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Small pets

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Original poster

Guinea Pigs - Are males or females the best pets?

13 replies

emlu67 · 03/03/2011 14:38

DD wants two guinea pigs for her birthday. We would buy two and I wondered whether males or females make the best pets or if it doesn't really matter.

OP posts:

thumbwitch · 03/03/2011 14:39

females! less fighting and they don't get anal gland issues, which means they can't poo. I have had 9 female guineapigs now and they've all been fine. :)

Pancakeflipper · 03/03/2011 14:42

Females. The boys are naughty.

Pterosaur · 03/03/2011 14:45

Females, as above (though our little boys have been lovely and our girls fought, generally speaking it is more likely to be the other way round). I have had plenty of opportunity to appreciate both sexes, as our original two baby females arrived stuffed full of baby boys (beware!).

irregularegular · 03/03/2011 14:47

I was told that if the boys are brothers they fight/bite less than females. We have two boys and they don't fight/nip at all. They are utterly benign!

Pterosaur · 03/03/2011 14:53

Our last suriviving two pigs (we rehomed three boys, kept two), a female and her neutered nephew, are getting on like a house on fire. Amazing how quickly the bereaved male recovered from the loss of his brother when a woman moved in with him.

hmc · 03/03/2011 14:54

As most of the other posters have suggested, females is the standard advice

pinkem · 05/03/2011 10:10

emlu67 instead of buying please try rescue centres they are always looking for forever homes and they will have babies aswell as adults.

Original poster

emlu67 · 05/03/2011 17:50

Thanks for your replies, I will definitely try the rescue centres rather than pet shops, I think they are more trustworthy and the animals will have been well looked after by them. Hopefully we will be able to purchase an already established pair.

Just need to get DH to agree to buy them now (not keen at the moment!) Any ideas on that one? He did have them himself as a child so DD thinks she should be allowed to have them too!

OP posts:

pigpog · 17/03/2011 18:05

Girls can be housed together, boys will need to be castrated, that was a consideration for us.

We've only ever had 1 male, but he was the most loving guinea pig we've ever had, I was devastated when he died.

We only have girls now, mainly for the ease of being able to add more.

Good luck in finding your new pigs, and convincing your DH!

Alwaysworthchecking · 17/03/2011 20:03

I have two boys and they are as good as gold. They are brothers and were rescue piggies. They never fight, although they sometimes have verbal arguments. However, they STINK! These are the first boys I've had. I've had a succession of girl piggies, over many years, and the girls never whiffed at all. These two mainly smell of wee, but they also sometimes give off a musky smell, especially if we have girl guineas boarding with us. (Guinea equivalnet of 'Lynx' I think.) TBH, much as my two are sweet little things I would not get boys again as I am fed up of my house smelling like an incontinence clinic!

I'm pretty certain mine aren't castrated either, judging by the size of their testicles. Picked one up the other day and thought, 'Oh no - he's got a growth!' Then realised I had a handful of nadgers.

So there you are: all the problems cited by previous posters have not been issues for us, but based on the wee and the outrageously sized testicles, I'd go for girls next time.

pigpog · 18/03/2011 11:00

about the growth

I meant to live with females they need to be castrated, sorry, I wasn't clear.

I've never tried 2 males together as we don't have room for another cage if it didn't work out. Know plenty of people have them and they get on great though.

miso · 20/03/2011 20:51

We have two boys, not brothers but were both very young when we got them, & they get on fine.

I worried about needing to have them castrated if they started to show aggression, but we never needed to. Even during what I assume was their teenage phase they never did more than square up to each other a bit - no actual fighting.

I would have been prepared to put a divider down the middle of their cage (its a C&C one so would've been easy) but never had to.

Pterosaur · 20/03/2011 20:59

Our boys, brothers, used to roll over and over each other like cartoon creatures, locked in furry combat, when they went through their mad adolescent phase. Neither of them was ever injured though. Once they'd outgrown that stage, they were Derby and Joan.

If they do become aggressive, neutering them won't help - it doesn't affect their behaviour at all.

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