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How Many? Should we get our guinea pig a new cage mate after one passes away?

Samizdat

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Hi everyone,

Sadly, we lost one of our two guinea pigs last week. She was about six years old. (We've had them both for five years.) Her appetite was off for a couple of days. We were planning to bring her to the vet but unfortunately we found her dead in her cage that morning.

Our surviving pig is about five and a half years old. We are trying to decide whether or not to get her a new little pal. She seems fairly content alone so far, and we have her out of the cage a lot in the evenings. She's alone in the cage for much of the day (though sometimes one of us is home in the afternoons to keep her company.)

I don't want to stress her out and am afraid that trying to introduce a new cage mate at this point in her life might do her more harm than good. On the other hand, I don't want her to be lonely. I'd appreciate hearing any advice.

Thanks,
Samizdat
 

bpatters

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To me, it depends more on whether you're going to keep going with guinea pigs, or if you're ready to give them up when this one goes. If you're going to keep on, then getting her a pup would be a good move. Or another sow or neutered male about her own age if you're going to stop.

She'd probably like to have a friend, but I'd definitely find a good rescue and do a meet-and-greet before choosing. It's not a guarantee that things will work, but if they hate each other at first sight, you can save yourself a lot of time, effort and frustration.
 

lunarminx

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A neutered old male would be so nice for her.
 

Samizdat

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To me, it depends more on whether you're going to keep going with guinea pigs, or if you're ready to give them up when this one goes. If you're going to keep on, then getting her a pup would be a good move. Or another sow or neutered male about her own age if you're going to stop.

Thanks. That's just it. My daughter will head off to college at some point in the not too distant future, and I think my wife might prefer if we wind down on the number of pets we have. So from that point of view, it makes sense not to get another guinea pig. But all three of us also want to do what's best for our remaining girl, so we are trying to determine if she is "really OK" with being alone. And that's hard to tell. She doesn't SEEM stressed out, but I may not know what signs to look for. I mean, she's not as lively as she used to be, but that could just be because she's older. She doesn't seem to be as excited about her daily fresh veggies, but that may just be because she's not competing with another pig for the food dish? She's certainly still eating her hay with enthusiasm, especially the seed heads, which I often feed her by hand when she's sitting on me in the evening.
 

bpatters

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I think I'd see if I couldn't get her a friend about her own age. I've done that a couple of times. I didn't with my last one, because she was so cranky and so determined not to get along with another pig, that I decided to let her live on her own in peace. She was only by herself a little under a year, and I think she was happier. But most pigs would prefer a buddy.
 

Soecara

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Over the years I have had a few guinea pigs who lost their cage mates and for a time were alone. Ones that coped well acted almost as if nothing had changed for them, still the same enthusiasm they always had for food and daily activities, and aside from normal dominance behaviors they continued to act the same even after getting a new cage mate.

The ones that didn't cope well would lose enthusiasm for food and just seemed "down" in the way they acted, sleeping a lot more and just generally not wanting to do things, all of this completely changed when they got a new cage mate.

The ones who REALLY didn't cope well at all would go off their food and begin to lose weight, for some it was just leaving some vegetables uneaten for hours, for others it was complete lack of interest in food only nibbling on bit here and there but for the most part not wanting food, once again this completely changed when they got a new cage mate.

I had a a little over 5 years old lose her cage mate, when it happened she just seemed to slow down and lost her enthusiasm for her food, she was still eating but started slowly dropping weight and I thought she might just be feeling her age. At the time I went ahead and got two young sows to form a trio with her so when she passed I would still have a pair, as keeping more guinea pigs into the future was what I wanted. I decided to skip quarantine because they came from a good place and I decided the potential benefits outweighed the risks. I went ahead and introduced them and suddenly my older girl found her spark back, she would run laps with the young girls, went back on her food and actually gained weight over what she weighed before her previous cage mate passed, she lived another 3 years.

I have also had the opposite, an older guinea pig suddenly alone. Introduce a new cage mate, a few months later the older one passes.

It is your decision to make, but looking into adopting a senior guinea pig is certainly an option. However just keep in mind if you do get another you will possibly be back in the same situation when one of them passes. Certainly talk it over with the wife.
 
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