Introducing new guinea pigs:)

[natk]

Hi,

I need some more advice I'm thinking of extending my piggie family.

I have an almost 4 month old female guinea pig, and want to provide her with a friend. I have heard it is better to introduce the same sex. I have a hutch from a pet store, but as an addition (havent had it for this one as it has been very difficult to source it out here in Australia) I am going to add c & C grids: 3 by 6.

How do I go about introducing a new friend, to ensure it goes peacefully, and none of the pigs are upset or hurt in the process. My girl is very tame and a very relaxed manner, so I dont want to take that away from her, but I think she deserves a companion

The guinea pig I bring home will be from the same breeder I bought my girl from and will be around 5 or 6 weeks old (the normal age your allowed to take them from their mother)

Good and accurate advice would be very much appreciated. Oh, shes an indoor guinea pig if you needed that info

 

[doglovinpiggylover]

bump

 

[korryn92]

I have never introduced a piggy before but will be doing so soon so have been doing a lot of research lately. The threads on the forum are a lot of help. Especially the sticky's at the top of the behavior page. I also when to cavyspirit.com and read the guinea pig social life section which has a lot of great tips on introducing piggies to each other. I hope this helped! Hopefully someone with more experience (or at least some lol) will come one here and go through the basics with you.

 

[Wiebke]

Here are some tips: http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38562

If you can get to a rescue that allows you to bring your girl to meet rescue girls under expert supervision and find the one she gets on best, that would be by far the most risk free way. However, I don't know whether piggy dating is possible.

Otherwise, please amke sure that a newbie is quarantined if necessary and is also given time to settle next to your existing girl. The more stress factors you can take out of the equation the more successful and smoothly the intro proper.

Here is a list of Australian guinea pig rescues:
New South Wales:
- Australian Cavy Sanctuary: http://www.australiancavysanctuary.com/ (Melbourne)
- BSA Rescue Albury: https://www.facebook.com/bsa.rescue

Queensland:
- Australian Cavy Sanctuary: http://www.australiancavysanctuary.com/ (Brisbane)
- Gold Coast Guinea Pig Rescue: http://www.gcgpr.com.au/
- Cavy Angel's Guinea Pig Rescue: http://www.cavyangelsguineapigrescue.com/
- Palm View Guinea Pig Shelter: http://www.acslakesshelter.com/HOME-PAGE.html

List of country-wide guinea pig rescues:
(The ethics of each listed rescue could not be vouched for by my informant due to lack of personal knowledge but they have all a certain standard): http://guineapigsaustralia.com/recommended rescues.htm

Here is a further list of rescues and shelters from all over Australia:
http://www.petrescue.com.au/rescue_directory/