Guinea pug advice for newbie please...

[clippityclop]

Thanks again for your responses to my earlier post about her not drinking much! Now madam has decided to ignore anything but red pepper and hay! Kale, broccoli, carrots apart from the odd nibble, mixed greens has received the turned up snout treatment. She has pellets and muesli which she picks at. Should I remove red pepper from the menu? Is there anything else we could try? Plenty of poo and wee though and generally seems content . She's quite chatty when we bring her out for cuddles, we've had fun with jenga blocks, and she was poking her head out of her doorway ready for breakfast this morning. Any suggestions welcome!

Thank you!

Good Luck clip - hope you find the piggy/piggies that you need to add to your herd.

When I had GP3 (still entire) and got the two sows , they had to be kept in chatting distance only (he was neutered a couple of days later but they are still fertile for 4 weeks) so by the time he properlky met up, they were used to each others voices.

He did the rumbly purr noises and circled his nose round their faces (sweet) they put their heads into piles of hay and charged at him

The Rescue should be able to put your pigs in a neutral area to assess how they behave with each other ( we did this with our adult GP1 and baby GP3, but couldn't with the boar/sows)

I have a thread about GP1 meeting his new piglet (GP3) and GP3 meeting his ladies, I'll find the dates.

I didn't quarentine GP3 when I got him (my bad) mainly because GP1 was alone after his brother died and he would have been bereft to meet him and have him seperated ( I thought whatever he might potentially have, I'll deal with. But they had been vet checked prior to coming to us)

The Rescue will know the personalities ( piganalities ) of their guineas, we got feisty adults for GP3. Though I tell GP5 she's lucky she came to live with me , she wouldn;t be an ideal childs pet (still bear the scars when I met her - little razor clawed devil )

Give your paddling pool a scrub to make it neutral then put a few piles of hay, food (veg) to occupy them.

They'll need to be undisturbed for a couple of hours, there will be noise, chattering, chasing, squeaking depending on the nature of the pigs.

If you do put a hidey space make sure it's quite open - a box with large cutout doors maybe- so one can't trap the other.

They will bond over food

When they go into the main hutch/cage it needs to be deep cleaned to remove all the smells of the resident pig (white vinegar is good to clean those white chalky pee marks off), I use a hand held steamer too.
Move things round, maybe a new tunnel or igloo so that your original pig is and doesn't feel she's being invaded.
Luckily , they are easily bamboozled so will go off to explore together.

Naughty Girl got her new friends in September 2013. They had a play date at the rescue and all 3 (Naughty + 2 friends) came home in the same pet carrier without any fighting.

Once home they spent time in the run that's got a summer house attached and again all was fine.

But Naughty was quite at bedtime. She hadn't bargained for her new friends sharing her hutch. She seemed quite possessive as they charged about exploring her space and bowls. Things only stayed harmonious by having 3 separate food piles. Over the next couple of days I brought the food together and they ate in one big scrum and have done ever since.

A lot of good came out of the new friends; they introduced Naughty to new foods and showed her how to drink out of a water bottle

Thank you so much for all your lovely replies, so grateful! Well, delighted to report that after all your encouragement we now have two very, very happy piggies! We got Newbie2 (sow 3months) from the home of a lovely lady who runs a piggy hotel just round the corner. She confirmed Newbie1 is a girly and about 5 months old, we gave them a chance to say hello but did the proper introductions at home in the pen run which was completely new to both of them. Straight away they rubbed noses, sniffed each other all over and started chatting away and haven't stopped since. They snuggled down the together in the sleeping compartment of the two story cage and happily shared a bowl of greens. Back in the run today which we'd furnished with some cardboard boxes, a cut up tube with food hidden inside, haystack etc. They haven't stopped rearranging the place, gossiping away as if they've know each of them forever. Just wish they would sit still long enough for me to take a photo!

Aww, lovely outcome

Yay

lovely .

So, you've got 3 ladies now?
They'll get to know each other, assert their pecking order and settle to their new life.

And piggies, ..... " Pigtures" ( photos) are compulsary on Super Furry Animals ( I can't gel with "Small Pets" )

But you can pander to our nosiness by telling us coat type/eye colour/coat colour and claw colour.

Pigtures are compulsory you know, Clippety. Glad to hear you have some happy piggies.

SO frustrating, I can't link a photo on t this site from our laptop for some reason...thank you so much for all your interest, it's lovely to see our girlies enjoying themselves. They love their piggy pen ad have played in the downstairs part of their double decker but haven't used the ramp yet but I suppose that will come.

Hope this works...

they are gorgeous , lovely piggies

Beautiful coat colours. Enjoy them.

Very cute!

Thank you!

Very pretty piggies

Hey! Give back my guinea pig immediately... oh wait, she's still here. Must have a twin sister.

they all seem to have dopplegangers.

My Himalayan has many evil twins lookie-likies

Mine has characterful ragged ears after the Battle of the Fleece House. (She lost.)