Requirements for two girl gps?

[hrsrdr]

Hi all! So I've been inactive lately between being busy and grieving Coco

Anyway, I took some time to grieve, and am just now looking into getting more piggies! With Coco, I only ever had him. Every time I started thinking about getting him a friend, he'd get sick, and I'd put if off. Now though, I want to get two female piggies. I just wanted to check that I had everything I needed, and if yalls got any tips on having two females, I'd love them!

My set up consists of an 11 square foot cage, three hidies, multiple locations for hay, one water bottle, and one bowl for veggies, along with fleece bedding.

If you guys could let me know if that sounds ok, that would be great, and any tips are appreciated!

 

[Wiebke]

Hi all! So I've been inactive lately between being busy and grieving Coco

Anyway, I took some time to grieve, and am just now looking into getting more piggies! With Coco, I only ever had him. Every time I started thinking about getting him a friend, he'd get sick, and I'd put if off. Now though, I want to get two female piggies. I just wanted to check that I had everything I needed, and if yalls got any tips on having two females, I'd love them!

My set up consists of an 11 square foot cage, three hidies, multiple locations for hay, one water bottle, and one bowl for veggies, along with fleece bedding.

If you guys could let me know if that sounds ok, that would be great, and any tips are appreciated!

That sounds fine.

Please serve veg and pellets ideally in a bowl each per piggy and remove between meals or consider feeding in different ways as enrichment.
Enrichment Ideas for Guinea Pigs

I would strongly recommend (if you can) to adopt from a good welfare standard guinea pig rescue with a mandatory quarantine and a pregnancy watch to avoid any unplanned surprises that sows from other places can come with; I'd rather not see you in our pregnancy section if at all possible!
When adopting piggies from a good standard rescue then gender or age are a lot less important. Each gender has their own issues and challenges.
Please accept that anybody in the English speaking world can call themselves a rescue or a breeder without licensing or supervision. We can only vouch that you are in safe hands for the carefully vetted rescues in several countries that are listed in the link below.
Boars, sows or mixed pairs; babies or adults?
Rescue Locator

 

[hannahs26]

I'd recommend you get another water bottle, as one may be guarded or obstructed by a piggie, so it helps if there is another accessible in another part of the enclosure. Other than that, sounds lovely :-) Hope you'll find a nice pair and be very happy with them :-) Must be hard grieving for Coco :-(

 

[hrsrdr]

I'd recommend you get another water bottle, as one may be guarded or obstructed by a piggie, so it helps if there is another accessible in another part of the enclosure. Other than that, sounds lovely :-) Hope you'll find a nice pair and be very happy with them :-) Must be hard grieving for Coco :-(

Ok, I'll do that. Thankfully, as far as Coco goes, its been getting better.

 

[hrsrdr]

That sounds fine.

Please serve veg and pellets ideally in a bowl each per piggy and remove between meals or consider feeding in different ways as enrichment.
Enrichment Ideas for Guinea Pigs

I would strongly recommend (if you can) to adopt from a good welfare standard guinea pig rescue with a mandatory quarantine and a pregnancy watch to avoid any unplanned surprises that sows from other places can come with; I'd rather not see you in our pregnancy section if at all possible!
When adopting piggies from a good standard rescue then gender or age are a lot less important. Each gender has their own issues and challenges.
Please accept that anybody in the English speaking world can call themselves a rescue or a breeder without licensing or supervision. We can only vouch that you are in safe hands for the carefully vetted rescues in several countries that are listed in the link below.
Boars, sows or mixed pairs; babies or adults?
Rescue Locator

As of right now we're looking into rescues, however some are closed, and others don't allow you to come in, which makes it tough for making sure they're not sick, pregnant, etc. Thanks for the rescue locator though!

 

[Piggies&buns]

As of right now we're looking into rescues, however some are closed, and others don't allow you to come in, which makes it tough for making sure they're not sick, pregnant, etc. Thanks for the rescue locator though!

Not being allowed in does not make it hard to make sure they’re not sick or pregnant - a good reputable rescue will not rehome sick or pregnant piggies

 

[Siikibam]

Email those near you but don’t discount going a little further afield. There will likely be waiting lists so you’ll have to be patient.

 

[Wiebke]

As of right now we're looking into rescues, however some are closed, and others don't allow you to come in, which makes it tough for making sure they're not sick, pregnant, etc. Thanks for the rescue locator though!

We have listed only reputable good welfare standard rescues where you can be assured that you will NOT be adopting any sick or pregnant piggies. In the vetting process we are looking carefully that welfare and good practice are observed at any stage of the whole time a guinea pig spends in rescue, which includes housing, mandatory quarantine, vet care, pregnancy watch and baby care/separation ages, rehabilitation/fostering as well as careful matching up where necessary etc.
These rescues will only put up guinea pigs for adoption when they are ready to go to a home and that all the usual pitfalls are avoided. That is why we can only guarantee for the listed rescues that have all undergone a similar process to make sure that you are in good hands.

Please be aware that a pregnancy lasts on average 10 weeks but you will see signs only in the last 2-4 and sometimes not even that. The same goes with ringworm (there is a 10-14 days incubation period between contracting it and an outbreak) and skin parasites or thick eye crusts from untreated respiratory infection - these issues very often make their appearance only in the weeks after arrival in a new home although exposure has happened in the pet shop or at the breeder's. You can dodge the obviously affected ones but not the other ones. A tidy breeder pen doesn't tell you anything about their sexing/baby boar separation practice or their breeding practices for instance.
That is the reason why we have started our rescue locator in the first place so our members have somewhere safe to get piggies from.