We have one guinea as her mum died. Are we awful not to have a second.

[Bee2543]

Our guinea pigs mum died a couple years ago, she was very old! Our guinea now is about 6 but we didn't replace the mum as we didn't think we should just bring in another one. Anyway my ds now has become very consciousnes and as he has got older is having feelings of guilt as they are social animals and should be with others. My son brings her inside for company most days, she is looked after really well. I don't think introduction another one now would he wise. Thoughts...

[Qwertyyui]

I would say ideally you should have paired her up with another but might be a bit late for that now. With her age I would just make sure she has plenty of company snd cuddles and probably keep her inside in general? We have 2 house boys though so can see and hear everything and they are very vocal with food sounds or movement in general.

[Easterbunnygettingready]

Same boat with a rabbit. The dm died last year... One lonely bunny..

[Allllchange]

We moved ours permanently inside after the sibling died. Our guinea pig seems plenty happy as he has lots of company and watches us go about our business during the day and squeaks for food and treats.

[Lastbonestanding]

It's a difficult one. We don't intend to replace the guinea pig of ours that dies first. You could end up having guineas for the rest of your life. If you do get her a friend go for an older one so you don't have to get it a friend when your current guinea dies.

[megletthesecond]

I think it's not too bad if they're always inside and get lots of cuddles. I had an older single piggy for a couple of years when I decided to finally stop. She was in the living / dining room overnight and on colder days.

[Bee2543]

Yes, she has lots of cuddles indoors. We won't be having another guinea after her, so we just want to keep her happy as she is old for a guinea.

[Daisy829]

We are in a similar position although our single gp is only 18 months old. Her sibling died very suddenly it was so sad. We got her a friend & she died suddenly too. Devastating. Anyway our vet said that they can live happily on their own & we cant go through it all again. She seems happy enough & gets attention. I also don’t want to be in the cycle of having guinea pigs for the rest of my life.

[Brendabigbaps]

A lone piggie will let you know if it’s unhappy, they act depressed, stop eating etc.

We lost one of ours just before Xmas, she and her sister were just 5 and had been with us most of their lives.
We took advice from a respected piggie sanctuary where we got them from. They advised that whilst we weren’t piggies we were her herd and losing us so soon after her sister would be worse especially at her age. We watched for signs of her not being happy and there were none, infact she came out of her shell. She was the less dominant one, we had the best 4 months together. She had hay boxes in various rooms and we took her round the house with us so she was always with people and we had hours of beautiful cuddles.
We’d never heard her make the put put noise until then, she was happy.
Sadly we lost her 4 days ago n to get cystic ovaries

[DinosaurDiana]

Only if you don’t want any more. At some point there will be one left !

[Notavegan]

I will have this dilemma one day, although mine are brothers so I'm hoping for a similar life expectancy. I personally wouldn't get another in your shoes. She's quite elderly

[BonnieDundee]

I would definitely keep a single piggy indoors where they have more company. I think it would be fairly miserable outdoors on their own. If they are indoors they have company a lot of the time

[CrystalE]

We paired up our lone female with 2 babies when she was 7.

It was fine with the added benefit for us that one of the babies used to eat her long hair meaning less brushing and bathing of her pooey bottom.

She lived until she was 10.

One of the babies died recently (age 5). I managed two days of her moping around looking miserable before I got her a friend.

The main problem I had was finding a female. There are loads of boars for sale but females get snapped up quickly for obvious reasons.

If you get left with a lone female when your kids grow up you could always sell her or put her up for adoption.

[Dinnaehinksae]

When one of ours passed we gave the remaining pig a small teddy in the hopes she wouldn't feel as lonely. It did seem to work, she moved it about the cage and often had it at the bowl beside her. Maybe something similar would be worth trying?