Hello Guinea Pig Cages,
In short, I recently lost one of my two guinea pigs. I am wondering if anyone had advice on how to tell if your guinea pig is lonely and struggling with the loss of her cage mate/sister; and whether/when I should get her a new cage mate. In addition, I am concerned how temperament and age play into this decision. I've done some reading around about how to do introductions but I did not find a lot that addressed these concerns. Read on if you want the details.
I recently lost Sassy and now Lilly is on her own, my first pets. They were two one-year-old sisters rescued from a shelter however, the shelter was not confident their age info was correct. Nonetheless, over the last three years since I adopted them, they have lived together. Their relationship was best described as 'mutual avoidance'. For the first two weeks, they engaged in typical dominance behaviour consistent with new introductions but although this behaviour subsided, they never established any dominance hierarchy. Rather, Lilly was dominant about food and Sassy was dominant about everything else (i.e. water, huts, tunnels, etc.). In the one play date they had with other guinea pigs, Lilly got bit really badly by a very dominant guinea pig for trying to steal her food (even though there was plenty of other food).
Over the last three weeks as we battled Sassy's illness, Sassy was either hospitalized or spent long periods of time separated from Lilly. During this time, I noticed no change in Lilly's behaviour. Even after Sassy's passing, Lilly is still acting normal if not happier (as morbid as that sounds), but it's still too early to tell. My girlfriend and I joke she is the only one in our house happy that Sassy is 'out of her fur' (hehe). I swear Lilly is saying, '**** me, after three years I finally get the place to myself only to be 'harassed' by my parents... seriously, just cause I book told you to give me lots of attention doesn't mean I need it mom & dad, I am quite fine doing my own thing in my castle. And let's be clear, it's now only my castle' (okay, sorry for the cheesy joke but I believe she would talk like that; she has a lot of attitude and I love it).
In regards to my second concern; during Sassy's three week battle, my vet noticed both in her examination and x-rays arthritic movement in Sassy's joints. This arthritis is consistent with a much older guinea pig but rarely seen in four-year-old guinea pig. As I mentioned, the shelter's info might be inaccurate and Lilly has been given a clean bill of health about 3 months ago, it may be possible she is a senior citizen. But you know how old people are, they hate to tell your their age... okay another cheesy joke, I'll stop, I promise.
So this leads me to my questions. One, does anyone know what signs I should be watching out for if Lilly starts struggling with living on her own? Everything I've read suggests guinea pigs need cage mates but I do not want to do anything rash. Secondly, given her temperament as well as potentially being a senior citizen, how much should these concerns factor into this decision? My main priority right now is to do right by Lilly because she is my girl and obviously I love her to death. My experience with guinea pigs has taught me... I will own guinea pigs my entire life, obviously, who else would be best friends with this 29-year-old grad student with no life!! Sorry, back on track... given everything I mentioned, if that means holding off on getting a cage mate, no problem. If that means looking for a new sister for her in the coming weeks/months (again, not sure when is the best time to do this), great, I'll start searching! As an upfront, I have space for a quarantine cage and a neutral play area, but in the long run the new guinea pig would need to bunk with Lilly as I do not have the space to setup two big cages.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to your advice.
In short, I recently lost one of my two guinea pigs. I am wondering if anyone had advice on how to tell if your guinea pig is lonely and struggling with the loss of her cage mate/sister; and whether/when I should get her a new cage mate. In addition, I am concerned how temperament and age play into this decision. I've done some reading around about how to do introductions but I did not find a lot that addressed these concerns. Read on if you want the details.
I recently lost Sassy and now Lilly is on her own, my first pets. They were two one-year-old sisters rescued from a shelter however, the shelter was not confident their age info was correct. Nonetheless, over the last three years since I adopted them, they have lived together. Their relationship was best described as 'mutual avoidance'. For the first two weeks, they engaged in typical dominance behaviour consistent with new introductions but although this behaviour subsided, they never established any dominance hierarchy. Rather, Lilly was dominant about food and Sassy was dominant about everything else (i.e. water, huts, tunnels, etc.). In the one play date they had with other guinea pigs, Lilly got bit really badly by a very dominant guinea pig for trying to steal her food (even though there was plenty of other food).
Over the last three weeks as we battled Sassy's illness, Sassy was either hospitalized or spent long periods of time separated from Lilly. During this time, I noticed no change in Lilly's behaviour. Even after Sassy's passing, Lilly is still acting normal if not happier (as morbid as that sounds), but it's still too early to tell. My girlfriend and I joke she is the only one in our house happy that Sassy is 'out of her fur' (hehe). I swear Lilly is saying, '**** me, after three years I finally get the place to myself only to be 'harassed' by my parents... seriously, just cause I book told you to give me lots of attention doesn't mean I need it mom & dad, I am quite fine doing my own thing in my castle. And let's be clear, it's now only my castle' (okay, sorry for the cheesy joke but I believe she would talk like that; she has a lot of attitude and I love it).
In regards to my second concern; during Sassy's three week battle, my vet noticed both in her examination and x-rays arthritic movement in Sassy's joints. This arthritis is consistent with a much older guinea pig but rarely seen in four-year-old guinea pig. As I mentioned, the shelter's info might be inaccurate and Lilly has been given a clean bill of health about 3 months ago, it may be possible she is a senior citizen. But you know how old people are, they hate to tell your their age... okay another cheesy joke, I'll stop, I promise.
So this leads me to my questions. One, does anyone know what signs I should be watching out for if Lilly starts struggling with living on her own? Everything I've read suggests guinea pigs need cage mates but I do not want to do anything rash. Secondly, given her temperament as well as potentially being a senior citizen, how much should these concerns factor into this decision? My main priority right now is to do right by Lilly because she is my girl and obviously I love her to death. My experience with guinea pigs has taught me... I will own guinea pigs my entire life, obviously, who else would be best friends with this 29-year-old grad student with no life!! Sorry, back on track... given everything I mentioned, if that means holding off on getting a cage mate, no problem. If that means looking for a new sister for her in the coming weeks/months (again, not sure when is the best time to do this), great, I'll start searching! As an upfront, I have space for a quarantine cage and a neutral play area, but in the long run the new guinea pig would need to bunk with Lilly as I do not have the space to setup two big cages.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to your advice.