endless stream of guinea pigs

[marshymy]

I'm just curious.. a few years ago my sister got a pair of guinea pigs, she was told in the shop that she had to buy a pair as its cruel to keep a guinea pig on its own.

Fast forward a few years, one of the pigs dies. She doesn't want the remaining pig to be alone so she gets another pig, a year on the remaining pig also dies. Now she has the new pig that is on its own so she's just bought another one, this has led me to wonder.. is she going to be stuck in this guinea pig replacement cycle for ever more?

I was in that cycle !!! I had to break it so now I just have one guinea pig and haven’t bought another one. I feel so bad that I’ve moved the indoor cage into the kitchen / diner where we spend most of our time and our guinea ‘talks’ to us when we are in there. She has lots of cuddles and time to roam around indoors. That will have to be good enough I’m afraid as I had to break the cycle !!!

It’s illegal to only have one Guinea pig in Switzerland 🇨🇭

Rescued a four year old female. Got her a female friend.

Never did get the truth but Rescue Pig 1 looked decidedly shifty when I discovered the younger, healthier Rescue Pig 2 doing a heckin dead.

Some pigs are happy being top pig.

I have wondered this with our piggies, but we have a lady locally who adopts lone piggies in these situations 💖

Best to get 2 new guinea pigs, of similar age (so have 3 in all) or a pig that's older like the remaining one then hopefully the last 2 both die relativity close to each other. Or re-home the last one if its still quite healthy to someone that also has an older lonely piggy. That's the only way to break the cycle humanely.

I had this when I was a child. We brought piggy inside and I spent every waking non school moment with it. It seemed really happy, but I guess you never know

I thought you were referring to videos of

We had a single pig too- we rehomed her and were told that her sister had died unexpectedly and there had been fighting between them.
She lived alone more than happily for 3 years. DH retired about the time we got her- and she certainly had him twisted round her paws. Hutch was in the conservatory but she spent a lot of time in the house with us.
Previously we had a pair of guineas and after the first boy died the other was happy on his own, but only survived about 6 months.

At least they don't make as much noise as my NDN's infuriating yappy dogs. She's had two on the go for about 30 years now, and every time one dies, she gets another to replace it. Then another, ad infinitum.

I live in hope.

Quite a few of you have had single pigs without them falling into piggy depression so clearly it can be done, should i tell her or just wait and see how long this goes on for?

i will add that for the time being she doesn't seem to mind the guinea pig cycle!

we had a pair of sisters but one died quite young. we thought the survivor would be lonely but when we tried to give her a new friend, said new friend was viciously attacked and had to be rehomed. she preferred solitude.

Well if she's happy with Guinea pigs why should she break the cycle? They should be together.
She may be a person who always wants Guinea pigs in which case she should have two. Or there may come a day where she decides that is enough and then she'll either have to keep with one if the other dies or rehome to a another Guinea pig so he's happier.

Yes. That's her life now, endless guinea pigs for now until the end of time.

*from

God if I had the money I would also have a never-ending cycle of rabbits and Guinea pigs

This is why it is always a good idea to start off with two female guinea pigs.

Grown up male GPs do not like new guys in town but don't mind a new lady friend. So he either has to get the snip or you end up with an infinite stream of guinea pigs.

If you have two girls and one dies, just get a new girl - less power struggles and no babies

Yep. I did this for 30 years. But guinea pigs are hardly a hardship.
Finally stopped when the dc's were small. The remaining lone piggie lived inside in the living room for company in their final couple of years.

I've been wondering about this too! Have two girls just now, but one is older than the other (her mother, actually) so wondered if we'd be caught in a never-ending guinea pig cycle.
Looks like we may get away with giving surviving piggie lots of love!

Ha, we have two piggies and DH has also wondered this. He thought we should get another so when one died there were still two, but I pointed out there would still be only one at some point.

I definitely think that when it comes to Guinea pigs, 3 is a magic number.

Bought 2 babies nearly 5 years ago. 1 pig died in November. Got a rescue pig a few weeks later. Bonded well with remaining sow but new pig died unexpectedly 3 weeks later.

Spent yesterday bonding remaining sow to another rescue sow. Didn’t go that well. Original pig behaving like a moody old grouch. Preventing the other from getting food etc.

I can’t help thinking things would have been better if I’d just got 3 pigs in the first place.

We currently have two. We had another who had always been a loner and who came to us when her family lost interest. She was the perfect foster mum to our two babies.

Tbh the prospect of an endless stream of pigs doesn't fill me with dread. They are the least demanding members of our household

We’re still on the cycle. It’s been 14 years now, and I think this will be our final pair. If I had room I’d love a huge pen and all the unwanted guinea pigs I could lay my hands on though.

We had this cycle. Now we only have one.