My Guinea Pig has died and I would really appreciate how best to care for his friend

[SunshineCake]

They are not related but have been together since just before we rescued them. We got them in April when they were four months old and he would have been five in January.

When we lost our first guinea pig we brought in his lady friend but tbh she didn't seem bothered. The boy I have left was seen with his paws on the body of his friend and I am worried about him. We have brought him in and given him a treat stick but I would love to have ideas of what to look out for in case he could die of a broken heart.

I do realise I might sound an idiot I do know he is an animal.

Thank you.

You don't sound like an idiot at all. You sound like a caring pig slave! Sorry to hear of your loss.

Having been through this a few times myself, I can say that the best thing is to find him a friend. Rescues can be great at 'dating' pigs to help you find one he'll get on with. In a similar situation I found a baby boar at a rescue for our adult boar. If he's neutered you can find a rescue sow for him.

In the meantime it's lots of fuss and attention and being a lap pig. Ours always loved watching TV with us.

Thank you. I will keep an eye on him. He seemed a bit brighter this evening. Dh doesn't really want any more but I have final say and if SunshinePiggy doesn't perk up soon I will contact the rescue place. Thanks again.

SP very much enjoyed his new mint chew block today.

I have just seen your message and felt the need to reply, despite the time lapse.

I have been in a cycle of pairs/bereaved pigs for the last 12 years. I have had a successful bonding with a older piggy and a baby which was the most successful. My latest bereaved pig didnt want to bond with anyone after his "uncle" died and was happy to be sit in his cat bed every night and be part of our human family. So we changed our setup entirely and abandoned the outside hutch and bought the biggest cage we could have indoors, he was with us until he was 7 (mostly in his cat bed ).

I said I would never have a lone piggy but he seemed to be very happy. I did try! I now have two one year olds who come to work with me.

I'm sorry, it's so hard loving short lived animals and knowing they are not going to be around for long.

I'm a ratty mum rather than a piggy mum but I think their social needs are similar. Certainly our rats get very stressed without company. (This has only happened when we've had to isolate one who has had surgery, for example.)

We now try to socialise trios so that if the unexpected does happen, none of them are left on their own.

I think if you can find a piggy to adopt, preferably a similar age - definitely not older - that would be my first port of call.

In the meantime lots of interaction with humans, body contact etc.

It's normal for guinea pigs to groom the body of their deceased pal if they are bonded - I've seen it several times.
We only have one pig (he's very old) as the others have died in the last month and aren't getting a pal for him which I feel guilty about but as he's 6 we aren't going to have The Last Pig forever. He's enjoying lap time and cuddles and not having to share the carrots.

We've found they do 'grieve' for a while but that extra fuss, extra hay and extra parsley seem to help.

We have a lone survivor at the moment, but she's 6.5, lives indoors with the family and never seemed to like other pigs that much, so I'm thinking she might be our final guinea.

We are in the same boat and now have a single, elderly, pig. We're reluctant to get a friend for them as we aren't planning on having any pets once we no longer have this one. I've bought him soft snuggly beds to curl up in/on and am making sure I get him out as often as I he wants to - he comes and stands up at the edge of his cage now to be picked up and he's started responding to his name but I feel so guilty that he's alone.

I have a grieving boar too! He’s about 3.5 years old and lived with his brother until recently. He seems quite lonely and depressed at the moment and doesn’t even popcorn in his run anymore. I’d love to find him a pal, but no luck in the rescues round here. Would buying a younger boar from a pet shop work? I dislike pet shops, but he’s a very social boy and I feel sorry for him at the moment.

It's quite likely that they would fight unfortunately.
Ours doesn't popcorn as much now but we have tried to make his cage as cuddly and friendly as possible for him, he's older than yours - about 5. I think they would get on better with a female if they are neutered but ours isn't and at 5 I think it's pushing our luck to expect him to do well with surgery.

Just an update as it has been quite a few months since SunshinePiggy lost his friend.

He is still in the indoor cage as I can't bare the thought of him in the hutch outside in his own. He has his own little, big, patch in the garden as ds has mown the lawn and I asked him to leave a place of long grass for piggy to play in.

He seems so much happier and comes over for a scratch whenever I go within two metres anywhere near the cage. Annoyingly I have become allergic to him so I can't sit and cuddle him as even having him wrapped in a towel affects me.

He is 5.5 years old now and seriously cute.

Glad to hear piggy has perked up, you do know it’s the law to post a pic OP, you can’t taunt us saying how cute he is! 😀

I lost one of a bonded pair about 3 months ago and her companion was terribly sad for a few weeks. But on the plus side she lost a bit of weight (she was on the lardy side) and has remained slimmer as seems more relaxed around food than before! She has perked up hugely in the last few weeks. She's nearly 6 too and we won't be getting anymore - I'm allergic too. Such cute little beasts.

I have six piggies, 3 boys, 3 girls, living separately of course. Introduced two young girls to older girl after her friend died. No problems really, a bit of rumble strutting, but nothing worse. Boy pig on the other hand lost his pal in February. Put two new boys in with him and have had problems, lots of fighting, hard to decide which one instigates it, even after separating each of them one by one. Chunks missing from several ears! So I don't know the answer apart from maybe neutering your boy before adding a girl pig, or another neutered boy. My three boys are so apha male even when they don't have access to female pigs!

Forgot to add, the two little boy pigs are either my older boy pig's sons, or his pal's (that died in Feb) sons!

Black piggy is our late piggy and the white and tan one has just been brought in from playing in the garden

Ah , nice to know your piggie boy has being enjoying some garden time .
5.5 is a difficult age (though I did read that old boars are a "delight" and will bond with anything, I;m not convinced)

We kept GP7 in the small bedroom ( we'd kept the 3 Golden Oldies GP5+GP7 in one cage and GP6 (widower) in one adjacent) all the winter because they were getting on in age

We managed to marry our boar (neutered) off to GP7 for the last few months of his life .
But GP7 didn't get along with our other two sows and only accepted our boy because he was a loud food shouter and I made a huge C&C cage .

So she was on her own the last 4 months we had her , with us for company (there's no door on that room)

She liked some garden time , I think they enjoy the sounds outside and some sun on their backs .

Allergies are a blighter though, they do like to get right up to your neck (DD was very allergic to our coarse coats)

I don't think I'd risk an older pig being castrated , it's a risk that could go either way . Our GP7 had an ulcer on her eye (that did heal) but if it had been a case of removal, I don't think we'd have gone that route .