keeping a large herd of Guinea Pigs

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gypsie

gypsie

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I am the proud owner of 4 lovely GP 2 neutered females and a neutered male and a un-neutered female, i have spent the last few weeks introducing them as a group as they previously lived in pairs, this took a bit of time as my neutered male is a complete sex pest and use to drive 2 of my girls crazy with his humping, thankfully this has now settled down and all seems to be peaceful.
They will soon be going outside in a large run and and pen as a group when the weather gets warmer.
The question I have is I would very much like to add to the GP family as I use to have 7 GP but they lived in pairs as they were mostly males.
The question I have for those of you that have large GP groups is how many do you have living in one area and how big an area do you have?
Do you have problems with fighting because you have a larger group?
How best would you introduce the new GP's one at a time or a couple at one time?
I love my GP's and would love to add to the group but dont want to upset the balance I have now.
I will look forward to your replys and if any one can post pictures of their groups i would love to see the set ups and and lots of lovely GP's
 
Hi gypsie!
Sounds like you've done really well with the introductions and bonding of your pigs. I have 6 pigs, 4 females and 2 males, all are in pairs in 120 cages. I have tried a few times to bond the girls as a group but so far have been unsuccessful, unless they are in the run for garden time. I will try again when it warms up as I've bought a big outdoor hutch and run combo for them.
Bonding younger pigs with your current pigs is probably you best option, maybe introduce to each pig seperately to avoid the adults fighting over who's going to show the new one who's boss x
 
I agree once they have all settled as a group i think a younger girl would work best but obviously there are no guarantees it will work out as you want but i know there are lots of people out there with larger groups :) I think introducing a new piggy to the dominant pig is probably best first as the others will follow suit :)
 
Hi! Great that your group merger has worked! Please give your quarted time to settle down together first for a few weeks.

I currently have three groups of sows with a neutered boar each. The largest, my Tribe, currently consists of 12 sows and a rather dominant "husboar". I have built it up slowly over the last 4 years. The other are a quartet consisting of three formidable cataract sows and their gentle husboar, and an older neutered boar (who had lost his own sowfes) living with four of my sows for whom the Tribe has become too much due to age or chronic health problems.
This is my set up; all groups also get roaming time in the living room in turn.
IMG_5043_edited-1_zpsc406da15.jpg


From 4-5 piggies onwards, piggies start showing group behaviour. Generally, the more piggies you have, the easier it is to add to a group - with some notable exceptions! I have always been very careful to research the background of my rescue sows to make sure that they had been either living in a big group or were not dominant; not all sows will profit from living in a group, and you have accept that. A difficult/aggressive sow can upset the whole group massively and can cause stress related illnesses or skin problems like mites.

Age is not so much an issue (I have added anything from babies to 4-5 year olds successfully), but with a small group like yours I would recommend adding a couple of younger sows first in order to not upset the hierarchy until you have a larger group whose dynamics are different again; a pair of already bonded sows have each other to fall back on and you can neatly avoid the dreaded outsider problem that can dog small groups. You can always try dating your group at a good rescue if you are unsure, especially at first; it can save you quite some headaches and sleepless nights!
(PS: I would strongly recommend getting your piggies from good rescues where people know the characters of their piggies, care about their future home and you do not run the risk of ending up with ASBO girls or potentially pregnant sows and the whole can of worms THAT can involve!)

Bonding can take anything from instantly to several weeks working up to it with some very difficult sows. I have had one failed bonding so far, and a couple that I knew would be very borderline and that took all my accumulated experience indeed; in one case I had to find an alternative solution, but that sow is now very happy in a different group created around her! Often, the bonding itself takes more than one day if the general level of tension is still too high (or starting to escalate) to leave the piggies unsupervised for the night; tempers are often more relaxed on the second day, but no bonding is ever the same.
I prefer to give any new sows, single or couples, time to settle into their own surroundings next to their new friends for a day or two. That way, the piggies can get to know each other through the bars, and the newbie has time to get the hang of the new routine. it cuts down on extraneous stress factors during the bonding, which could lead to overreactions and scuffles.
On average, it takes about two weeks for the dominance phase in which the new hierarchy is established. you will notice that
PS: Here are more tips for bonding: http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/...FAQ-Introducing-and-reintroducing-guinea-pigs
 
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I have a herd of 11, made up of 1 neutered boar and 10 sows, they live in a free range set up in the living room with C&C areas and hay kitchens. I agree with Wiebke in that it is best to build up the numbers slowly and you will find that not all pigs will be accepted into the herd, that's how we ended up with a separate girl pair and then we had 1 sow who hated all other pigs so lived next to them and enjoyed taunting them through the grids, bless her.
 
