Is Side By Side Good Enough?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 พ.ค. 2024
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We had found a guinea pig. His name was Humphrey. We didn't know anything about piggies. Through trial and error, we learned. He was a loner. After 2 years years, we got Maynard. We lost Humphrey a couple of months ago. Maynard was alone for about a month. We went to Oakhurst Guinea Pig Rescue in Atlanta. We found a buddie for May May. His name is Montague. Maynard has come out of his bubble and is more active now.
I’ve rescued several male piggies over the years that failed to bond with anyone, they always seemed happy as long as they lived next to other pigs they could talk to.
My bonded boys broke up and I’ve had them in separate cages for almost a year now. They are in the same room as my females and get to talk through the grids at them during supervised floor time. Each of their cages are 13 sq ft and they get floor time freedom almost every day to explore the room and talk to the other piggies. They are active, talkative and friendly to just about anyone who wanders into the room during floor time. They love head scratches, climbing on my feet, and finding hidden vegetables I scatter through their floor time space. I’d say they’re doing just fine.
So as some of you know I recently adopted Matteo from a rehoming situation. It took a year to find a friend for Bruno. Now long story short, Matteo lives in a 8sq ft cage, and Bruno is in a 8sq ft cage side by side !
The plan is to hopefully one day introduce the two together and hopefully they can live together in a large cage together, However if that doesn't work out. Its alright because I know they're both happy to just have eachother side by side.
I actually just posted a video on Wheekers of Matteo doing zoomies and popcorning!
If a guinea pig living "side by side" was unhappy, zoomies and popcorning wouldn't occur.
My boys are happy, GIrls are upstairs and they're perfectly happy.
I agree with Scotty.
We need to eliminate the stigma that having guinea pigs live side by side are "bad" or not happy.
Ours also were happy side by side. They are still very aware of each other, so in reality they still have company. We used to have 4 girls and 2 boys. The boys were unable to be together once the baby boy matured. They were happy and they all played under strict supervision after my Harley had her 3 suprises( rescued her) Didn't want her getting pregnant again bc it can be very dangerous after a year I guess .
Hi, I’ve had 2 male piggies, brothers, who lived together for their first year, and they started really fighting one day, and blood was drawn. We put them in separate cages, side by side and they loved it and really flourished. They would often sleep next to each other, fur touching, either side of the cages. It can work xx
Hi, I rescued 2 boys at about 5/6 years old - I had to split them as they hated each other, even though they had been sharing a small outdoor cage. I brought them indoors... One passed last year . The surviving boy, or should I say old man! is about 8 now and sprang into life and seems so much happier! I do spoil him and he gets lots of cuddles etc. He's like a puppy and I daren't mention the treat word lol, he's adorable and I'm not looking forward to losing him at all ❤
Hey Scotty, I have been so fortunate. I had Winter first and found her a friend, Frosty. We did side by side for a week and tben out them together and they were fine. After Winter passed, we were just going to have one piggie but Frosty went into mourning. So we got Issy! Heaven help us, Issy is such a fiesty young girl so we tried a few play dates and all went well so they are now inspeparable cage mates. Took your advice with bonding. Plus, I do have girls! Thanks for all your help!!!❤
I started off with baby brothers, Teddy and Cubby. , Cubby passed at 18 months old, so we went to our local rescue and adopted Suki. They lived side by side until this year when Teddy passed at nearly 4 years old. Now we have adopted Claude and him and Suki live side by side. I would love them to be bonded, but they are so happy as they are. They snuggled through the grids, they run around their cages at the same time, they popcorn all the time, I'm happy if they are happy.
pipsqueak cracks me up . love his long tunnel.
When my Gaia passed, Lyris became very depressed ,she wouldn't eat and l was thinking the worse ,so we quickly sent messages everywhere and thank God we found Miel .Their relationship isn't like Gaia and Lyris but they are ok with each other.
I have a mated pair in a side by side, and they work awesome! The male is handicapped. His front paws are turned in, so he walks on the backs of his wrists. He recently had surgery to remove a large growth on his left arm. His woman was right there pressed against the middle, puring and ready to nuzzle her man.
Oh Scotty, thank you, thank and thank you! When I got my Harriet, I had so many hopes for her. As a pet store piggie, who was isolated, she had a few challenges. I worked hard with her and my one hope was for her to have a friend. I feared it wasn't going to happen, life and only one rescue and a certain piggie in mind that would work seemed a impossible dream. Then, came Clementime from an Ohio rescue. Harriet is 17 mo. and Clementime is what I guessed with Valerie's help, 3mo. Perfect for Harriet and you asked if it didn't work out and I said, I would be happy to do side by side living. The bonding started off intense, but then things chilled a bit and now it's been over a week and Harriet and Clementime are more like sisters! Clementime follows Harriet everywhere, copies what she does and they sleep and rest side by side. I am so thankful for the support I got from you and the community. I think as a whole, the piggie community around the world needs to be more supportive of solo piggies and side by side piggies as you don't know their history and you know what?! We are all apart of this wonderful community. Thank you for sharing this video Scotty!
