Should guinea pigs be separated?

[Smudgeflofifi]

Hi everyone, someone on Instagram asked me this and I wasn’t really sure. So thought I’d ask on here:

I have a 4 months old male guinea pig in a large enclosure and yesterday I bought a new Guinea pig. He is a 3 week old male guinea pig. When I brought him home I put them on my bedroom floor so they could see each other. My oldest started to chase the other one to swing it but the new one didn’t care much. Now they are in separated cages and my older one won’t stop screaming and wants to see the other one. I was wondering could they live together or will they always be separated?

 

[Piggies&buns]

So the advice would be

Chasing is entirely normal bonding behaviour. (I don’t understand what you mean by to swing it though? ). The guides below show the correct bonding procedure in neutral territory and enable identification of the normal dominance behaviours. Please put them back together, the baby is too young to be alone.

Whether their relationship will will work long term will remain to be seen. Character compatibility is key so buying a new piggy rather than dating, you don’t know if they will be compatible for the long term when the youngster becomes a teen.

Two boars require a large cage, a minimum of 150cm x 60cm, but bigger is always better when it comes to boars and their territorial nature

Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars

 

[Smudgeflofifi]

So the advice would be

Chasing is entirely normal bonding behaviour. (I don’t understand what you mean by to swing it though? ). The guides below show the correct bonding procedure in neutral territory and enable identification of the normal dominance behaviours. Please put them back together, the baby is too young to be alone.

Whether their relationship will will work long term will remain to be seen. Character compatibility is key so buying a new piggy rather than dating, you don’t know if they will be compatible for the long term when the youngster becomes a teen.

Two boars require a large cage, a minimum of 150cm x 60cm, but bigger is always better when it comes to boars and their territorial nature

Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars

Hi, I didn’t understand what “swing it“ meant either. I asked the person and they said that they were trying to reproduce

 

[Piggies&buns]

Hi, I didn’t understand what “swing it“ meant either. I asked the person and they said that they were trying to reproduce

Oh right! Well, mounting is an entirely normal dominance behaviour between same sex piggies in any event. Do you know if this person checked the sex of the new piggy?

 

[Smudgeflofifi]

Oh right! Well, mounting is an entirely normal dominance behaviour between same sex piggies in any event. Do you know if this person checked the sex of the new piggy?

Hi sorry for such a late reply, i don’t know if they have checked the sex. I had a message back from them saying that they have now put the guinea pigs together again and they seemed to have calmed down. Thanks for your help