i know its best to keep Guinea pigs in pairs, but I only have room for one. Are there any tips for keeping a lone Guinea pig as happy as possible?
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I have same concern , but i have 3 kids , and our piggy Chloe does get alot of attention. My fear If I get another, is that they won't want to bother with " us" humans anymore. Because that's what happened when I got two rabbits.
I've owned approximately 35 guinea pigs in my life (not including those I fostered or did adoptions for) and have seen the differences in personalities. Some are very social like humans but others aren't. My guess is that those that are extremely aggressive or anti social probably had some sort of trauma early in their life where they had been attacked by another guinea pig and react strongly when they're introduced to others. I've had some that didn't get along with other guinea pigs at first but were able be paired with another but there ARE guinea pigs that will kill another guinea pig if given the chance. Someone who hasn't had a lot of experience with them might not know the difference but I feel that I've owned and fostered enough of them that I can tell when a guinea pig poses a risk to others. The one I currently have was listed on Petfinder. Her owner told me she came from Petland. Both of her ears were significantly chewed up which led me to believe that she was probably attacked by other guinea pigs at some point. As friendly as she is with us, I will NEVER trust her with another guinea pig after witnessing her reaction to my others. Her hair was raised on the back of her neck and she flew at them. She had that classic wide open mouth with teeth exposed. When she was in the cage near them, she'd be climbing up the side to try and get to them. When she's in a separate room, she runs her laps, popcorns and eats and drinks more than when she was near the other cages. She's very smart and does tricks. She purrs softly when we pet or hold her. She loves my son and calls out to him when he's in the room. She spent all of her time biting the bars and jumping at the side of the cage when her cage was near the others. She never settled down. A guinea pig that attacks, unprovoked, poses a serious risk to the others, including killing them. I'd always err on the side of caution when you're dealing with a guinea pig that has actually attacked another guinea pig. I'm not talking mounting or chasing but that rolls around in a ball and attacks with teeth. As much as I'd like her to have a companion, I won't risk her killing another guinea pig. One of my other guinea pigs is a very dominant female. She mounts and chases other guinea pigs. If she doesn't like what they do, she nips or pulls their fur. She doesn't attack them, though. There is a huge difference. My dominant female was even afraid of her. I think it would be irresponsible to house an aggressive guinea pig with another unless you are able to be there all the time to monitor. I don't know about you, but I'd feel personally responsible if a guinea pig died because I forced her to live with one that was aggressive.I understand why that is a concern of yours, but on the flip side (sorry if this sounds a bit rude but I can't think of a nicer way to phrase this) that is completely selfish and does not take into account the best interest for your pet.
I can say that with my pigs that were at one point a solo pig but then found a friend, they do become less dependant on you for attention (for one of my boys this meant he stopped begging for me to pick him up and take him out of the cage all of the time) but they still are just as friendly as before. They all still come to the front of the cage and beg for food (some do become a little less willing to be caught and picked up, but hey that is just a guinea pig thing), they still let me pat them when they are in their cage (not all of them, but if they let me when they were solo they still do now). They are also happier, they run more, they eat faster (and are less picky with their veg), they talk to each other. I have never once regretted introducing a solo pig to a friend (even if it didn't work out, I would just try again with a different friend).
Yes there are very rare special cases where a guinea pig truly can not be housed with another guinea pig, but even they benefit from the company of their own species, so they are best kept in a cage right next to another cage with guinea pigs in it so they can see them and talk to them if they want to. On the flip side many people say their guinea pig can not be housed with other pigs after only trying one, two or three other pigs; They call them unbondable when that might not be entirely true given the very small number of other guinea pig they tried them with.
@pinky I may be missing it but I don't see where either the OP or kimzano said anything about them trying their pigs with other pigs and them being dangerously aggressive. All they said was, there was no room for two and they were afraid their pig wouldn't love them as much anymore. That has nothing to do with aggression and both are poor reasons to not try to get their guinea pigs a friend.
I had deemed my Bonnie unbondable because she had the same reaction @pinky described her pig having to others. I tried introducing her to two babies, one of which she tried to kill. Then I tried to introduce her to my main trio and she tried to kill my dominant sow Gizmo. I had resigned myself to having her as a solo pig because of the level of aggression.
She also did not interact with me AT ALL. I never even saw her without forcibly removing her from the cage. She hid all the time and didn't even beg for food. Don't know what happened in her previous home but she had no social skills with people .or other pigs.
A few weeks after the last failed introduction, I was offered a pair of sows. I said no because I didn't want another cage to clean and I didn't think they would work with Bonnie. The lady agreed to take them back if it didn't work out, so I gave in. The introduction went perfectly. There was a LOT of mounting and nipping, but no all out fighting. And since being with the other girls Bonnie has behaved more like a normal pig. She begs with the other girls and I can even pick her up with no problem.
The point of all this is that I agree with @Soecara. Most pigs can live with others, you just have to find the right one(s).
Oh my gosh @pinky, what a scary pigture! I seriously think I might have night mares of my girls doing that.https://api.viglink.com/api/click?format=go&jsonp=vglnk_141611008893111&key=8fdea0742c5b30e08489122d01bb0e89&libId=23aae36e-145b-42ee-8f69-387876c51862&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guineapigcages.com%2Fforum%2Fthreads%2F103829-How-can-you-keep-lone-Guinea-pigs-as-happy-as-possible%2Fpage2&v=1&out=http%3A%2F%2Fs738.photobucket.com%2Fuser%2Fkavykeeper%2Fmedia%2FIMG_4233_zpsf0035d75.jpg.html&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guineapigcages.com%2Fforum%2Fthreads%2F103829-How-can-you-keep-lone-Guinea-pigs-as-happy-as-possible&title=How%20can%20you%20keep%20lone%20Guinea%20pigs%20as%20happy%20as%20possible%20-%20Page%202&txt=%3Cimg%20alt%3D%22%22%20src%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fi738.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fxx28%2Fkavykeeper%2Fth_IMG_4233_zpsf0035d75.jpg%22%20border%3D%220%22%3E (<div class="bbImageWrapper js-lbImage" title="th_IMG_4233_zpsf0035d75.jpg" data-src="/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fi738.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fxx28%2Fkavykeeper%2Fth_IMG_4233_zpsf0035d75.jpg&hash=c113cecac0402d707abb3578c2f94a77" data-lb-sidebar-href="" data-lb-caption-extra-html="" data-single-image="1"> <img src="/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fi738.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fxx28%2Fkavykeeper%2Fth_IMG_4233_zpsf0035d75.jpg&hash=c113cecac0402d707abb3578c2f94a77" data-url="https://i738.photobucket.com/albums/xx28/kavykeeper/th_IMG_4233_zpsf0035d75.jpg" class="bbImage" data-zoom-target="1" style="" alt="th_IMG_4233_zpsf0035d75.jpg" title="" width="" height="" loading="lazy" /> </div>)
Oh my gosh @pinky, what a scary pigture! I seriously think I might have night mares of my girls doing that.
It sounds like Bonnie was looking for the right guinea pig match. I think in my cases, they both preferred humans and didn't trust other guinea pigs.That picture looks like Bonnie just before she grabbed Duchess and Gizmo. I also had to use the pigloo to separate.