I've got this urge to adopt another Guinea pig or too

[Tara95]

I will consider fostering. I presume you just contact any rescue and register your interest? Are there lots of guineapigs desperate to be fostered? Or does it not work like that? If I was so say foster two sows and I let them interact through the bars for a few months and say I considered bonding them eventually with my herd so they would all have more space. Would I be able to keep my foster guinea pigs? Or would I have to give them back? In the future for example. Xx

 

[Piggies&buns]

It would depend on the rescue centres situation as to whether they needed any foster carers. It’s going to be sporadic sometimes large intakes will mean they need more, but then they may not need any for months.

I’m sure many Foster carers do end up keeping some of the animals the foster, but it is generally intended to just be a short term thing before the animals are rehomed.
Rescue centres use foster carers due to lack of space in the rescue centre so they go to private homes to be cared for until theyve got more space in the centre and can take them back or until they are rehomed; piggies who are ill/recovering and need extra care during that time; or post neuter boars just having their six week wait before being rehomed, for example.
Dependent on the situation, you may need to keep any foster piggies away from your own in case of transmission of illness.

If you wanted to keep foster piggies, you would have to go through the adoption process still, and then of course there is a the risks as above with them not being accepted into your herd. Living with through the bar interaction is not a way to gauge whether your herd would accept any newcomers. You would merely be looking after any foster piggies until they went to their permanent homes

 

[flowerfairy]

Honestly I have been tempted to get more and more animals just cos ... well cuteness really and wanting to give a good home to an older bereved sow (this happened twice).

I did have 7 guinea pigs for a while (until the elderly sows passed). It was amazing doing the bondings and watching the herd interacting but it was a lot more poo to clean and nails to cut.

I am staying with 5. More relaxing.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[PigglePuggle]

I always thought "I can just add another to the herd..." until, Tallulah bat hippo skinny pig! We have a happy herd of 6, all bonded and settled, then piggy daddy heard of a friend of a friend who had taken in 2 unwanted pregnant skinny pigs who had babies... Tallulah aged 8 weeks old attacked our boss lady and 2 of my other piggies, and they fought back, and within 5 minutes of attempted bonding I was phoning the emergency vet and mopping up pools of blood and ripped fur! Then Tallulah got an abscess from one of the bite wounds... and it all got very stressful and expensive and at one point almost fatal... and then, she was still on her own, and had to go dating, get her own cage and friend...
This was a big lesson for me in "but we have space for another in that big cage"- I now have 8 piggies, with Tallulah and Ollie living in their own cage, in a different room... once you need to do the "permanent plan B" (plus vet bills and worry after a serious fight, like snarling tigers they were!) it does rather dampen the urge for just one more

 

[Tara95]

Did all 7 get on okay? And did

Honestly I have been tempted to get more and more animals just cos ... well cuteness really and wanting to give a good home to an older bereved sow (this happened twice).

I did have 7 guinea pigs for a while (until the elderly sows passed). It was amazing doing the bondings and watching the herd interacting but it was a lot more poo to clean and nails to cut.

I am staying with 5. More relaxing.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Thank you Did all 7 get along okay? And did
you notice much difference in terms of interaction/more interesting to watch 7 than 5? I've Always been tempted to add more, Winston and Boo were impulse buys as well but worked out for the best. I'm pretty sure 5 is my limit in my head but the heart wants a zoo Xx

 

[Tara95]

I always thought "I can just add another to the herd..." until, Tallulah bat hippo skinny pig! We have a happy herd of 6, all bonded and settled, then piggy daddy heard of a friend of a friend who had taken in 2 unwanted pregnant skinny pigs who had babies... Tallulah aged 8 weeks old attacked our boss lady and 2 of my other piggies, and they fought back, and within 5 minutes of attempted bonding I was phoning the emergency vet and mopping up pools of blood and ripped fur! Then Tallulah got an abscess from one of the bite wounds... and it all got very stressful and expensive and at one point almost fatal... and then, she was still on her own, and had to go dating, get her own cage and friend...
This was a big lesson for me in "but we have space for another in that big cage"- I now have 8 piggies, with Tallulah and Ollie living in their own cage, in a different room... once you need to do the "permanent plan B" (plus vet bills and worry after a serious fight, like snarling tigers they were!) it does rather dampen the urge for just one more

Wow, well that's definitely a lesson learned for me! I think I needed to hear a real experience of it not working out as my plan B is not what I want (e.g to reduce space and seperate pigs perhaps permanently) and that sounds incredibly stressful. I've always heard relatively good things about sow herds about how they're so much less aggressive than boars and easier to bond but as you say all it takes is one particular agressive female to break up a herd. I've been relatively lucky with bondings, initially bonded two seperate sets of sows and it went well. Then I recently bonded my herd of four sows with my most recent additions neuteured brother and that's gone really well. Only so long before my luck runs out though perhaps. Thank you for advice xx

 

[flowerfairy]

My herd of 7 all got along really well. I was lucky.

Adding more is always a risk.