Death in the family, advise needed

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Guinea Mama's

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I just joined the forum and I do have a question. Unfortunately, my sister lost one of her two girls this morning. I have two girls as well and I'm thinking I should try to put them together. How long do you think I should wait before trying to do this?

My Tegan is about 4, Penny is about 3.5 and her Shirley is about 5 so they are kind of close in age. I just don't want to try it too fast so she won't have enough mourning time but I don't want to wait too long so she gets too depressed. I read on a site that a week or two is usually good but I was curious to know what others thought or if that is the "norm."

Thank you for reading
 
Hey, sorry for your sisters loss. Its so horrible loosing a piggie. I dont know what to suggest apart from your own personal opinion. Piggies can get very down when they loose a companion. See how she goes, if shes really depressed now, maybe consider introducing them in the next few days on neutral terratory. If shes not too bad, maybe leave it a week or so. The quicker the lone piggie gets a friend the better, but i understand your concern over leaving her time to get over it/grieve. Unfortunatly we cant ask piggies like we can humans when they are ready. But you and your sister will know her best. So maybe see how she goes? Older pigs are usually a little bit harder to bond, but all being girls it usually shouldnt be a problem. Just ensure that where you make introductions its completely neutral to them. Give them all plenty to munch on and some tubes and hides and watch them closely.

Good luck.

xx.
 
Hmm... This is hard to answer. I think there will be many people here that can give you a better idea on how long you should wait than I, but I'll offer up my opinion anyway, see if it helps.

We had a pair of a 4yo sow and an 8 year old boar indoors after the girl was ill and had to be spayed and the boar was generally a very frail old man, so we paired them together. Unfortunately I was at uni when this happened and my mum and dad didn't know as much as I did about piggies. Anyway, the old man passed away one night, and as he and my girl were VERY close, my lovely sow sank very quickly into a deep depression that my parents didn't know how to deal with. Unfortunately she went off her food and went from happy chirpy fat guinea pig to slighly thin pig in the space of a week and a half. She unfortunately passed away. She did see a vet and the vet said that she was grieving and as force feeding her wasn't working, nor was lots of love and huggles from my dad, it was best to leave her to grieve. I honestly believe she died of a broken heart.

If that were to happen to me again, I'd do my best to find the 'widow' a friend to live with as soon as possible, as this can prevent depression setting in. Your sisters' girl needs her cage blasting, to remove any smell of her friend, a bath would be an idea too. She also needs her cage changing round to give her something new to think about and lots of love and cuddles!

I hope she's okay and not grieving too badly!
 
Thank you ghostbusterbunny and abi_nurse for the info. We will be keeping a very close eye on her and right now, of course, she looks horrible and so sad. I feel so bad for her. We'll see if she starts eating again by tomorrow and if not, we'll try some intros tomorrow.

Thank you again.
 
Really sorry to hear about your sister's little piggie 8...8...8...
You've received some great advice...........
If you have a read of Wiebke's bonding and rebonding that might help too

http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38562

Otherwise as suggested get Shirley a friend.......all the best xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 
I'd be tempted to try tomorrow if your sister's pig is offher food hon x x
 
Of course, and she has been doing much better the last few hours but we are going to try to introduce them tomorrow for sure. I'm going to build a bigger cage so they even have a new cage to get acclimated with together if things work out in the meeting before hand. It will be a busy day.
 
Guinea Mama's said:
Of course, and she has been doing much better the last few hours but we are going to try to introduce them tomorrow for sure. I'm going to build a bigger cage so they even have a new cage to get acclimated with together if things work out in the meeting before hand. It will be a busy day.
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awww best of luck love, let us know how it all goes :)
 
Awwww.... I'm sorry for your loss. When our pair of girls was about 18 months old, one of them unexpectedly became sick and passed away from complications from major dental issues. The remaining pig was obviously affected... she continued to eat, but was very subdued and just seemed sad. We got a friend for her pretty soon after the loss, but went through a two month quarantine period to make sure the new piggie did not have any communicable illnesses. The first time she saw her new friend, it was amazing how quickly she perked up- she wheeked and popcorned at the bars of the cage when she spied the other piggie from across the room. We did introductions on neutral territory and the two got along quite well... we did have to scrub out the cage completely and rearrange it to keep the older pig from trying to chase her new roommate off 'her' territory. Once the cage seemed like new, she was very happy to accept a new friend! Hope all goes well with the introductions... keep us posted!
 
My biggest worry with the intros is my Tegan. Most of the time, when Tegan would be introduced with another pig, the other pig would attack her because she's different. I hope that doesn't happen today. I'll let you guys all know how it goes.
 
Well so far so good. We did let them meet and it started ok while they were eating and then Shirley, the now single one, started attacking my two so we have them in the same room now, separate cages, and we are going to try the bath tomorrow and give them the night to calm down. My girls were so scared of her after she started getting crazy like that. I feel so bad for her.
 
Well the intros started pretty good. I had food involved so they had something to focus on and when things started to get a bit too hairy I separated them again for the night. Then they got a bath together and had time to run together for a bit. I scrubbed the cage before putting them all in together with all new toys and everything but Shirley, the single one, started to put Tegan, my "broken one," in her place, Penny, my other one, did not agree with that. Penny started attacking Shirley and while I let the posturing and what not go for a while, I couldn't leave them together anymore after Shirley was so afraid she has herself frozen in the corner of the cage, shaking. So, for now, the cage is divided so everyone can see each other but no one can get hurt. They seem to be by the divider a lot to see each other so I'm going to let them play again for a while tomorrow. Maybe they just need to take this slow and if not they will at least be able to see each other for the rest of their lives. At least Shirley is doing much better.
 
Guinea Mama's said:
Well the intros started pretty good. I had food involved so they had something to focus on and when things started to get a bit too hairy I separated them again for the night. Then they got a bath together and had time to run together for a bit. I scrubbed the cage before putting them all in together with all new toys and everything but Shirley, the single one, started to put Tegan, my "broken one," in her place, Penny, my other one, did not agree with that. Penny started attacking Shirley and while I let the posturing and what not go for a while, I couldn't leave them together anymore after Shirley was so afraid she has herself frozen in the corner of the cage, shaking. So, for now, the cage is divided so everyone can see each other but no one can get hurt. They seem to be by the divider a lot to see each other so I'm going to let them play again for a while tomorrow. Maybe they just need to take this slow and if not they will at least be able to see each other for the rest of their lives. At least Shirley is doing much better.
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I'm sorry things didn't work out like you hoped :( sonds like you did everything you could.
At least they can see each other and chat away :)
They might tolerate playtime together.....but see how things go.
Only thing is to get Shirley a new friend if you can, but let her choose.
 
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