New to the forum and Need a bit of advice!

[ccbloom]

Hi everyone,

I hope I've written this in the right place and make sense {:|!

I have 3 guinea pigs at the moment. Two of which I have had for a while, Bella and Button, and are 3yrs and 1 year old. I got them from the RSPCA and don't really know their story but they settled in well and I love them to bits. They live in a Ferplast 120. I decided to rescue another guinea pig as she was on her own and thought I would get her a partner once she settles in, she is 9 months old (has been in the indoor run with my other two guinea pigs while partitioned off and seems desperate to play with them). My new guinea pig Mabel, lives in another cage in the same room and will live in this cage when she gets a wee friend too. Both cages are big enough for 2 each but not for all four so they will not live together in the same cage but I have a large indoor and outdoor run and would love for them to play together.

Would that be ok for them or would they need introduced every time and it end up being cruel to put them together for a good few hours a day then separate the four at night?

Hope this makes sense!
Look forward to any advice!
Thanks!

 

[Stewybus]

If you're getting another female or neutered male, why not link the cages together with tubes or similar. That's of course if they will all bond as a group. You'll need to try them on neutral ground for this. I have 2 groups of 3. One male & two female in each group. I can have the 4 females out happily together & even add one of the males but if the 2 males are together they'll fight. It's a shame really as it would be much better if they were all together as a group. I know people who have large groups of up to 20 piggies with 3 or 4 males among them living happily together. I suppose it's down to the right male to female ratio.

 

[Goth Mummy]

I used to be able to put 4 of my girls in the run together outside, they lived in two groups of two. I never thought about it, just put them together during the day and separated them at night. They seemed fine with it. Your piggies have lovely names

 

[piggyfan]

I personally would not allow them to play together without living together as it could cause them all to fall out. If you make a c and c cage you can make it big enough to house them all. It is lovely to have a herd and watch them interact.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi and welcome!

If you can, try to connect both cages. You can either use short plastic pipes from a builder that connect the two trays or - the easiest solution - a log tunnel to bridge the rims with the adjoining bar sections removed.
This is what I had before I could upgrade to a two story C&C cage (the ramp in the middle was for roaming time). My husband had made two platforms with a ramp that slotted onto the rim of the trays, so the piggies could very comfortably walk from one cage to the other and have dinner on the top:




Unlike boars, sows with a neutered boar will not have to start from square one every time they are separated, but you will have a lot more fun if they can live together all the time! It will also be a lot easier on the piggies and piggy dynamics if they can stay together.

 

[ccbloom]

Thanks so much for all your great replys. The pics were very helpful wiebke and have given me great ideas. For the moment I'll need to separate them at night and let them play during the day but hopefully that will change if I can rearrange the room they in are around a bit! Thanks so much!