Getting Guinea Pigs to Live Together in the Same Cage

As the new pig on the block, I have to say that that I wasn't crazy about the silly dominance rituals I've had to put up with--from certain individuals far more than others. (They know who they are!) Fortunately, the time has come to finally put such foolishness behind us.

As the newest member of the Cavy Savvy blog team, I've had a lot of catching up to do on previous posts. One thing I found fascinating was that Broccoli was introduced on the blog on November 9, but the post announcing that he was living with the others didn't appear until May 10 the next year. So that's about 6 months before everyone became one little old happy family. For comparison, I was introduced on March 31 of this year, and it's only in this last week that I finally joined the cage. So that's 4 months of grief I've put up with. But, I'm trying to be a water bottle-is-half-full kind of gal, so I suppose I should be grateful it took 2 months less this time around than the last time.

Let this be a lesson to humans out there who expect new guinea pigs to hit it off instantly. It takes time, so manage your expectations accordingly.

Yes, I know this is awkward. But please don't chase me around.

The humans want us to get along. If we work together and play nice, there could be some sort of treats in store for us. What do you say?

Well, I never thought I'd see the day!

So what made the difference? Honestly, it just took time. The humans allowed us to slowly get accustomed to each other's presence through the cage bars and during floor time. Eventually, they noticed a drop on the amount of chasing and fighting, and knew it was time. If you're having trouble introducing a new pig to your other ones, do it gradually, and be patient.

Getting Guinea Pigs to Try New Foods

Well, hello there readers. I recently had an interesting experience that I must share with you. Ever since moving to my new home, the humans have been trying to get me to eat new things. These new foods have included things called "cherry tomatoes" and "zucchini." (Perhaps you've heard of them? ) I have so far ignored the tomatoes, and pooped on the zucchini. Perhaps that sounds uncouth to you, but if I don't recognize something as food and it's in my cage, it's within my rights to poop on it.

The humans seemed displeased with how I was treating their gifts, and decided to punish me with another bonding attempt. Oh, great. More of Broccoli's annoying attempts to assert dominance. Didn't know you cared that much about zucchini, humans!

This time went a little differently, however. The humans put us all down on the floor around a blue plate with chunks of something called "green pepper." Sorry, that doesn't look like food, either.

What is this stuff?

Or does it? Broccoli and Buffy seem to be eating it. I'm just starting to get to know them, though, and I don't know if I trust their opinions yet. They do seem to really be enjoying it, though. Really enjoying it. If I just sit here and watch, it will all be gone soon. And why should I be left out of such enjoyment?! That's it, I'm trying this green pepper stuff out for myself!

Let me just try a little of this to see what all the fuss is about...

Not bad!

Quite good stuff, it turns out. So maybe I trust their opinion a little more now. Maybe I'll actually give tomatoes and zucchini a try if I see them eat it first. No promises, though.

Second Guinea Pig Introduction Attempt

Well, hello there readers. It's been a tough week as the newest writer here at Cavy Savvy. The humans have been doing their best to make a smooth introduction happen, which I am certainly not opposed to in principal, although my prospective cage-mates have been acting rather ridiculously during our recent encounter. See the video for yourself:

The drama continues!

So it starts out with the two of them getting way too close for comfort. A bit intimidating, but I remain cool as a cucumber. Then Buffy starts up with a back attack! Now I'm not an overly-aggressive pig, but if you hit me, I'll hit you right back. Sorry Buffy, but you were asking for it!

Then Broccoli starts getting rather aggressively close, and even starts climbing on me! Listen up, Broccoli. I'm nobody's footstool, and running circles around me doesn't impress me. Nor does butt-sniffing. And there's only so much foolish behavior I can tolerate before you'll leave me no choice but to headbutt you!

Clearly, Broccoli wants to prove his dominance, but he bit off a bit more than he can chew with me!

That's what defeat looks like.

Better luck next time! I sure hope we can resolve all this dominance foolishness soon.

Guinea Pig Introduction - Lola 2 meets Buffy!

