Pledge a Pound

As some of you may know I am a trustee of Scritches Rat & Rodent Rescue here in Southampton, at present we have 1 neutered male guinea pig available for rehoming. We are going to do a home check this coming Saturday for 'Piggy' the prospective family now have a lone female GP, after their other female had to be PTS they are interested in rehoming Piggy to be bonded with their female.

Can anyone please give me some bonding advice that we can pass on if the home check is successful? Unfortunately it's been quite a while since I had any GP's and I have never done a bonding for GP's only rabbits and as Kat at Scritches doesn't normally take in or rehome GP's she doesn't have any experience either

Hoping some of you may be able to help? They will be indoor GP's. I am hoping that GP's are easier than bunnies? and that introducing a neutered male into a female GP home would be fairly simple?

We've always got ours in pairs, but when I worked where there were groups of guinea pigs we used to put newcomers in a cage in the main living area of the other piggies until they were used to each others smells, and then introduce them. So far as I know they can fight, but it doesn't seem as common as in bunnies. Oh, and making sure there is plenty of food spread around for distraction helps!

You could pop onto The Guinea Pig Forum - they have loads of knowledgeable people there, and lots of threads on bonding.

Blackberry wrote:We've always got ours in pairs, but when I worked where there were groups of guinea pigs we used to put newcomers in a cage in the main living area of the other piggies until they were used to each others smells, and then introduce them. So far as I know they can fight, but it doesn't seem as common as in bunnies. Oh, and making sure there is plenty of food spread around for distraction helps!

You could pop onto The Guinea Pig Forum - they have loads of knowledgeable people there, and lots of threads on bonding.

Thank you Sara I will have a look at The GP forum

Alice at Windwhistle Warren would know lots about guinea pig bonding. You would probably be quickest phoning or getting her on Facebook if you needed to.
sue

sdf76 wrote:Alice at Windwhistle Warren would know lots about guinea pig bonding. You would probably be quickest phoning or getting her on Facebook if you needed to.
sue

Thank you Sue

sdf76 wrote:Alice at Windwhistle Warren would know lots about guinea pig bonding. You would probably be quickest phoning or getting her on Facebook if you needed to.
sue

I agree with the above.

I recently adopted 3 piggies from her in November. There was Pirate, male neutered) and Bridie, and then Alice introduced Connie. No problems at all. They've all settled in really well and Pirate loves having 2 lady friends.

Mrs. Bunnykins wrote:

sdf76 wrote:Alice at Windwhistle Warren would know lots about guinea pig bonding. You would probably be quickest phoning or getting her on Facebook if you needed to.
sue

I agree with the above.

I recently adopted 3 piggies from her in November. There was Pirate, male neutered) and Bridie, and then Alice introduced Connie. No problems at all. They've all settled in really well and Pirate loves having 2 lady friends.

Thank you Mrs Bunnykins I did get quite a lot of info from the Guinea Pig Forum which we passed on when we went to do Piggy's homecheck on Saturday morning. Good news is they passed and Piggy is going to his new home tomorrow to live with a lovely long haired wife, we are hoping they will fall in love as the female is very lonely after losing her female friend she's even stopped squeaking so we're hoping seeing Piggy tomorrow will perk her up and she love him

It honestly shouldnt be a problem. Usually introducing neutered boys and girls together is very easy and they really dont cause any problems. He will show his dominence and will try to be boss but often the girl will have other ideas. Expect rumbling and minor chasing but other than that there is usually no issues.

If you need any help please dont hesitate to ask

Helen x