Hello from Wisconsin!

[Irishmoon]

Hello, my name is Rachel and I am officially hooked on piggies!

Charlotte and Lily are sisters. Charlotte likes to explore and is best friends with my Chocolate Lab. Lily is shy and loves to sit and watch TV with you.

Gilbert is our oldest male, we are thinking about 1.5 years old. He doesn't get along with one of his half brothers so he is in his own cage right now.
Louie and Duke are brothers and LOVE to make noise!!

We just got Gilbert, Louie, and Duke about 2 weeks ago from a family that grew bored of them so they were put in a back room and pretty much ignored. They cage had not been cleaned in probably over a month and all 3 were in a cage not even big enough for 1 pig.

This weekend I hope to build 3 C&C cages for the piggies since I don't like the cages they are in right now. I want to say thank you to this site for all the great information and I will probably be back every single day. I am a newbie and I already have so many questions and this site rocks!!! No more going to the petstore and having a question that no one knows. I now have access to so many experts!!

 

[akstrohm]

Welcome! I live in Madison, and there are a few other people from Wisconsin here as well. If you have any questions on care or cages, just ask.

Also, the dog and guinea pigs should not be allowed to be together. Even if the dog is very well behaved, he or she could unintentionally injure the pigs. Definitely start reading all the stickies here, especially on diet. You will find them very helpful!

 

[Irishmoon]

Charlotte is always in her cage when she is around my Lab. He will lay down next to her cage and put his nose up to the cage and she will give him kisses, its really cute. Both dogs are always in a different room when the piggies are out of their cages. That is one of the first things I read on here about dogs and piggies shouldn't be together

 

[SnowFlower]

Welcome! This site is indeed a godsend and really changed my mind-set about all things piggy. I'm glad you found it!

 

[Peggysu]

Welcome to GPC! There is a wealth of information on this site. It's a great place to learn how to properly care for you piggies!

 

[wheekers01]

Welcome! I was just in Madison Sunday to Tuesday. This site is wonderful and it has so much info! You can find/ask anything regarding piggies!

 

[NicholsS10]

Welcome to GPC fellow Wisconsinite! I know that you will learn plenty of information from passionate guinea pigs lovers here!

 

[akstrohm]

Charlotte is always in her cage when she is around my Lab.

Good to know! All of your animals sound very sweet.

 

[Rnd210]

Have you tried a big floor time space to see if the 3 boys would get along in a bigger space?

A bigger space makes a big difference on how well they get along.

 

[Ilovemypiggies1]

Welcome to GPC! This is a great site, I'm sure you'll love it. Most people on here are very informative about guinea pigs and if you have any questions, feel free to start another thread because all of us are willing to answer.

 

[Irishmoon]

The day after I got the boys I did some floor time with them and the fighting got worse between Gilbert and Louie. I took Louie out to see if Gilbert and Duke would get along but then Gilbert started picking on Duke and poor Duke just started squeeking and tried to run away and hide. So sadly I think Gilbert is going to be a lone bachelor but I was thinking about doing a divided cage so at least he can still see Duke and Louie.

 

[akstrohm]

Was there actually blood shed, or was one pig just picking on the other? If there was blood, you did the right thing by separating them. In that case, a divided cage is a great idea as long as both sides have plenty of room.

If there wasn't blood, I would try reintroducing them on neutral territory. There is a lot of normal dominance behavior in which one pig gets picked on that is actually okay (including rumblestrutting, teeth chattering, humping, etc.). I would read up on how to do introductions and what constitutes normal dominance behavior. Guinea Lynx has a lot of good information on this.

Another thing to consider is that depending on their ages, they may be going through puberty. In that case you might want to wait a few months and then introuduce them.

 

[fieryone]

Welcome and thank you for rescuing those boys from that awful life. You'll find all of the answers you need here and the answers to some questions that you never thought you had