I prefer to keep all my sows living together...means I have more space for single and paired boars! :)) I used to have a herd of 10 sows and a neutered boar, and then a sow who lived with her own neutered boar because she didn't like the company of anyone else. I currently have 13 sows who I'll be putting together soon (they've been split up due to being newcomers and one had fungal...so she was separated off :) ) they'll probably go in two groups though :) as I have two dominant sows.

As others have warned, the main issue is dominant sows...as they can do more damage to each other than boars can! I prefer pairing boars up to sows! :)) and even sows who seem very laid back with you may not necessarily be laid back as part of a group. Sometimes it might be necessary to try introducing sows together a few times before the dominant behaviour calms down, the most aggressive sows I've had sometimes I've put on their own (but close to other pigs) so that they want the company when they're tried again, and I've found this can work in extreme cases...but you will always get one sow who just doesn't like company!
 
One of mine, Shy, is such a nice piggy on her own, in an indoor group though she turns ferral. It's quite spectacular to watch her body language (as long as nobody gets hurt)!

I hope the fungal makes a swift exit Squidge, it's a pain in the backside isn't it x
 
KaitRoo said:
One of mine, Shy, is such a nice piggy on her own, in an indoor group though she turns ferral. It's quite spectacular to watch her body language (as long as nobody gets hurt)!

I hope the fungal makes a swift exit Squidge, it's a pain in the backside isn't it x
Click to expand...

yes me too, only a baldy nose...but still not nice for the piggies :(
 
Best of luck with your merger and the fungal, Squidge!

I must have done close to 30 bondings now, but the one thing I have learned is that it doesn't get any easier - you only get better at reading the situation and knowing when to let the piggies sort themselves out or when to intervene in order to prevent WWIII... and which bondings might work out in the end or which may need alternative solutions. And that you can never tell beforehand how piggies react when they meet! Hence my recommendation to date while you are still building up your group and are learning the ropes. A rescue will take a piggy back if things don't work out.

I have just made it through the whole upset of having my old top sow deposed by an ambitious younger one (at the cost of a stress related outbreak of mites) and adding a couple of girls, one of whom was perfectly fine in a pair, but very confrontational once the dominance sort out started; she needed time out and a gradual second intro over several days. There can be times when you could just sit and cry!

I cannot emphasise how important it is to do your "homework" before acquiring piggies. With every setting (unless you have the space, time and money to cater for any situation), you can satisfy only so many piggies with their strong personalities and intricate social life. There are so many piggies looking for a loving home in rescues that you'd do well to concentrate on just one aspect; you will find that over time you'll end up with side groups, pairs or singles, anyway, as the group dynamics change and your piggies age or become ill, or you end up with a sow that is just not fitting in or happy with a bigger group.

There are also some downsides to having a big group, which you should consider - you will find that illness (and death) comes in waves, so you'll have very expensive times when you feel you might as well rent a tent in your vet's waiting room and hand over your purse! Parasites like mites or fungal (especially highly infectious ringworm which can spread to other mammals, including humans) can be a real nightmare.

You will also find that guinea pigs living in a group are much less human orientated than in a pair. On the other hand, watching a fully functioning group living a happy piggy life that allows all their highly developed social behaviours to flourish is a very special blessing indeed!
 
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Thank you every one for your advice this is why I come on this forum, it has been very interesting hearing the pros and cons to a big group, at the moment the group I have bonded are in the early stages so I wouldnt look to adding anyone in for a while yet as within the group 2 of the females took quite a while to settle together.
I think i may look at getting another pair and then running them next to each other to see how they get on giving them all plenty of time and space to get to know each other, I have plenty of room and accomodation if things dont work out so I am not to worried if i dont manage a large group but I do love to see them all togther last night I sat watching them and they all lay down together resting it was such a wonderful sight that i didnt dare move for ages as I didnt want to disturb that magic moment.
 
They may do better introducing 2 new pigs gradually and seperately, if you do decide on a pre-bonded pair then be prepared for it not to work and have a seperate cage lined up. The worst pre -bonded pair to introduce to a new group would be a mother and baby, as mothers can be such lovely natured pigs but incredibly protective of their offspring, especially in a group situation x
 
I had a fabulous herd of 21 sows and one neutered boar LOL poor thing, it worked super except for one runty Abyssinian little cow Rusty was her name and she ruled that pen i can tell you. every time i got a new rescue in they would have to bond with rusty before they went into a the pen, the longest for her to bond to took just over a month. Love the pics though. its great having lots especially when they all start to sing.
 
it most certainly was, but she was such an amazing girl i would have bent over backwards for that piggy.
 
I've put some of my sows together today, the one with fungal and those with her are still separate, but so far 6 in together and all is going well :) the bossy one isn't being too bossy for her :)) but then she knows 4 of the sows already :)
 
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