I think they are happy with company 😊
Hi Scotty,
I love your video's where you can watch all your piggies in the background ❤
Couldn't agree more, Scott! I have a few single boys in my rescue who do great as grid-buddies, but will not bond with each other or anyone else. There are 2 "pairs" in particular who play, eat, and hang out together all the time at the divider. One day, I was moving piggies around and inadvertently separated them. They were all visibly upset and started wheeking frantically. I caught my mistake and put them back right away. After a year of being neighbours, and several play dates, I did finally manage to bond 1 pair. Going to try the others soon. But if they're happy as neighbours, I think it's totally fine. Just like people: you can be best friends but not want to live WITH each other. Some people and critters just prefer their own space.
Thank you for addressing this!! My previous male gerbils bond broke and I definitely felt like I failed them. Such a sad and stressful experience but luckily they were able to live happily and spoiled as grid buddies for the last couple years of their lives.
I was nervous about getting two male piggies for this reason but I couldn't say no to my boys and luckily with lots of space they get along very well. They are brothers so they like to antagonize more than cuddle but that's OK!
It's important these things are talked about and side by side is better than totally alone. They can still live enriched lives!
We have a long haired Peruvian female I don't know if this comes with the territory of this breed LOL but she is Moody with other pigs😂 her name is Cotton, she is a total princess 🤣 scratch that she is a bona fide diva!! She lives alone but she's side by side with two other females and they love to hang out right next to each other. Cotton goes to the other side of her cage when she has had enough lol. And the other two ladies named Toffee and Sunkist get along great because we rescued them both from the same cage at our local PetSmart. They came in together I don't know if they're related because they look completely different from one another but they came from the same source. Our daughter went and adopted toffee in hopes that she would be a cage mate for cotton and it did not work out they are both alpha females. So we knew this within a few minutes of their meeting one another and immediately went back for Sunkist. We have had no issues through the grids and like I said they lay down next to each other quite often. ❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉😊 In no way do I feel like we failed in fact I know we saved three lives. We also have a skinny pig that we hoped to find a friend for a cage made but everybody seems to pick on him and we do not want that of course. Mr mojo lives next door to s'mores and acorn. Everybody gets along and they lay down next to each other also. The scenario is basically the same with our boys as with our girls. Our solution has bern to evolve and increase the cage size as we go and grow.
This is a very interesting topic to bring up, as so many on social media care about their guinea pigs so much. I love that you share so much, and help everyone come together sharing their experiences and supporting each other. Your videos help so many people and their piggies 💖
I've had two boy piggies almost a year now and I got them when they were both small. At first they got along but then started fighting more and more so now they live side by side. I'm lucky I have a lot of room so they both have a 105cm x 105cm enclousure and seem to be pretty happy now. Maybe in couple years I'll try to see if they could get along again when they grow up a bit more, but I'm little scared to try to put them together now that they're doing so well next to each other and I fear they would hurt each other. But I'm glad to hear that they can live fulfilling lifes even now.
Side by side for my boars 💯. Bunbun is gentle but Ruty's shelter advised me to keep him as a neighbor only to my boar. He was a rough guy with other piggies ❤ So fence playdates and homes next door!
We ended up with a gunshot wedding piggie. Long story short, she was abandoned in a city an hour away from me. I live on an island, so rehoming and rescue options are VERY SLIM.
Local animal control was worried that if they couldn't rehome her in a couple of days that they would have to put her down. I couldn't let that happen. So I took her sight unseen, I got lucky. She's healthy and happy.
Now, our first piggie, a rehome named Willow is getting on famously with the new girl. Our Petco piggie, Rowan, is not handling it so well.
There was an ear bite on day one, a little scrape. And there's been some hair pulling. It's been 3 weeks with a little improvement. Right now we are switching out Rowan and the new piggie, one gets floor time while the other rests in the floor cage. Which is separate from the current pigpen. Willow our best girl gets floor access all-day. And they all three get supervised play time together everyday.
We are hoping that one-day they can live together but right now I'm planning a cage layout where one piggie can have its own space next to the others. And we will probably rotate them as we have been.
Gus makes his own way with his escapes
My piggies rosita and lucy live in the same cage fred mertz and ricky ricardo babalou live in separate cages good video
Hi Scotty. The side by side option is absolutely brilliant for piggies who can't live together. Peace of mind during the night too, if they're being kept in another room. You've got a great set up for the boys. C&C is brilliant. All kinds of options 👍. Thanks for the video 🐹🐹
I was super lucky with my rescue boy Alfie that came to me with a girlfriend 😮(they was separated and girl was rehomed). I rescused a second boy and bonded them Alfie started popcorning soon as I put him in the cage they are good friends now feel so lucky as I was worried ❤
We have 12 females. 3 of them are skinnies. 2 of those skinnies don't get along with others, but we have them both side by side with others and they do fine.
