Do Guinea Pigs grieve?

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karonus

karonus

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When we lost Flower my daughter Katy had unconscously placed her body near to sunshine for some time. Sunshine showed some interest and then moved away.

We latter looked at Peter Gurneys pages and saw that he had commented on leaving the lost piggy with its companions to say goodbye.

When we had Sunshine PTS in January I placed her body back in the cage, as Peter had said. We then saw the following take place.

Junior (who we assumed would become the new alpha female of the group) moved forward while moon and star sat back in one corner of the cage. Junior proceeded to spend almost 5 minutes carefully grooming Sunshines face, neck, ears, all of the head area. She then retired and sat on her own in a corner of the cage.

Then moon and star moved forward and proceeded to groom the rest of her body. When they had finished and moved back to their corner we removed Sunshine from the cage.

Has anyone else seen such behaviour, Junior, Moon and Star had been with Sunshine for 2 1/2 years from the age of 8 weeks. Although we lost Junior 3 weeks later while on baytril, she was still eating and drinking I think she was pining for sunshine.

Would be interested in anyone else who has seen what anthropologists would call funeral rites in humans.
 
I haven't seen anything that ritualized, but when we had a bonded pair of guinea pigs and one passed away, the remaining pig definitely knew what had happened. The pig we lost had been sick for several weeks before her death and had repeated vet visits (some of which were dentals under general anasthesia meaning she would be gone for several hours.) Her cagemate would be frantic the whole time she was gone and was obviously looking for her, calling to her by wheeking, etc. When she came home from the vet her cagemate would groom her (something that we didn't normally see at all.) When the sick pig finally passed away, the two were in the pigloo together. I kept getting up at night to check, because I suspected our sick piggie was not going to make it through the night. The last time I checked, the surviving pig had dragged the pigloo off into another corner, moving away from her dead companion. After we took the body out, the surviving pig was very subdued, but what really struck me was she never looked for her friend. She knew she wasn't coming back. It was a real contrast to how panicked she had been during the vet visits. I really do think they are smarter than we give them credit for!
 
Gizmo did this to Piglet who was PTS in september they were always a close pair, they were always with each other. When we brought piglet back from the vet to be buried we put him with gizmo (who by now was very animated at being unable to find his friend) and Gizmo proceeded to wash and groom piglet before sitting in the corner
 
Perhaps by better studying our own pets we can see where our own funeral rituals come from. I cant see any difference to what Gizmo and our piggies did to the old practise of laying out the dead (now carried out of course behind closed doors in funeral parlours).
 
karonus said:
Perhaps by better studying our own pets we can see where our own funeral rituals come from. I cant see any difference to what Gizmo and our piggies did to the old practise of laying out the dead (now carried out of course behind closed doors in funeral parlours).
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I've often thought they are way more sensible than us humans and that we have a lot to learn from them...
 
I would never think to put a "sleeping" piggy back in the cage after it had gone, and if it died in the cage my instinct would tell me to remove it immediately, however my view has changed after reading this, I always thought it would distress piggies to have a dead cage mate in there with them.

When our 2 died, one was in the cage with them for just short of half hour, the other was was put to sleep and never went anywhere near the cage or their mates after.
 
The day before I had Hector PTS his brother Jake kept by his side snuggling all day long, he knew something was wrong. The day Hector was PTS when I brought him home I placed him in the cage and Jake kept up to him and sniffled all round his face and then walked away.
 
They definately know. Merry shunned Pip for weeks before he died of a tumour. I believe he knew the end was near and had already said his goodbyes.

When Merry was dying thoug Suilven didn't know what to do. He was only a baby. We did let him see moo when we brought him home from the vets so he understood. He gave him a sniff and a lick then wanted away from him.

Clever things these pigs. x
 
Moonpig wasn't eating much when Yoshi was poorly, she knew something was very wrong. I didn't want her to spend weeks wondering when/if he was coming back so when I brought him back from the vets to bury him I put them both on the rug in the lounge together so that she could say goodbye and she started to groom him. Broke my heart but I think it helped her to realise that he was gone. 8...
 
When I put Meg back in the cage, so Matilda would realise she had gone, Matilda howled. It was harrowing and made a traumatic event worse. That said I am still glad I did it, as she needed to know.

They were a lovely pair and used to sleep with their heads resting on each other. Whether Matilda likes Minnie, Megs replacement is difficult to know. Most of the time she appears to ignore her. But it is difficult, I think both Matilda and I still miss Meg too much.
 
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