Newbie with 4 Piggies

Liz Barter · Feb 10, 2014

Hi!
In January we adopted 3 young female guinea pigs who are all living happily together (Sprite, Root Beer "Rooty" and Ginger Ale "Ginger"). In February we were shopping at the local petco and noticed a VERY large male who had been there for at least a month and was all alone in his cage. I inquired about him and was told no one would buy him because he is just too big (10 inches at least) and they didn't know what they were going to do with him. So...I took him. I know we aren't supposed to buy from pet stores, but I felt bad for him and was scared for his safety. His name is Leroy and he is a big cuddle bug and we just adore him. But he is alone since he can't be with my females and we make sure to give him plenty of love and he run all over the place in our house. My question is....Do I need to get him a friend? I don't know how old he is, but he is 10+ inches now so I assume not too young. Would he get along with another male? HELP!!

Sprite

Root Beer

Ginger with Root beer

Leroy

PiggieWigglies · Feb 10, 2014

Since he is the only male, if you had a super super good exotic vet that is safe with neutering you could get him neutered. You could get him a friend too, either way is good. Since he came from a petstore, is he on quarentine incase he's sick? You wouldn't want to spread it to the girls.

Liz Barter · Feb 10, 2014

I actually did look into neutering him, but they said it would be $600+ which isn't really in my budget at this point. And honestly, I am scared to put him under anesthesia for an elective procedure (obviously if he needed surgery for survival I would). I have heard that males don't normally get along unless they are littermates, is this true? I am afraid if I adopt another male, they won't get along and then I will have 2 lonely GPs instead of 1. And yes, he is not near the girls.

CritterSlave · Feb 10, 2014

I have four boars none are related and they range in age from 11 months to 9 years. They get along great aside from random humpfests.

Liz Barter · Feb 10, 2014

If I was to get a friend for him, would you suggest a young (SMALL) male? His is HUGE but young and not aggressive or dominant (from what I can tell obviously). At one point he was housed with many other males at the pet store, so he has had experience with other guinea pigs. Who would likely be the best match for him?

CritterSlave · Feb 10, 2014

You could go with a baby or an adult just be aware that once the baby reaches six months he will start puberty. I have also heard intact males do well with spayed females so if you have a shelter or rescue locally that has spayed sows that is also a good option.

Liz Barter · Feb 10, 2014

Really? I did not know that! Thank you!

Princess_Piggie · Feb 10, 2014

Just as an FYI, size has nothing to do with his temperament or how well he'll get along with other pigs.

It's hard to guess his age based on a measurement, have you weighed him since you got him home? Pigs should be weighed weekly anyway to detect illness early, but his weight would indicate his age (roughly)

For a 1+ year old boar, a 1- year old boar is usually the best bet for a cagemate. And obviously, if he's younger than a year, you can adopt him a 1+ year old boar. Most rescues are happy to do meet and greets with pigs to get a rough idea of how they'd get on living together.

Also, I'd recommend double (and triple) checking he's a boy, since he's a pet store pig. He could be a female and then be able to go in with your 3 sows.

Rywen · Feb 10, 2014

Welcome! Your herd of piggies is gorgeous and Leroy looks like a great cuddler! I just had my Ferb neutered a couple of weeks ago so he can have a girlfriend. I live in a large expensive metro area and it was just under $300. So $600 seems completely unreasonable to me. Everything went really well and he is pretty much recovered. I read up on guinea pig neutering and interrogated his exotics vet about everything beforehand, so I was pretty comfortable with going ahead with it.

Liz Barter · Feb 11, 2014

Rywen said:
Welcome! Your herd of piggies is gorgeous and Leroy looks like a great cuddler! I just had my Ferb neutered a couple of weeks ago so he can have a girlfriend. I live in a large expensive metro area and it was just under $300. So $600 seems completely unreasonable to me. Everything went really well and he is pretty much recovered. I read up on guinea pig neutering and interrogated his exotics vet about everything beforehand, so I was pretty comfortable with going ahead with it.

Interesting! I will have to make some more calls. Maybe it is expensive here because only a few places in the state do it? Hmmmm

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