It's time for another Cavy Savvy guinea pig introduction! This has only really been done once before, when Lola (#1) and Broccoli got into some serious drama. The humans decided it was finally time for us to meet Lola (#2) today without any bars between us. (Although the vet originally told us 30 days is the standard quarantine period, we were told on a second visit that we can introduced early since we were under observation for several days while the humans were out of town, and the vet found no evidence of health problems.)

To introduce us, the humans picked a neutral location (not one of our cages), and placed us at opposite corners so we could discover each other on our own terms. Broccoli decided to be silly and run away at the first sight of Lola (#2). Although I haven't been always been the bravest pig, today I found my courage to walk right and introduce myself!

Hi! I'm Buffy. Who are you?

The humans wanted to give Broccoli another chance to redeem himself, and he ran away again!

Nope nope nope...

When introducing guinea pigs, usually some dominance-establishing behavior takes place. Here is Cavy Spirit's guide to behaviors that you should and should not tolerate during introductions:

• Safe, non-combative, dominance behavior (don't worry yet!)
• Rumblestrutting
• Butt sniffing
• Butt nudging
• Chasing
• Butt dragging (they are leaving their scent)
• Mounting (any which way: rear mount, head mount, side mount, flying leap mount!)
• Nose face-offs (higher in the air wins, one must lower their nose to be subservient to the other)
• Teeth chattering: a little (signal of dominance)
• Raised hackles (hair on the back of the neck and along the spine)
• Posturing for possible attack, battle for dominance is escalating (monitor very closely!)
• Teeth chattering: sustained (signal of anger, aggression, warning)
• Nips, light bites, may result in little tufts of fur in their teeth
• Wide yawn, but this is no yawn, they are showing their teeth
• Snorting (like a strong puff or hiss)
• Fighting with intent to harm (time to separate)
• Bite attacks are no longer warning nips, they are lunges with intent to harm.
• Combination of raised hackles, loud and angry teeth chattering, rumblestrutting in place with the head staying in one position while facing the other guinea pig doing the same thing. Usually a signal of a biting attack. But they may back down before they engage.
• Both pigs rear up on their haunches, face to face. This is a clear, brief signal of their intent to launch full attacks at each other. Separate if possible before the attack.
• Full battle. The pigs are locked together in a vicious ball of fur. This is very serious. Separate immediately, but be careful. Throw a towel over them and use a dustpan or something other than your hand to separate them. Unintended bites from their very sharp incisors can cause serious damage.

The humans had a towel ready to throw over us just in case things didn't go well. Apparently, the towel was not necessary.

Should I Get Another Guinea Pig?

Thinking about adopting a new pig into your herd? You should think carefully about what will need to change before you adopt a new bundle of furry joy. Here are some things to consider:

Broccoli is the newest member of the herd.

Interactions between us takes interesting new twists and turns

Since guinea pigs are herd animals by nature, throwing a new pig into the mix forces us to reassess our social hierarchy. The battle for top pig begins all over again, so be sure you introduce us carefully and monitor us so the fighting doesn't get too ugly.

You'll need more space (and an extra pigloo)

The number of pigs you have should determine how many square feet our cage should be. Check out the guineapigcages.com handy guide for exact measurements.

Make sure you can handle the extra expenses

You may think that since you already invested in cage, hay, pellets, your water bottle, bedding, etc., that another pig won't be a big deal, but consider that if you have one pig and get a second, your vet bills will double. If you have two and are adding a third, that's triple the vet bills. In our experience, vet bills are always the biggest expense, and can be as little as $20 here and there for nail trims to $80 for check ups each year, to $400 for major surgeries. So just remember that you'll have to put some extra cash aside for your new furry friend. We love the saying, "If you can't afford the vet, you can't afford the pet."

We get a bit louder

Our need to communicate broadens from just chatting with you, the human, to this new pig. Be aware that we will have a lot to say, and we might not stop chatting just because you've gone to sleep at night. 

Three Guinea Pigs Living Together (At Last)

As our regular readers know, ever since Broccoli was neutered, the humans have wanted us all to live together.  Previous attempts to introduce us did not go over well, however. Lately, Broccoli hasn't bothered us as much as he has in the past, and the humans seemed to notice. Today, they hooked our cages up together, we've been getting along okay so far.

Lola says: "Look at that. My home gets an extension!"

