Hi we bought two gorgeous piggies from a local pet shop in January. We were told they were both female and about 12 weeks old. They settled quickly and all was well until we realised one was pregnant. We quickly then discovered that we had one male and one female. Fast forward on several weeks, we now have a neutered male living contentedly with a 5 week old baby male and mum is with her 2 female babies. They are thankfully all very healthy. We have found a good home for the 2 baby girls and they leave next week. Our dilemma is now what we do with the other3. We really do not have space for 2 large indoor cages. My son really wants to keep all 3 but this would mean neutering the baby boy and know we are several months away from having them all together. Also not sure if they will all get on. Any thoughts appreciated. We live in the north east of England. Thanks
Hi and welcome!
I am very sorry for your saga and your dilemma!
You can either have ONE neutered boar living with any number of sows or have two boars living as a pair, but you cannot have two boars living with a sow; the latter is a recipe for disaster and bound to end up in fights when it comes to mating time, especially once your baby boy's teenage hormones are kicking in!
As soon as you have got two boys and a number of sows, any solution that involves three guinea pigs or more unfortunately means two groups.
I appreciate from my own experience with unplanned babies that it is never easy to decide which piggy/piggies to let go and you will always feel a twinge and a measure of regret of having had to choose between them...
You could consider having two cages on top of each other (I have got C&C cages on a cheap Ikea tables that fit nicely into a ground floor pen so the ground floor pen is getting plenty of light and is fairly easy to access), but you would need to find a companion for either the son or mum if you were two keep both boars and mum.
Your best bet for a safe solution whichever way round would be to contact one of these two good rescues in the Northeast and to speak to them in order to figure out the best solution for you and your guinea pigs. They are on our list of recommended rescues and we can guarantee that you are in safe and experienced hands with either (and so will any piggies you surrender):
North East Guinea Pig Rescue in South Shields:
NEGPR Home Page or
NEGPR - North East Guinea Pig Rescue Adoption Page
Tees Valley Guinea Pig Rescue:
Tees Valley Guinea Pig Rescue