Help! Advice on what to do - two bonded guinea pigs, one has just died

[spero2]

No idea how it happened, but just found one of a bonded pair at the foot of my stairs. The cat must have got into the outside run but I can't see how and I don't know how the cat got past me. But I now have just one guinea pig - I got them as babies six years ago so they were very bonded. I think it will be awful for her to be on her own - is it a good idea to try and get another guinea pig or is there a risk that they will hate each other? I know it can be difficult to introduce rabbits but I am not sure about what happens with guinea pigs. Any advice welcome, I can't bear to think of her being on her own.

I’m really sorry, I only know about rabbits. I’m sure they’re happier when living with others and GPs can live in groups. I’d contact a rescue because they’re overrun but they also are experts in bonding.

I bonded my three together with no problems as adults and they're all males.

Sorry to read this, we had two piggies who were sisters and one died last August. They were only 3 and Guinea pigs need to be in pairs they don’t do well on their own long term. We contacted our local rescue and took our girl there and they introduced her to a piggie who was the same age. They got along fine, sadly our rescue one died six months later so we did the same again with no problems.

The good thing about a recuse is you can give one a good home and get one a similar age so your not in a constant cycle of having a young and old piggie.

Female guinea pigs bond well together and nearly always get along. She definitely needs a friend.

it can become never ending though, unless you dont mind.
can you keep one inside with human contact? unless it is already

It indeed can become never ending! 😃

If we were in your situation I'd think about buying another young pair or get an older rescue because if, is as more likely, the 6 year old dies in the nearer future you'd potentially left with another younger one on its own iyswim.

We've introduced one or two (usually 2 guinea pigs) and quarantined the new one(s) for a week to 2 weeks (potential disease reasons) and then introduced them all. We do the introductions in a neutral area and put a plate of fresh veggies in the middle of them to discover each other. They've all got a long very well after a 20 minutes or so.

However, we've only ever had females and I believe they are a lot less problematic than males in this regard.

Sorry for your guinea loss.

They don’t really like being on their own. We introduced a new pig from a neighbour after its partner died and they didn’t want to get another. We had the new pig in a run next to the three others we had for a week or so, so they could see and hear each other.

When we put them together for the first time we used a clean neutral area like the previous poster said. There was a few fights that we had to break up by throwing a tea towel over them. After that we read online that giving them a bath would help. So we washed them all together in a shallow tepid bath. Don’t know if washing their smell off them solved it but after that they were ok apart from a little grumbling.

They are all friends now. All females.

Think long and hard if you want to go down the replacing route.
given the age it’s perfectly reasonable to keep her on her own but keep an eye out for depression just in case.

I had a same age pair of girls, one died, the other happily lived out her life for another 9mths, in fact she was happier as she was pampered and got lots more attention. Turns out the one who died was so dominant the other one came right out of her shell.

We had this at the end of our guinea pig journey and as the remaining GP we bought her in to the busiest part of the house until she passed too a few months later - from memory I think they were 7-8. She seemed happy enough. I do believe GP’s shouldn’t be kept singly but we’d decided we didn’t want any more so we kept her as busy as we could so she had company as there’s pretty much always someone here.

Guineas are wonderful pets aren’t they. You’ve made me a bit nostalgic ❤️

We had 2. Ddog fetched an escapee back for me. JW ndn gave her a great send off and burial....
Swapped the surviving one with a vet nurse for 4 orphaned black dkittens and a whole new 'hobby' ensued.....

Thank you - I can't have her in the house as I have three dogs so I think she would be terrified - she has a run at the bottom of the garden. I will see where my local rescue is and what they advise. Very sad. They seemed very bonded

You cannot leave her on her own in the garden if she’s always been in a pair , and if the dogs would be an issue then being indoors would be stressful for her.

Six is a difficult age as she’s possibly got a couple of years in her though it’s too long for her to be on her own.
Finding her a cage mate , you’ll end up in the GuineaPig Spiral of adding another piggie .

You can see if any rescues do a loan guinea pig , basically you foster it until your piggie dies then you give it back . You could get a castrated boar .
Theyd probably want to have them indoors to keep an eye on them.

Or if you explain the situation and ask for them to take her on, you’d probably need to pay a surrender fee.
All my guinea pigs were from rescues so there is the chance of a new home or she would stay with guinea pig company .

our last three pigs died within six months . We had a neutered boar ( he did have two wives who died so he was in his own side of the pig house ) the other two girls ( bonded pair) didn’t like them . When the feisty one died we married the boar and the other sow. He was delighted. She had only ever lived with her cage mate or other pigs in rescue but they knew each other through the bars and she accepted him. They made a lovely pair - she was boss but he was used to that- until he went then she went .
we kept them indoors over the winter in the little bedroom in c&c cages

We had this situation with our guineas when one of our elderly sisters died. A local rescue let us introduce the remaining sister to several of their older females and when we found a compatible one, allowed us to borrow her until our other guinea pig died six months later, at which point we rather reluctantly returned her (she was lovely, but we were at the end of our guinea pig saga).

This was years ago and the one we borrowed will also have died by now, but I often thought of her and hoped she'd found a permanent home. I miss guinea pigs!