Guaranteed Guinea Pig Bonding Success

[@greenghoul157]

I once bought two babies to give my older lonely guinea pig some company, they immediately got along and she loved the babies, it's important to pay attention to your guinea pig's temperment and personality when introducing new pigs to them

[@Myahyou]

One thing about BB, he is GOING to be the star of the video 😂😂😂 don’t even TRY to not notice BB ❤❤❤

[@debbieschultz9768]

I love BB! 🥰🥰🥰

[@theoldgreyfilly]

While attempting to bond 2 of my boys, they did GREAT in a playpen for hours at a time. All the good signs were there.. no fighting, no chattering, LOTS of humping with neither getting upset, sharing food, side by side grooming, laying down together. BUT... once I'd move them into their enclosure (everything either new or washed and sanitized), it didn't take long for the less dominant one to get upset and go after the other. I tried side by side with a divider for months, but they just couldn't get along in the enclosure, yet did fine all day long in an even smaller space. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Eventually I gave up and tried the one with my other single boy and they've been living happily together ever since. My "problem child" is an incessant humper and won't stop (eventually annoying the snot out of any piggy I've tried with him) so he's living the single life. I feel bad for him, he gets so excited when I get another pair or group out for playtime, but he just hasn't learned... Don't keep humping your friends or ya won't have any! 😆😝

[@ScottysAnimals]

I would not let him join the pair for playdates because he could break the bonds between the other two but if a fourth Piggy was found they could live side by side or possibly be bonded. Don't give up on him and if you can find a rescue to help it could work. The second best thing would be have another single that he can tolerate for short periods of time.

[@theoldgreyfilly]

@@ScottysAnimals oh no, he's absolutely NOT having contact with the pair! (or any of the girls 😉) Unfortunately, I'm out of space to have another full setup for another piggy, as much as I'd love to give him a friend. 11 piggies take up quite the real estate! 🤣

[@LauraDora124]

“If you don’t get attached” That’s where I’ll struggle…😂

[@equestrianrosie]

I wish this was the case in my area, although I’m not certain if it was a rescue or a shelter, and it was not primarily a guinea pig rescue that’s for sure. Last year we adopted a pair of “bonded“ males that upon bringing them home, we found, the submissive one was riddled with scabs and fresh bloody wounds all over his back. We only had room for one cage at the time so to keep them both. We had to completely rework our pet room. Threw a massive wrench in our plans, that’s for sure. This was a place where personally meeting the piggies before hand wasn’t an option because the animals were in foster care, and they didn’t give out information about the fosters for such an arrangement to be made. Either way, it was a terrible bond, and our adopting them meant saving Arthur from constant harassment and attacks.

[@ScottysAnimals]

But you made it work because you have a good heart! If side by side takes up too much space there are many stackable cage options out there. But just think how grateful those Piggies are to not be constantly on guard and covered in scabs.

[@maryamullins4332]

I am so lucky. I have two girls, one is 3 years old and the other is 2 years old. I had one two years before I introduced another piggie. They are NOT the best friends but they certainly tolerate one another. So we were lucky! Hey BB!!!!

[@ScottysAnimals]

Generally girls get along better. When they do get into disagreements it is usually without teeth.

[@jjveganadventures]

This is so helpful - thank you! We just rescued our first piggy who was living on wires in her previous home! We're going to adopt her a friend soon

[@shadowwolf2056]

All my babies are rescues Rosie and lily are mother and daughter then Misty and Coco i rescued from being abandoned they are only babies but they have got so big and are very healthy all four are spoilt royal girls. They are my world

[@anonymous.youtuber]

Happy New Year Scotty !

[@ScottysAnimals]

Thanks Claire! Happy New Year

[@HejBro]

Hi Scotty, Happy New Year!

[@ScottysAnimals]

Happy New Year, Pawel

[@eileenlester4342]

Happy New Year! 💙❤️💚💜

[@ScottysAnimals]

Thank you Eileen, Happy New Year

[@kandihinshaw5201]

Scott I hope you had a good Christmas and New Year's

[@ScottysAnimals]

Thanks Kandi, I had an enjoyable holiday season.

[@kandihinshaw5201]

@@ScottysAnimals really glad to hear

[@soph4850]

I had a trio of males, two died within two weeks of eachother, after a quarantine period to ensure it wasn’t an illness, we adopted a pair of males from a rehoming site, and successfully bonded them to my one boar. The new pair were neutered before I got them, Bobbie (from og trio) is not neutered. We may be getting a fourth pig who needs rehoming from my mums friend, and I’m a little nervous to introduce him because the current three are getting along well and I don’t want to jeopardise that. Honestly, these three get on better than my original trio who were brothers, because the two that passed sort of ganged up on Bobbie (didn’t hurt him, just pushed him out of everything)

[@dianne0rama]

Thanks for the wise words BB ❤

[@ScottysAnimals]

Always

[@robbiemcghee1716]

You said you were not going to pair Gizmo with Onyx because thre are a lot of rules with Onyx. You said you can't get Onyx wet and you can't feed him after midnight. What are the other Onyx rules? 😃

[@ScottysAnimals]

We were talking about Gizmo and of course you know that Gizmo is a gremlin that is a reference to the movie Gremlins

[@robbiemcghee1716]

@@ScottysAnimals 😆🥰😍

[@amandaliverpool3374]

Nate. Right on cue with the water bottle 👍

[@ScottysAnimals]

Hahaja

[@michellemybelle2263]

Where can I buy those tunnels?!?!?

