Bonding Bonding a Guinea Pig Previously Bullied

[jesbyl]

Hi all! My two guinea pigs, Mally and Hatter, had to be separated. My neighbor was nice enough to adopt Mally, who would bully Hatter. It started after Hatter had a URI and had to be isolated from Mally. They had been so close beforehand. After they were reunited, they seemed fine until I found an open hole on Hatter so he was separated again to allow him to heal. When they were put back together, Mally would try to go after Hatter. They were separated by a divider. But Mally would continue to get through the divider so we got a second cage. It became too much to care for two guinea pigs in two separate cages. My neighbor was nice enough to adopt Mally from me. So my question is, is it possible for me to adopt another guinea pig to live with Hatter?

 

[bpatters]

We have no idea.

For one thing, when your two were separated, did you just plop them back together, or did you do proper introductions (see https://guinea-pigs.livejournal.com/3002707.html for how to do that)? If you just put them back together, that may have caused all the subsequent problems. You might have been able to avoid that by doing proper introductions.

Second, what size is your cage? Lack of space is one of the major reasons for guinea pig aggression, and if your two were in a pet store cage, lack of space may have been the issue.

Third, how well pigs get along depends entirely on the personality of the guinea pigs. If you're interested in trying again with another pig, and if your cage is large enough, then I'd suggest that you find a guinea pig rescue and ask if you can bring Hatter in to pick out his own buddy. That won't guarantee success, but it'll certainly improve the odds of it happeneing.

 

[jesbyl]

They were properly introduced each time and the cage is 8 square feet.