder; Swiss breeders are where they belong - providing a strictly controlled pool of healthy piggies with any unneutered boars only in the hands of licensed, regularly inspected breeders. As a result, rescue piggies are actually much rarer and not very easy to get hold of! The Swiss have decided not strengthen rescue, but to make sure that very few pets need to come into rescue in the first place. ;)
 
Wiebke said:
Things are VERY different in Switzerland, @PiggyOwner ! There are much fewer rescues and rescue piggies because of the strict pioneering laws that regulate the sale of pet guinea pigs and prevent unlicensed, uncontrolled breeding. I also know from my sister's experience that rescues are not allowed to rehome single guinea pigs, not even to as a companion for a bereaved guinea pig. ;)

Shops and breeder can only sell sows and neutered boars, but not full boars, to prevent any accidental or uncontrolled non-licensed breeding, cage sizes have to comply with minimal standard (and any seller of guinea pigs has to make absolutely sure that their guinea pigs only go into proper conditions!). Guinea pigs are not allowed to be sold or owned as singles; their legal requirements are the same as rescues in UK by law - which is strictly reinforced and has been voted on by the majority of the population!
Boars in Switzerland are typically neutered as babies, so they can live preferably in mixed pairs and groups rather than boar pairs. This practice has been in use for about 30 years in German speaking countries, with good experiences. It means that

It is not at all cheap to get and keep guinea pigs in Switzerland, and both shops and breeders will be prosecuted and find if they break the law. To buy from a Swiss breeder is something very different to buying from a UK breeder; they are where they belong - providing a strictly controlled pool of piggies with unneutered boars only in the hands of licensed breeders. As a result, rescue piggies are a actually much rarer and not very easy to get hold of! ;)
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thanks for letting me know
 
PiggyOwner said:
thanks for letting me know
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Location, location, location... :whistle:

The Swiss have had over a decade now to work out the kinks in their pioneering animal protection law, but they have managed to generally make it work and to ensure that all pets get as good a chance of a decent life as possible.
 
If you have the space and the funds I would definitely go ahead.

I used to have 3 sows and a neutered boar and it was the best decision I ever made!

I am now down to two sows and a neutered boar (a different boar). This is only because I made the decision not to have any more piggies after Enoch and Erika died close together towards the end of last year. But because there is a big age gap between Emma and Ellen and I fell in love with neutered boar Edward who just so happens to be around the same age as Ellen, I just had to have him and it all made sense.

I would love to add another female to go back up to four but I need to stand by my original decision due to personal circumstances.
 
PiggyOwner said:
Sorry to put a dampener on things - you said this guinea pig is from a breeder ? I would never rehome from a breeder
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I think @Wiebke summed it up pretty well (thanks Wiebke :like:).

I would LOVE to get an animal from rescue - in the past I only every had rescue animals (dogs, chinchillas, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, etc) as it is something I feel very strongly about, but in Switzerland it is practically impossible to get hold of a rescue guinea pig - there are very few around due to the compulsory early neutering policy for all boars, and strict animal control laws.

So for now if we want another pig a breeder (whom we have visited in person, seen her set up, and signed a return contact with) or a pet shop (also strictly controlled and requiring proof of your home set up) are the only options. ;)
 
The only downside of a bigger group is more cleaning! I have a neutered boar and 3 sows and l feel like l am always cleaning up their pooh! Switzerland sounds such a great place for animal welfare, it would be great if the UK didn't need rescues, but sadly l can't imagine it
 
pig in the city said:
The only downside of a bigger group is more cleaning! I have a neutered boar and 3 sows and l feel like l am always cleaning up their pooh! Switzerland sounds such a great place for animal welfare, it would be great if the UK didn't need rescues, but sadly l can't imagine it
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Sadly I can't see that happening in the current climate, either... :(

Strong animal protection is something that has come up from the populace in Switzerland; beforehand, we voted down a law from the parliament that most people felt was far too weak with too many loopholes, so parliament had to go over the books again. It would be great if more countries could follow suit and control the overbreeding/import of pets as well as making welfare standards compulsory. But that takes effort and costs money!
 
I just wanted to thank everyone again for all of their advice and support so far, and update you all.

We have decided not to take the little girl we were offered.
I am pretty upset, and the kids are devastated :(

But I misunderstood (my own fault entirely for speaking such rubbish German), and thought that as her sisters were being collected on the 19th July, we would be able to collect her any time before then (it is illegal to keep a guinea pig on their own, so she would have to be collected first).
But what was actually meant is that they would all need to be collected on the 19th, because this is when their 2 week quarantine is up, and they will be checked and cleared by the vet.

Sadly the 19th is only 1 week before we go away on holiday, and I just don't feel that introducing a new member to the group a week before we leave them is a good idea.

So for now we have said no.
But I told the breeder we would still be interested if she is available once we get home from holiday.

We will just have to wait and see I guess.

But on the plus side we have now decided that we are happy to consider taking on a 4th guinea pig, so I envision that is something that will eventually happen.
It might not happen quickly (getting hold of a single pig here is hard, hard, work), but it will work out when it is meant to. :nod:
 
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