Solo guinea pig - how to keep happy

[VioletSubmarine]

I temporarily have a solo guinea pig. I am going to find him a piggie friend but it may take a few weeks. Is there anything I can do to keep him happy in the meantime? He hasn’t been bonded before so he is not massively missing a friend. But I imagine even a more stand offish pig likes to have others around?

He is an indoor pig if that makes any difference. Quite happy to be handled and fairly lazy with bursts of bouncing around. Right now he is new to me so mostly hiding although I note he has carefully demolished the carrot in his bowl while I was out, while ignoring the parsley.

Mine seems pretty happy. He lives in a C&C in the kitchen directly under the fridge. He chats to us during the day and yells most assertively every time the fridge is opened.

At the moment he goes out on the grass a lot and popcorns around like an 8 week old.

I'm sure he would be happier with a friend but he is a 'last pig'. I wouldn't say he was suffering, he still has plenty of personality and bosses us about constantly. I think he may believe he is a hooman.

That is very reassuring. Ours is going into a big C&C cage but is temporarily in a smaller one while we create space. He arrived a little earlier than I had planned for. He has been hiding a lot but pops out if you sit and talk in the room for a bit without making loud noises. My daughter sat in there and read him stories for ages.

There is a lot of doom-saying on the internet about only pigs, and I'm sure they are better off with friends, but I don't think it's impossible to keep one healthy on their own.

I did cave and try to buy a baby male that had been left on his own in P@H but they wouldn't sell him to me! Apparently their policy is that an adult male will kill a baby male. Restrictive given how hard it is to a) find a vet who will neuter a guinea and b) how uncommon 'boar dating' services are.

I think your pig will grow bolder if you set up a good routine for him. They like consistency!

We had a last pig. Her 2 sisters died and she was about 5 years old and I really didn't want to re-start the cycle. So we brought her in to live indoors permanently, in the study which was occupied every day, with daily runs on the grass in dry weather. She had lots of fuss and treats and cuddles. I don't believe she was unhappy as she lived with great character and energy for another 2.5 years.

Apparently their policy is that an adult male will kill a baby male

what utter shite !
Properly handled introductions between an adult and a piglet is a good solid almost paternal relationship (until the piglet grows up to be a muscle flexing little teenager and tries to rule the roost. Hopefully -as with happened when GP1 gor his tiny piglet stepson- they say Yep, take the reins now and let them be alpha-pig).
They need space and their living conditions need to suit two males but it can be very harmonious.

I confess that mine is a P@H rescue. I had not intended to buy one from them at all as I don’t particularly agree with it. But when I saw him in the rehoming bit I felt very sorry for him. Did you get your boar neutered 70, or was he neutered when you got him?

My GP1/GP2 were 1yo brothers (entire)
GP3 piglet was neutered (by our guinea-pig vet) when GP1 died (GP3 was about a year old) then we got him ladies.
GP6 was pre-neutered (about 2 weeks before we got him, he had his quarentine/ going Jaffa period for IIRC 4-5 weeks while he got to know the girls through a cage ) They don't usually let them be rehomed until they're sterile but they knew we'd gone through it already.

I think a lot of Rescues now castrate their boars routinely so if they do want to bond them its all done. They'll use vets that have small animal surgery experience and high turnover of castrations.

IIRC GP6 was £10 and we paid the equivilent of what it would cost to neuter (so £10 pig+ £40/£50 on top)

My plan was to castrate ours and get a sow to keep him company. The vets I use has experience although I think I am going to double check how much just to be sure. I definitely want someone who absolutely knows what they are doing.

Currently he is still a bit nervy. Partly I think his temporary cage is just a bit restricted. A bigger one arrives tomorrow and in a few weeks I will be able to put the properly big one up. I also have a pen arriving tomorrow so he can run around indoors a bit. Our garden isn’t accessible right now, but we are putting grass in it (previously all paved or beds) just for him.

Lovely idea getting him a new friend.
I had a solo boar (castrated) and he ended up with two sow partners, when he died I got another sow.
I’ve got two gorgeous sows at the moment but am keeping an eye out for another as I heard piggies love a pack! (And they have a huge cage!)
I think plenty of cuddles in the meantime and lots of treats. I hope you find him a new friend quickly :)
When I was a child we had a ‘last pig’ she went to live with a friends pig family of four and had a happy 2 years!