We have a guinea pig trio (all female) in a cage that is roughly 5.5 feet by 1.5 feet.
They were all from the same litter in the pet shop. My husband and I had done our research prior to getting the guinea pigs and did not come across the fact that this configuration was dysfunctional.
Our question is:
Would it be possible to create harmony by obtaining new guinea pigs?
We had separated the guinea pigs into two cages last night, and it seemed to serve as a short term solution.
Hi!
Have your girls fallen out with each other or are two bullying the third? Unless there is an acute problem, please do not separate.
While a trio is the constellation that is most prone to an outsider problem, it doesn't mean that
every trio is necessarily doomed; there are perfectly happy ones! It all depends on the actual constellation of personalities. The most prone to actual fall-outs is same aged teenage boars, not sows who are much more wired to live together in a core group with a boar of their choice.
If you want to add, consider a neutered boar of their choice if you can get to a rescue that has them and allows rescue dating. That way, the piggies can decide by themselves if they get on and you do not end up with further headaches from fudging around on your own. Any small groups rely much more on the personalities being compatible, which is much harder to achieve if you have to make the decisions. Please do not break what is not broken!
One of my groups included triplet litter sisters. While they had their squabbly times, especially during puberty and young adulthood, they never needed separating. Sadly I lost Myfina over Christmas; they will be 4 years old next month. They live with a neutered boar that has been their nursery nurse/daddy since when I adopted them from a sanctuary aged 8 weeks. The two remaining sisters together with 5 year old Bedo are a very stable and closely bonded trio.
I currently also have another happy trio in the form of sisters Ffwlbri and Tesni (who are celebrating their 7th birthday in February) with their now 2 year old 'toy boy' Gethin, who absolutely adores his two ladies.
