Hi guys. I am new to this forum and I have been a guinea pig owner for about a year and a half. I first bought my male guinea Henry on his own and he has lived alone until about 4 months ago. I didn’t realise how mean it is to keep one GP alone and I had been searching for a pair for him for sometime.
Anyway, I managed to find a partner called Herbie who is a female about 2 years of age who previously lived with her mother until she unfortunately passed away.
They have spent a few months with their cages beside each other before making small introductions to one another between cages. This week I decided to try a proper introduction and it seemed to go well. Having spent 3 hours together in a neutral place I decided to move them in together in a freshly cleaned and neutral smelling cage. This resultied in each pig occupying a floor of the cage and frantically chattering their teeth. I decided to separate them as things seemed to be quite hostile and try again another time.
I have done done lots of research particularly on https://www.cavyspirit.com/sociallife.htm and tried to follow the advise and steps as carefully as I could.
On their most recent bonding session, it started well with dominance behaviour taking place I.e. mounting and rumble strutting although it quickly turned into being very scared to approach one another with constant teeth chattering and showing of teeth. Despite this I tried not to intervene with the hope that one would concede and sort out their differences. This went on for a couple of hours before one particular stand off led to herbie, my sow, launch herself at Henry. I immmediately clapped my hands loudly and threw a towel between them and fortunately no harm came to either pig.
They are are now separated and back to their usual cages, but I’m wondering if there’s something I am doing wrong or perhaps these two pigs are just not a compatible match. I really hope they can be together and some point but I don’t want to cause them any stress by keeping putting them together. I have decided to leave them apart from now and maybe try again in a few weeks. I am hoping anyone can maybe reassure me or perhaps offer any advise?
Thanks in advance, Amanda.
Anyway, I managed to find a partner called Herbie who is a female about 2 years of age who previously lived with her mother until she unfortunately passed away.
They have spent a few months with their cages beside each other before making small introductions to one another between cages. This week I decided to try a proper introduction and it seemed to go well. Having spent 3 hours together in a neutral place I decided to move them in together in a freshly cleaned and neutral smelling cage. This resultied in each pig occupying a floor of the cage and frantically chattering their teeth. I decided to separate them as things seemed to be quite hostile and try again another time.
I have done done lots of research particularly on https://www.cavyspirit.com/sociallife.htm and tried to follow the advise and steps as carefully as I could.
On their most recent bonding session, it started well with dominance behaviour taking place I.e. mounting and rumble strutting although it quickly turned into being very scared to approach one another with constant teeth chattering and showing of teeth. Despite this I tried not to intervene with the hope that one would concede and sort out their differences. This went on for a couple of hours before one particular stand off led to herbie, my sow, launch herself at Henry. I immmediately clapped my hands loudly and threw a towel between them and fortunately no harm came to either pig.
They are are now separated and back to their usual cages, but I’m wondering if there’s something I am doing wrong or perhaps these two pigs are just not a compatible match. I really hope they can be together and some point but I don’t want to cause them any stress by keeping putting them together. I have decided to leave them apart from now and maybe try again in a few weeks. I am hoping anyone can maybe reassure me or perhaps offer any advise?
Thanks in advance, Amanda.