Help! Nursery Guinea pigs appear to have divorced!

[3littlebadgers]

Just that. They are two boys, about a year or so old. They used to live happily together but during the summer holiday I have had them at mine to care for them. I put them in the old rabbit hutch I had which is free flow between two indoor levels and run and they have been as happy as Larry but living separate lives. Peter has stuck to the high level and Rabbit has stuck to the low level.

Will they be ok together when they are back at nursery when the hutch is large but on one level? Will they still be bonded? Will they be better apart?

As long as they aren't actively fighting I would think they would be fine. In my experience guineas are pretty quick to show their displeasure if they aren't getting on. Some don't like steps, so that may be an issue, especially if they aren't used to them. And they may just be enjoying the space. But it is possible that as they get older they are growing apart, we had a group of three boys once from the same litter and two turned on the other one day without warning and killed him, so definitely worth keeping an eye. It may be worth moving one out temporarily and putting a treat food on the other floor to tempt the one up or down the stairs a few times, so you know they can do the stairs, and mix their bedding up to circulate their smell to both floors.

Thank you I will give it a try.

Our piggies won't go up the ramp, we tried everything and had to in the end fix a tube onto it. And then problem solved they'll go up and down fine.

How are they if you bring them out of the cage and put them together on neutral ground? As MrsRuby says they may simply not like the ramp, we have a two level cage and one of mine is not keen on going upstairs (she's too fat to fit through the hatch easily ) but she will do if it's worth her while, ie if there's food upstairs. Her sister hangs out upstairs more but they are very much still bonded.

If there are any problems between them, the best tip is to clean out the cage completely so it doesn't smell of one or the other, then bathe them both so they smell like each other. Then carefully reintroduce them...