I've taken to sitting in Broccoli's bed, even though Lola and I didn't care for it when it was in our cage originally. Lola still hasn't figured out how to go up the ramp in Broccoli's cage, but she enjoys walking around in it. Broccoli now loves using pigloos to hide and relax in.

You're probably wondering what finally did the trick to turn guinea pig combatants into friendly cage-mates. There honestly was not a single defining moment; they never did give us a bath together like they threatened to. It was the result of gradual exposure. The humans kept our cages together so we could get used to each other's scents, and we had floor time adventures together that got less hostile over time.

Lola has stopped waking the humans up in the middle of the night with her wheeking ever since the cages were combined, so Broccoli and I think she's pretty satisfied with the new living arrangements!

Guinea Pig Social Hour

The other day, the humans decided to try having us play together on the striped carpet. Up until now, the humans have always put us on the colorful square carpet when the three of us are together. Nobody has "claimed" the colorful squares carpet, mainly because it is rare that any of us are brave enough to venture over to the other room (but also because the colorful square carpet is ugly and none of us really want to be seen on it). So the colorful square carpet, being neutral and disliked all around, is where the humans have let us interact when we're all out having floor time together.

We've been getting along so well lately, with fewer incidents of nipping, burring and other general unpleasantries, so the humans let us all out on the striped carpet. Now, Lola and I really enjoy the striped carpet. It is in the same room as our cage, and it's huge. We love running around on it, and up until now, we thought it was reserved exclusively for our use. It turns out Broccoli has been allowed to roam the striped carpet when we are secure in our cage. So the issue has arisen that now none of us know who exactly owns the striped carpet territory. When the humans released all three of us from our cage the other day and let us out on the striped carpet, it was battle royal:

Luckily, nobody was hurt. I'm telling you, if the human hadn't been giving Lola the "I'm watching you, missy!" look, I'm pretty sure she would have showed Broccoli who's boss.

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Dandelion Greens?

Let's make one thing absolutely clear up front: Our humans bought us organic dandelion greens from the store. You can pick your own dandelion greens, of course, but you've got to be careful; you don't want to just grab dandelion greens from areas where people might walk dogs or use pesticides. Assuming you have dandelion greens that are safe to feed us, we can have them 2-4 times per week. The flowers and roots are also edible.

For this new food tasting, the humans fed all 3 of us together. They said they wanted to try to get us to bond this way before using the dreaded bathing technique.

Okay, Broccoli, none of us wants a bath, so let's just play nice and get through this, okay?

What are you doing, Broccoli?! BACK OFF!

Mine! Stay back!

The dandelion greens were great, which was more than I could say for the company. Broccoli kept poking his nose onto my side of the plate, invading my personal space. He even ran around behind me and tried to mount me in the middle of my meal! That's extremely poor etiquette, and of course I had to lash out to let him know that's not okay. The humans had to separate us again, though, which makes me think we're all going to be bathed soon. Uh-oh...

Oh, right. I almost forgot I'm doing a review here. Dandelion greens get 5/5 stars.

Introducing Guinea Pigs

Back when Broccoli was neutered, we said we were really looking forward to finally meeting him. The introduction didn't go as smoothly as we hoped, though. The humans did everything right: they put us together on opposite ends of neutral territory, and let us meet on our own terms. Buffy and I wanted to take things slow, but Broccoli rushed right up to us.

Whoa! Slow down there, cowboy. Give us a few minutes to get used to the idea of being next to you with no cage between us.

Okay, little boy, you want to challenge my dominance? Are you really that crazy?

You better back down! I am twice your size.

Can you believe him? I'm the dominant pig, and I'm not about to let him take that away from me. My teeth started chattering, I raised the hairs on my back and neck, and I made my angry, low grumbling sound. He didn't back down, so I had to lunge at him and bite. That's when the humans stepped in and separated us. Having my authority challenged like that upset me so much that I chased Buffy around when I was back in my own cage (you know, just so she doesn't get any ideas from him).

I heard one of the humans say something about how they read online that bathing us all together can erase our smells and get us to bond instead of fight. Hopefully, they'll forget all about that crazy idea, but if they don't, expect to read an angry blog post here about our treatment!