[@Kimberly_NV]

It is a rescue "desert" here in Reno, and I don't drive so. I have tried two times with humane society piggies and once with a Petco piggie baby who mysteriously died after two weeks. Gerald will be getting neutered soon.

[@ScottysAnimals]

Your best bet would be www.Petfinder.com or www.GuineaPigFinder.com and maybe if there are Piggies near you wherever they are will understand and allow you to do some meet and greets before you commit.

[@ScottysAnimals]

Yes the closest place might be Sacramento. But they are overflowing with guinea pigs in Sacramento. Or you might consider going down to Vegas. They also have tons of guinea pigs down there.

[@atreb56]

Thanks for this. I didnt know the bonding rules until I saw your and Saskia videos. Luckly I didn't have problems. I did see bullying at pet store and told staff to separate which they did.

[@shawnverse_gaming01]

my rescue just got a guinea pig and cat love the vids btw

[@ScottysAnimals]

Thank you for all the good work you do

[@mariusbely]

I have a dominant female who’s my first Guinea pig. We tried 3 play dates with multiple other girls that didn’t end too well. Eventually I tried with a young male and they seemed to have hit it off at first but when I got them into their permanent enclosure they would start to fight. I tried separating them but the male wanted a companion so I tried again and left them to figure out their hierarchy on their own. I saw a bite on the lip one morning on the dominant female but it healed just fine afterwards and they’ve been together ever since with no issues.

[@ScottysAnimals]

I hope he's neutered

[@mariusbely]

@@ScottysAnimals yes lol even though he doesn’t realize it on days he feels frisky 😄

[@PeartFan76028]

Could you do a video on the logistics/tips and tricks of keeping single boys side by side? I had to do it once a few years ago and remember feeling bad about it because side by side pigs are typically excluded from the ideal of one big happy herd. Side by side pigs need to be more normalized!

[@ScottysAnimals]

You can check out my cage setup playlist. But I guess I will have to think about a video. Other than making sure that they can see each other through at least one grid I hadn't considered there was much to it. Maybe you can send me an email detailing some of the main questions you have about it

[@conceptualclarity]

What about guinea pig siblings? They start out so highly bonded. They're all huddled together constantly as babies. Do they turn into enemies later on?

[@oliviastreich1374]

I made the mistake of not going to meet the pigs we were adopting with our other pigs, we are now dealing with separated pigs and doing VERY SLOW intros. 3 of our girls were originally fine in our 2x8 and all of a sudden one girl started hurting and going after the others and now 2 of our 4 need to be kept next to the other cages. They are calming down now but making one little mistake can throw your whole heard off girls or boys. We definitely learned with that one and decided 4 pigs is enough until we know more.

[@ScottysAnimals]

If we are talking about female bonding it often looks a lot worse than it is and I generally recommend putting the entire group together so they can settle on the definitive pecking order. If you introduce a few at a time there will be a continual disruption in the pecking order and each one will have a chance to rise to the top every time you add a new one which in my experience is not recommended. If no one draws blood just let them work it out

[@vickiebell4186]

My piggie rosita was given to me she had babies there names are Lucy ricardo fred mertz ricky ricardo fred picked on ricky so I had to put him in.a separate cadge good video scotty vickie napa ca

[@ScottysAnimals]

Thank you for sharing your experience Vickie Bell ❤️🔔

[@robbiemcghee1716]

Scotty I am being serious- please help. 😍

[@ScottysAnimals]

Lol

[@marsy1480]

BB gives the best advice! Adopt don’t shop! ❤

[@brittneyinabnit948]

Do u have to make the cage not smell like the other guinea pig when u are trying to bond them

[@NatalieVeitch]

Hi I have a 8 month old boy and a 8 week old boy. Whats the chances that they will bond? Thanks

[@maureenrecknor8689]

How many piggy’s do you have now? Thanks for your input and your response to helping the sweet piggy

[@ScottysAnimals]

Total 20, I'd say about half of them are fosters, but the longer they are here the more I get attached. Also the dire situation in rescues and shelters means that there are other emergencies that would take higher priorities because my boys are safe.

[@equestrianrosie]

I’m guessing when you said right at the start of the video “there’s about a 20% chance that any random boy will get along with any random GIRL“ you meant any random boy with any random boy?

[@ScottysAnimals]

Fixed

[@adriannagregory1897]

I have a weird question. I bought two baby male from different places and they are trying to mate each other should I keep them separate or are they just trying to insert dominance??

[@ScottysAnimals]

So many things going on here. First of all the humping is normal but because they are both babies as they grow up they will both enter extreme hormonal stages at the same time and they may challenge each other and you should expect that there is at least a 50-50 chance that you will have to separate them to live side by side. This can be totally fine but if they fight and draw blood the chances of them getting back together are very slim at least until they are much older. I have a number of happy boys that live side by side that can even play together for a few minutes at a time. My hand is wrapped in a towel and I never let them fight. I suggest you check out some of the bonding videos in my bonding playlist to learn what to expect and when to separate and when it is okay. You will learn a lot from watching these videos and the guinea pig male behavior that is on display and my explanation of what it means.

[@hivemistressherguineapigfa8563]

My sister's boy Roger tolerates his older housemate Rodney, but will have an aggressive go at any other boy. Some piggies are very particular!🤔