Adopting Advice needed about adopting male guinea pigs

[ashleerose11]

Hi!
My boyfriend and I are excited to adopt our first guinea pig(s). I had them as a kid and loved them, and finally have an opportunity to have them as an adult. The local animal shelter has a pair of 1 yr old male pigs that have lived together their entire life. They have been in the shelter for about a month and were surrendered because of their previous owner's landlord. We were excited to adopt them, we just needed to be sure we had an appropriate setup and clearance from our own landlord. Now that we have everything we need, I called the shelter to discuss adopting these boys. The representative then informed me that they actually had to separate the pigs and that they are now being adopted out separately - not as a bonded pair as they originally were. She said that one of the pigs was mounting and pulling the fur of the other after a cage change. They temporarily separated them, then tried putting them back together with no success. They are now permanently separated and available for adoption separately.
I would still love to adopt at least one of these boys, but now I have some concerns. If they have lived their entire lives together, I'm afraid of bringing just one home and him being lonely. I'm wondering if the stress of being in the shelter and potentially in cages around other pigs caused stress between them that would be remedied by them being alone together again. Also, I don't want to just adopt one and then his health suffer from being a single pig.
Does anyone have any advice on what I should do? Do you think that the shelter is correct in thinking they are better off by themselves, or will I just have a sad and lonely pig if I adopt one of them?
Side note - how much space does everyone recommend for 2 male pigs? There's a lot of conflicting info out there so just curious what everyone thinks.

Thanks in advance for your advice!
-Ashlee

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

I see no reason why they can't still live together.

If they were changed into a different cage, especially a smaller cage, there may have been some squabbling due to the changes. Unless there was obvious bleeding, they never should have been separated.

As far as cage size goes, the guides here are posted as minimums. For boars, a 2 x 5 grid cage is about the minimum, but we always say more is better. I have two boars in a cage and attached permanent pen that's roughly 40 square feet. I realize not everyone can do that, but they DO love it.

I don't see any reason at all why you cannot adopt both of these boys and have them live together. If you follow the guidelines for introductions here, you should be just fine with two happy, healthy pigs.

 

[Mymisters]

The stress had them fighting a bit, ask them if they can go together, with the option to have a separate cage if things go south! I'll bet they settle down with a bigger cage and steady quieter surroundings!

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