We are looking to properly bond our 3 year old bereaved guinea pig with a new lil baby piggie and with us.

[sunshine1981]

Sadly, Sunshine lost her sister Honey a month ago. We are going to pick up our new lil baby guinea pig this weekend. I just want to do everything right. I have done alot of research on bonding, but I am getting conflicting advice. Some people say to put your new lil fur baby in a cage next to her sister, and let her settle and not handle them for about a week. And then I read if your new lil baby is under 4 mths , the advice was to try to bond the guinea pigs right away. Also, how we manage do our bonded pair was to have them hang out in their big pen during the day and putting them in side by side cages at night. Also if recommend we can put a divider in my the pen so they can be next to each other before we put them in together forever. Also we have never had a baby piggie before and I am wondering if we should not handle the baby for a week. I am just so excited to meet our lil fur baby! and I just want to do everything right. I really want to do the best for our new lil addition and her new big sister. Any advice is super appreciated! Cheers!

 

[Piggies&buns]

If you want to let your new piggy settle in, then she might be able to be in a side by side cage with your older piggy for one night but if she is a long way under four months old, then she really needs to be bonded with your older piggy straight away. Youngsters are desperate for companionship and need the interaction with another piggy constantly.

The other important thing to note is that you must not put piggies together during the day and then separate at night. Once piggies are put together for the bonding then if all goes well, they must not be separated at all. You only separate after the initial introduction if the piggies clearly don’t like each other.
if you put them together and separate them repeatedly then you interrupt their whole bonding process each and every time causing them to need to start from the beginning every day but never managing to get all the way through the process. This is very stressful to them and in some cases can harm the bonding process.

So, bonding is a one time event and needs of be seen through to conclusion on one day - the piggies meet in a bonding pen and move into their permanent cage together a few hours later.
You bring the new piggy home, put them in a neutral territory bonding pen with hay and water (do not add hides to the bonding pen) and leave them in there for several hours. Do not carry out any bonding anywhere your original piggy sees as her own space, the area must be neutral and not somewhere she normally lives. If all goes well during those hours in the bonding pen, then while they are still in the bonding pen you clean out the cage they are to live in. You can add some two exit hides into the cage. Then you can transfer them both back into their cage. It will then take then around two weeks of permanently being together for them to fully form their relationship.

Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics

 

[sunshine1981]

If you want to let your new piggy settle in, then she might be able to be in a side by side cage with your older piggy for one night but if she is a long way under four months old, then she really needs to be bonded with your older piggy straight away. Youngsters are desperate for companionship and need the interaction with another piggy constantly.

The other important thing to note is that you must not put piggies together during the day and then separate at night. Once piggies are put together for the bonding then if all goes well, they must not be separated at all. You only separate after the initial introduction if the piggies clearly don’t like each other.
if you put them together and separate them repeatedly then you interrupt their whole bonding process each and every time causing them to need to start from the beginning every day but never managing to get all the way through the process. This is very stressful to them and in some cases can harm the bonding process.

So, bonding is a one time event and needs of be seen through to conclusion on one day - the piggies meet in a bonding pen and move into their permanent cage together a few hours later.
You bring the new piggy home, put them in a neutral territory bonding pen with hay and water (do not add hides to the bonding pen) and leave them in there for several hours. Do not carry out any bonding anywhere your original piggy sees as her own space, the area must be neutral and not somewhere she normally lives. If all goes well during those hours in the bonding pen, then while they are still in the bonding pen you clean out the cage they are to live in. You can add some two exit hides into the cage. Then you can transfer them both back into their cage. It will then take then around two weeks of permanently being together for them to fully form their relationship.

Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics

Thank you so much for the advice