Many people ask me on a regular basis how I managed to bond 3 boars, in such little time, so let me talk you through it!
Back Story
In 2018, I adopted Loki and Thor, who were already bonded, because they grew up together. Although everything was perfect, I one day needed some hay for the boys, so I had to go into my local pet store to get some.
Whilst I was there I saw Herbie for adoption. He looked lonely and sad, but I instantly fell in love with him! So I brought him home with the intention of eventually bonding all 3.
In 2020, we added Lumi into the family and had the same intention to bond hun with the other 3, which just didn’t work. Read to find out more!
Settling in a New Guinea Pig
For the first 2 weeks I had to leave Herbie in his own cage, so he could settle in, the other boys could get use to a new Guinea Pig being in the house and to recognise any illnesses.
Guinea Pig are prey animals, so will hide any illnesses to make themselves less vulnerable.
Introduction/ Bonding the new edition to the current boys
After 2 weeks of Herbie living on his own, I decided it was time to start introducing the boys and starting the bonding process. So the first thing I did was set up a neutral space in my kitchen. This is a great starting point for introduction. This is because there will be nothing in the space which is either of the Guinea Pigs, so there will be no fighting over what is theirs.
I used puppy pads on the bottom and then washed blankets. You can use the floor – laminated or tiles are best, as there will be a lot of mess to clean up. It will also smell really bad, as the boys scent everything, so make sure it’s well ventilated. Add some yummy treats (grass) in the middle, it will help distract all the Pigs for a short amount of the time and will let all the Pigs know that they can safely eat with the others without the worry of one of them taking the food. Place the older piggies into the run first.
When they’ve settled in after a few minutes and are enjoying their yummies, place the younger/ newer Guinea Pig in and place him next to the treats so he can start eating too. The older ones will probably notice him after a few seconds and start Rumble Strutting and humping (this is normal) just sit with them the entire time you’re willing to try and bond them for.
After the bonding day
Once you’re done put the boars back in their own cages (ideally on clean day, so everything is fresh in both cages) this will help with getting each other’s scents on their own home! You can try and bond them maybe once or twice a week for a few weeks and just see how they get on! A successful bond, is when the humping to confirm dominance has reduced significantly. You will always have boars hump to gain dominance, but that’s just boars! They will also just relax, sleep, eat together, etc!
Bonding isn’t a instant thing. It can take hours, days, weeks and even months! (so you’re aware) keep an eye out for biting, hair pulling etc, but make sure you are ready to go in and break up any fights (oven gloves are best!) luckily this never happened to me, but you always need to be on the safe side, because even if boars have lived together for a few years things can change so quickly!
Once you feel your Guinea Pig is ready to move in, I find it’s best to have everything new or washed. I decided to buy them a whole new cage, this would save the potential fighting over the items that have their smell on them. It’s best to do it on a run day, when they’re all out together, so then you can simple put them all back in the same cage.
There will be humping, rumble strutting, teeth chattering etc. It’s all a part of finding who’s boss, but keep an eye on them, incase any of them decide to turn.
Lumi’s Story
We added Lumi into the family late 2020 and decided to try and bond him with the 3 I already had. It didn’t work. Lumi, Loki and Herbie were too similar in personalities and they clashed big time. There weren’t ever any fights, thankfully! But there was a lot of teeth chattering, standing on hind legs and biting each others faces (not as horrible as it sounds)
I already knew that it would be difficult to bond a 4th into the group, so I tried other things like putting them into a bath together, putting them outside in the run and they just never got on. I wasn’t ever comfortable leaving them alone.
As Lumi got older and bonding process was still underway, i noticed he tried to dominate Thor a lot more than the others, this was because Thor was a very vulnerable boy and I felt it just wasn’t fair for him. Loki and Herbie would always stand Thor’s corner, which resulted in them nearly fighting.
Lumi now lives on his own with his brothers still present, but in another cage. He is perfectly happy, healthy and content on his own and gets a ton of human interaction daily, so i have decided I would rather not upset him by trying to find him a friend.
Come back next Sunday for more interesting facts about Guinea Pigs!
Lokiandthor18 