GimmeGuinea
New Born Pup
Following my initial thread, which can be found here...
I have now reached a stage where bonding is finally going to happen soon.
First the boar had to be 6 months before neutering could be done, then I was told by the vet that he had to be at least 1kg, because otherwise there could be complications. At 6 months his weight was 934 grams. So, it took another month or so. The neutering went well. On bonding day, it will then be 7 weeks post operation so all should be safe.
The current situation is as follows:
The husboar is dominant. His mother is also dominant, who never expresses dominance towards him across the divider. Not in the play area, nor in their cage. His sister is submissive. Lately she is becoming more dominant towards the mother only. This is infrequent and the mother accepts it, and it looks as if they are playing. The husboar can only watch although he rumble-struts along and bites the bars letting them know that he wants to be part of it.
The ‘territorial border lie-in’ that I read about here; is something that the husboar does often, his sister sometimes and his mother never strangely enough. This I think is a good indication of a potentially successful bonding.
He regularly touches noses with his sister through the divider. He also does the same with his mother and I do not notice any aggression and the dominance only comes from him then. The mother even popcorns after doing so sometimes. The divider, I reduced to a single grid about a week ago in both their cage and play pen. This allows for better interaction and I am certain it is beneficial to them pre-bonding day.
The neutral ground where they will re-unite and do the bonding is the play pen in another room at the moment. They are used to go there sometimes for the past half year or so. There has always been a divider in there of course as well. They play area will be re-build in the room their cage is in shortly after bonding day. I believe it is a good thing that bonding does not take place in the same room as their cage is in and based on experience.
I read that generally I should put a larger/likely more dominant piggy or a group in the play pen first when introducing newbies. However in this case, there are no real newbies. I would say that the husboar will be the newbie in the mother/daughter group.
Therefore, I am intending to put his sister in first, then the mother and then add the husboar. They often go in, in that order anyway. Now, the sows will know something is up since the divider is gone and it looks different, bigger and emptier, and it is entirely clean. Another reason for doing it this way, is that the husboar is sometimes reluctant to come out of his cage. Once his mother and sister go before him, he is more eager to come along.
Now on to my questions;
They normally have three water bottles attached to the play pen, two for the sows and one for the husboar.
1. Should I attach cleaned bottles to the play area before the bonding begins or some time after, or should I start with having two clean water bowl in the play pen instead which does not remind them of their current cage?
2. ls it a good idea to start with two kinds of their regular hay and some fresh grass?
I bought two brand new hideys that only have one entry/exit. I will not use these initially in the cage after successful bonding. I will instead use two different size cardboard boxes, a square one with two exits, and one rectangular with three exits. The old hideys will be used in their play pen later on. In total there will be four hideys with multiple exits. I read that in case of bonding gone well in the play pen, I can move them to the cage together and leave them together. And that at that point I can add hideys back into the cage.
3. Is it therefore better to add the four hideys once they are all together after 10 minutes or so?
4. How many days do the two temporary 2+ exit hideys need to stay in before I can replace them with the two newly bought 1 exit hideys?
What if bonding fails in the play pen, and I place them in the newly setup and arranged cage, that is totally cleaned out as well as a 2nd attempt with all four hideys with multiple exits.
5. Could there still be a chance that they could get along there and then?
I do not expect this be necessary, but it would be my plan B for now. Plan C, I do not want to think about since that will be the same set up as they are used to. With the divider back in place.
Here are several reasons why a successful bonding benefits me as guinea pigs owner;
I have now reached a stage where bonding is finally going to happen soon.
First the boar had to be 6 months before neutering could be done, then I was told by the vet that he had to be at least 1kg, because otherwise there could be complications. At 6 months his weight was 934 grams. So, it took another month or so. The neutering went well. On bonding day, it will then be 7 weeks post operation so all should be safe.
The current situation is as follows:
The husboar is dominant. His mother is also dominant, who never expresses dominance towards him across the divider. Not in the play area, nor in their cage. His sister is submissive. Lately she is becoming more dominant towards the mother only. This is infrequent and the mother accepts it, and it looks as if they are playing. The husboar can only watch although he rumble-struts along and bites the bars letting them know that he wants to be part of it.
The ‘territorial border lie-in’ that I read about here; is something that the husboar does often, his sister sometimes and his mother never strangely enough. This I think is a good indication of a potentially successful bonding.
He regularly touches noses with his sister through the divider. He also does the same with his mother and I do not notice any aggression and the dominance only comes from him then. The mother even popcorns after doing so sometimes. The divider, I reduced to a single grid about a week ago in both their cage and play pen. This allows for better interaction and I am certain it is beneficial to them pre-bonding day.
The neutral ground where they will re-unite and do the bonding is the play pen in another room at the moment. They are used to go there sometimes for the past half year or so. There has always been a divider in there of course as well. They play area will be re-build in the room their cage is in shortly after bonding day. I believe it is a good thing that bonding does not take place in the same room as their cage is in and based on experience.
I read that generally I should put a larger/likely more dominant piggy or a group in the play pen first when introducing newbies. However in this case, there are no real newbies. I would say that the husboar will be the newbie in the mother/daughter group.
Therefore, I am intending to put his sister in first, then the mother and then add the husboar. They often go in, in that order anyway. Now, the sows will know something is up since the divider is gone and it looks different, bigger and emptier, and it is entirely clean. Another reason for doing it this way, is that the husboar is sometimes reluctant to come out of his cage. Once his mother and sister go before him, he is more eager to come along.
Now on to my questions;
They normally have three water bottles attached to the play pen, two for the sows and one for the husboar.
1. Should I attach cleaned bottles to the play area before the bonding begins or some time after, or should I start with having two clean water bowl in the play pen instead which does not remind them of their current cage?
2. ls it a good idea to start with two kinds of their regular hay and some fresh grass?
I bought two brand new hideys that only have one entry/exit. I will not use these initially in the cage after successful bonding. I will instead use two different size cardboard boxes, a square one with two exits, and one rectangular with three exits. The old hideys will be used in their play pen later on. In total there will be four hideys with multiple exits. I read that in case of bonding gone well in the play pen, I can move them to the cage together and leave them together. And that at that point I can add hideys back into the cage.
3. Is it therefore better to add the four hideys once they are all together after 10 minutes or so?
4. How many days do the two temporary 2+ exit hideys need to stay in before I can replace them with the two newly bought 1 exit hideys?
What if bonding fails in the play pen, and I place them in the newly setup and arranged cage, that is totally cleaned out as well as a 2nd attempt with all four hideys with multiple exits.
5. Could there still be a chance that they could get along there and then?
I do not expect this be necessary, but it would be my plan B for now. Plan C, I do not want to think about since that will be the same set up as they are used to. With the divider back in place.
Here are several reasons why a successful bonding benefits me as guinea pigs owner;
- Cage cleaning will go a lot easier and quicker
- Less waste of hay. What the husboar now does not want to eat, the sows will have no problem eating. He is very picky when it comes to what hay bits he want to eat
- Only two water bottles instead of three
- No more bar biting after 8 months! Preventing teeth problems for the husboar and less stress and annoyance for me and potentially the sows as well. His teeth were checked on neutering day and all was fine then
- Living with happier guinea pigs and experiencing more fun and interesting dynamics and interactions between them
- Neutering was not done in vain
