Guinea pig adoption: Settling in

When you buy a baby guinea pig, an older guinea pig (even a male) will almost instantly start to ‘mother’ them. As the young guinea pig grows up, there may be the occasional tussle for power, but generally they will be friends right from the start and quickly become a well bonded pair.

But what would happen with a guinea pig adoption?

Zebedee is a 1-year-old rescue guinea pig. It’s not clear whether he is only just 1 or nearly 2 (in the fairly short lifespan of a guinea pig, that obviously makes a big difference). He went to the animal shelter already neutered, which generally makes male guinea pigs calmer. When I brought him home, the animal shelter gave me some Pet Remedy calming spray and wipes. These are designed to calm animals and help with bonding.

We have a fairly large two-storey hutch. My only real option on bringing Zebedee home was to put him straight in the hutch with Herbert. I had some of his hay from the animal shelter and the calming spray. At first they seemed OK, so I was quietly confident.

When I went to check on them a bit later, there was a small quantity of blood on the bedding. I picked them both up and inspected them, but it wasn’t clear whose blood it was. All I could do was keep checking them.

The next time I went to see them, Herbert was upstairs. And he didn’t come back down.

If anyone was upstairs, I would have expected it to be the newcomer. But it seems that Zebedee had come in and basically frightened Herbert (a much larger guinea pig) out of his own home. I must say I did start to question myself at this point. Although guinea pigs are sociable animals which should live in pairs and groups, he had actually seemed quite settled on his own.

And now this new guinea pig had come in and shaken everything up.

The next morning, Herbert was still upstairs. The food looked largely uneaten, which suggested he hadn’t been downstairs at all.

So I put a separate bowl of food and bottle of water upstairs for him, then sprayed the calming spray around the hutch.

I got both guinea pigs out and stroked them separately. Then I put Herbert downstairs and he sprinted back upstairs almost immediately.

Later in the day, I took a handful of Zebedee’s soiled bedding and put it upstairs, swapping it with a handful of Herbert’s bedding. This helps them to get used to each others’ scent. Herbert immediately started sniffing and scratching at the bedding. I hoped this was a good sign.

By the end of the second day, the two guinea pigs were exchanging places in the hutch a bit, but not really engaging with each other.

On day three, I found several sore looking cuts on Herbert’s back. There was only one way they could have got there! So I took the ladder away to keep Herbert and Zebedee completely separate. It’s good practice to have them in separate hutches, but close enough that they can see each other, but we didn’t have a spare hutch, so this seemed the best way forward. They would still hear and smell each other.

I must admit though that at this point I started to consider whether Zebedee would have to go back, something which I had definitely never planned or expected.

On day five, I weighed Herbert and he’d lost 66 grams since we got Zebedee. That would be fine over a couple of months in the winter, but was a worrying amount in such a short time. But I let the two guinea pigs out into the run to play together for a few minutes, although all they did was run and hide from each other.

I took Herbert to the vet and she was happy that his cuts were healing well and not infected. She was also not worried about the weight loss – as long as he was eating and pooing.

I spoke to the rehoming officer and he gave me more advice about swapping the guinea pigs over into each others’ ‘homes’ and also putting them together on neutral territory to bond. He suggested the kitchen floor, but as Hetty is on the loose, I opted for the downstairs toilet. They seemed drawn to each other and would sit nicely for a couple of minutes, but then would start fighting.

After that, I settled into a routine of swapping them around in the hutch most days. When the weather was dry, they went on the grass together and when I had time I put them in the downstairs toilet together.

Herbert seemed more keen to make friends than Zebedee did, but Zebedee’s attacks on Herbert were at least decreasing. Two weeks after getting Zebedee, Herbert had regained his lost weight and Zebedee put a bit of weight on too, so I felt they weren’t too stressed.

My feeling was that Zebedee hadn’t been handled much, as he was never keen for me to pick him up (although he was happy enough once I was holding him). I was surprised that he always took food from my hand though, so he’d obviously been trained. (Herbert only sometimes takes food from my hand. Henry and Cedric always did.)

On the day of Forest of Dean half marathon, two and a half weeks after getting Zebedee, I made a mistake. I was in a rush, so I brought Herbert down to the bottom of the hutch to swap them for the day, but didn’t put Zebedee upstairs. I didn’t realise they’d been together until I went to feed them in the evening. Zebedee had blood on his nose. So they definitely weren’t ready to be together all the time!

I hoped to end this post by saying they are settled now, but they’re not. It’s been eight weeks and still a work in progress. I said I’d give it a week, then two weeks, and Zebedee is still here. I want to do the best for him, but I’m not sure that by doing the best for him that I’m doing the best for Herbert, who is my number 1 priority. I will keep trying and hopefully it will eventually work out.

We did have some initial difficulties with bonding baby Herbert and 1-year-old Henry, which led to them being separated for a few weeks. It seems that 1-year-old guinea pigs aren’t so good at bonding with others, as they are still young themselves.