Hello

I am so happy for you and your pig. I hope he gets a friend soon.. Good luck.. pictures would be great love piggy pictures.

Lady Amelia said:

It sounds like you are on the right track for sure! Sweet that your hubby knows what you like!! I also switched to fleece after running out of bedding and having a ton of scrap fleece available. I used fleece before with a hedgehog and really like the idea of washing and reusing plus it's easier to "harvest the beans" to use in my compost for my garden. I hope you're successful in your adoption plan with the rescue. Maybe call a vet in your area that sees guinea pigs and establish a rapport that way you can say, "I will be taking my pig to this vet if the situation arises" and maybe proof of income that you can afford it will put their mind at ease. Let us know how it goes!

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They said I can bring in records on our dog we rescued. So that's awesome. Apparently I don't have to set up an appointment or anything. I just go in and ask so visit with the piggy. My husband has to go for back injections tomorrow so I guess we'll go Wednesday after my Bible study. And yes I'm liking the wash and reuse on the bedding. Will save so much money in the long run. I don't have compost but I wouldn't have thought of that if I did. I definitely need to look into a vet for my piggies. Years ago when I lived on another side of town I had an exotic pets vet that I took my ferrets to. I've never checked to see if the vet I use now does exotics. I'd hate to have to drive around an hour, or there abouts, to go to the exotic vet if something were to happen, but if this vet isn't familiar with exotics I may have to.

Amanda Marie said:

I am so happy for you and your pig. I hope he gets a friend soon.. Good luck.. pictures would be great love piggy pictures.

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Rocky5 said:

That's great! Please post pictures when you get him!

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Count on it. Actually I can post a picture of him now. I saved it off the net. This is Jingle, the piggy I'm trying to adopt. The other photo I posted in a reply is of my current pig, Sheldor.

Awwwwww so cute good luck rescuing him

I am so frustrated and upset. I went down to the ACS this afternoon to check out Jingle and the lady I had been emailing with wasn't there, which is fine. However, nobody else seemed to know anything about there having been guinea pigs there. They tried to track them down and no luck. The lady who should have known could not be reached. They ended up telling me the 3 piggies they had had probably been sent/given to a rescue.

I did a google search and found a guinea pig rescue in our area. Maybe I will have more luck with them.

That is discouraging. Sometimes organizations aren't very well organized. Keep at it though! The perfect piggy will land in your arms when the time is right..... Thant's what I'd be telling myself

Well guys and gals, I ended up adopting today. It didn't go at all how I expected. Honestly, after our ordeal with the ACS I was tempted to give up but then I googled and found a guinea pig rescue in our city. I haven't been by there yet but I have been emailing with the lady. Anyway, my hubby and I were childless this weekend so today after church, after going out to eat, we went to Petco just to look around. I love going to look at the ferret. I so miss having ferrets. (Though while I have piggies I will not try to have ferrets.) There were some guinea pigs there I liked but luckily we didn't have the $ to buy or I probably would have. (BAD, I know.) When we got home I decided to check craigslist again. I figured I'd see if I could talk someone down on their "rehoming" fee. I found an add, 2 days old, for someone giving away their bonded males. The family still had them and were having to give them away because of their daughter's allergies. They love their pics so much but want to give rid of anything that could set their daughters allergies off as she is now carrying an epipen. We took Sheldor to meet them and their dominant asserted his dominance but after an hour everything seemed okay. He said we probably wouldn't know for sure until about a week. So we adopted 2 boys today. Skittles and Teddy. Beautiful boys. Now that I have them home Sheldor is asserting his dominance. I hope I can keep them together, but if I cannot the family gave us the grids from their C&C cage so I can partition to keep the dominant males apart and let the other piggy go back and fourth to play. I intend (if I have to separate Sheldor and Skittles) to keep the cage connected as one but put a partition so they can see and be near each other w/o hurting one another.

Well, you need to take a step back. Read this link on introductions: https://guinea-pigs.livejournal.com/3002707.html. If you intend for them to live together, you need to introduce them properly and leave them together. Letting one pig go back and forth is not a good idea, and will just be stressful for that pig, as well as for the others. They're wired to establish dominance every time they meet a new pig, and they'll go through that ritual every time they're together.

You also need a large cage, and at least initially, you need hideys that have two doors, multiple food dishes, hay racks, and water bottles.

bpatters said:

Well, you need to take a step back. Read this link on introductions: https://guinea-pigs.livejournal.com/3002707.html. If you intend for them to live together, you need to introduce them properly and leave them together. Letting one pig go back and forth is not a good idea, and will just be stressful for that pig, as well as for the others. They're wired to establish dominance every time they meet a new pig, and they'll go through that ritual every time they're together.

You also need a large cage, and at least initially, you need hideys that have two doors, multiple food dishes, hay racks, and water bottles.

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I have 3 water bottles, 3 food bowls and the cage is being upgraded from a 2x3 (for 1 pig) to probably a 2x5 or 2x6 since I was given all the grids from their cage. And yes I thought about that with the going back and fourth after I typed it. They also gave me their play pen. Once I get the cage extended I'll have it all cleaned up with clean bedding so that there wont already be someone scent on it so it'll be like a new cage for all. I'm hoping my Sheldor and Skittles (the dominant of the bonded pair) will get along fine once they get past the mounting period.

