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.