If you now have three males in a 2x3 cage, I'd separate them until you can get a larger cage built, or someone is going to get seriously hurt.

once they get past the mounting period

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Uh, I hate to tell you, but that doesn't happen.

bpatters said:

If you now have three males in a 2x3 cage, I'd separate them until you can get a larger cage built, or someone is going to get seriously hurt.



Uh, I hate to tell you, but that doesn't happen.

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Ditto @bpatters . Mine have been bonder for almost a year and Cocoa ( the dominant one) still mounts Snickers. And Jingle is adorable. Please research, research, research introductions and expand your cage. A good source: She does introductions all the time. Good Luck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vME1DuhqIQ

bpatters said:

If you now have three males in a 2x3 cage, I'd separate them until you can get a larger cage built, or someone is going to get seriously hurt.



Uh, I hate to tell you, but that doesn't happen.

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They are not in a 2x3. As I said, I enlarged it.

I want to see your new boys!

Lady Amelia said:

I want to see your new boys!

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Let me get the photo off my phone. So far the introductions are going well. Teddy continues to be at the bottom of the hierarchy. He shows no dominant signs at all. Very submissive. He is the submissive of the bonded pair. Sheldor and Skittles are still going through introductions. While introductions have mellowed a lot Sheldor isn't ready to give in and be second in command. He still shows signs of wanting to be dominant but he is now running away more than standing his ground. I read that link that, I think, one of the admin's had posted about introductions and read the "normal" behavior and "warning signs" and while, like the site says, it has been hard for me to watch and not interfere they got a little wild a couple of times but nobody has done any biting. I stayed up after midnight keeping an eye on them before going to bed. After I went to bed I was up every couple of hours checking on them. I was told, and believe I read, that it will be a good week before things settle down and we know for sure if they will work out together. Sheldor has an igloo that I've left out of the cage. Skittles and Teddy each have a tree stump thing like the igloo that I've also kept out so that nobody gets trapped and hurt. I did bend one of the extra grids and put fleece over it so that there is a hidey that is open on both ends and Skittles and Teddy have stolen Sheldor's spot in the fleece forest. I upgraded the cage to a 2x4 which I realize is the minimum for 3 girls while the minimum for 3 boys is a 2x5. I'm debating if I want to make it a 3x4 or a 2x5. I didn't want to go too big w/o knowing if I will even be able to leave them all together. We had to get rid of a couch just to be able to upgrade the cage from a 2x3 to a 2x4 because it wouldn't fit in the spot it was in as a 2x3 once it was upgraded.

Actually, 2x5 is the minimum for two boys. For three, you'd need a 2x6. Possibly bigger, though? Since boar trios seem to be especially tricky.

Nazgul said:

Actually, 2x5 is the minimum for two boys. For three, you'd need a 2x6. Possibly bigger, though? Since boar trios seem to be especially tricky.

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This is off the main page of this site. 2x5 is the minimum for 3 boys. There was a debate about this on a thread. Can't remember which one. I was reading it earlier. It was talking about when it says minimum of a cage for # of pigs think females and where it says the maximum take that as a minimum for males. That being the case the 2x5 would be the minimum for boys and a 2x6 (or larger of course) preferred. This is all assuming I'm remembering what I read on that thread correctly.

From what I read here (https://www.guineapigcages.com) for a female trio it's 2x4 minimum and 2x5 preferred, so with the size up for a boar trio it's 2x5 minimum and 2x6 would be preferred.

It's about floor space though and not length, so a 3x4 would be equivalent to a 2x6, and better than a 2x5. And from what I hear (I've got girls so it's secondhand advice) boars do better with wider cages, so a 3x4 should be even better than a 2x6 because of the added width.

Edit: Oops two of us were typing at the same time!

PandaPiggle said:

From what I read here (https://www.guineapigcages.com) for a female trio it's 2x4 minimum and 2x5 preferred, so with the size up for a boar trio it's 2x5 minimum and 2x6 would be preferred.

It's about floor space though and not length, so a 3x4 would be equivalent to a 2x6, and better than a 2x5. And from what I hear (I've got girls so it's secondhand advice) boars do better with wider cages, so a 3x4 should be even better than a 2x6 because of the added width.

Edit: Oops two of us were typing at the same time!

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It's all good. @PandaPiggle I said in an earlier post I'm considering a 3x4. I'd prefer a wider to longer cage. It just depends on the space we have available. Again, I'm still not positive that Sheldor and Skittles will be able to determine their hierarchy. Neither wants to submit to the other. Neither will let the other mount, anymore. So I may end up back where I started with Sheldor back in a 2x3 and have the other 2 in the 2x4. There is no biting going on (at least there hasn't been to this point) but who knows.

I saw "debating between a 2x5 and a 3x4", and I figured I'd offer my two cents, although if you can only fit a 2x5 then you can only fit a 2x5. But having more space right now will make your trio more likely to succeed, so I'd do any cage expanding asap. Plus if you get another larger piece of coro then you can always cut it down later if the trio fails. And I know all about a lack of space, I share an apartment so I've got a 2x6 in my bedroom. I would have tried to put them in the living room except I'm always in my room because I'm terribly shy around my roommate, so my room is the best place.