We have a boar that can’t have a cage mate, because part of his displaying dominance is when he mounts whoever he’s with he bites them on the back to the point of bleeding. Obviously that’s not OK so the cage mate he’d been adopted with had to be separated from him once we found out this had been going on that first night. he is miserable alone, though, so we’ve made it so he can climb a ramp and visit the two girls that live above him, since our cages are on big storage shelves stacked vertically. It’s a fairly small area that he can visit but he can see the full length of their cage and it’s made a huge difference in his contentment level. It is such a shame that he can’t be with another pig because he is so social, but he cannot separate biting from dominant behavior. He even spent a month living with our small Netherland dwarf rabbit before he found a way to mount our rabbit and then started biting him! This is why we can’t have nice things 😩
My piggies do not like each other. They can't be on the ground together without trying to bite each other within seconds. They do live side-by-side and will sometimes try to bite around the grids. I don't know if I'd say they like living side-by-side, but I do feel it makes them more stimulated, which I think is more healthy than the mundane life alone they would have without each other.
my vet got the biggest laugh out of hearing how my 2 solos were my first ever pigs to not just fail to bond but drew blood on the 2nd attempt but they sit beside each other when in their own cages its the favorite place to sit in the hay bin right against the grid with the other nemisis right on the other side they almost touch they sit so close. we let them out to have exercise and play together but its watched closely they do a little chase stand off switch who is being chased and about 30 minutes to an hr later they will square off and that is when we separate them. they have hit their social limit. i get it my social battery is very small to I have maybe 2-3 hrs and then it takes me a few days before I want to go back into public again.
I have a slight hope that in a yr or so they might actually bond because the aggressor was the youngest at about 7months old there is that small chance after about 1 1/2 -2 yrs old when his hormones have done their thing maybe the 2 will actually bond even though they were blood draws. the fact that they take 30+ minutes before they square off and he's now just over a year old makes me think that time could get longer and maybe they will bond in the end.
I had a single piggie Henry for about a year, he actually did really good on his own. I was really nervous about trying to find him a friend, we do g have any rescues here that does bondings. I finally got another piggie Ollie from our local spca, first time bonding and it went amazing, I think Ollie likes Henry more than Henry likes Ollie. I think Henry’s best friend is me lol, but they still get along very well. Henry is definitely the boss.
Thanks for this. Love to see Pippy. ❤🐹
My boys have been side by side for 2 yrs I have tried so many times to bond them but they are both too dominate and yet they love each other through the grids I’ve given up but still put them together when cleaning their cages for brief play time. Life would be easier for me if they were in 1 large cage
I adopted Peppa before I understood that piggies are herd creatures. Within about a month I found a very young (probably 3 months) friend for her and adopted Nugget. They did well together for a few months but it appeared that as Nugget matured she wanted to establish dominance which Peppa had already decided was hers. It turned into regular bouts of rumble strutting and spraying each other. Before they were together for a year, I had them side by side. Now when one gets in a mood she will go to the joining grids and rumble but they generally keep to themselves and of course, me. Funny though that when I put them in their outdoor C&C together for a little fresh grass and sunshine they are always right next to each other and will nap cuddled together! I do not know what to make of it because the moment they are back in their respective indoor cages they are telling each other off again.
This is almost exactly what happened with me. Got one girl first, who’d been alone for a while, then got her a younger girl friend. The two of them lived okay together until the younger hit adolescence, then the fighting and spraying started (had no idea Guinea pigs did that, might’ve been a deal-breaker had I known earlier lol). Now they live side by side. It’s a shame, but at least the mess and chaos is gone.
We had 3 boys (brothers) that didn't get along. Well, 2 didn't get along, and the 3rd got along with both of the other two. So we had a "joint custody situation," and moved the one who got along well with the other two back and forth between the other 2 cages. I can't believe it worked...
That's unbelievable and something I would definitely not recommend but I love hearing about exceptions to the rules
@@ScottysAnimals Absolutely, it was strange and not something I would recommend either, but for some reason it worked great for them! I don't know if it's because they were brothers, or just their personalities, but we got lucky. They all got what they needed in the end!
@@ScottysAnimals I had the same situation and it worked brilliantly for them.
Hi Scotty!
I rescued two boars from my local SPCA. They were already bonded at the shelter, but recently started fighting. The older of the two is 5.5 years old, and the younger is 3.5 years old. The older has been injured 3 times now... the first two were relatively minor injuries, but this time it was a pretty deep bite on the side of his neck. The first two times it happened, I separated them for at least 24 hours, then tried reuniting them again. After this third time and the bigger bite, I have separated them permanently (I think). I had just upgraded the size of their cage to a 2 x 4 c&c grid cage, which I have now added a c&c partition to keep them apart, although they can still see each other and communicate with each other. The problem is, their individual portions of the cage are too small. Plus my older piggy is NOT happy... I can tell. But his buddy keeps hurting him. I don't have much room to enlarge the cage any further and the table it is on is not quite big enough to hold a larger cage. I don't know what to do. Should I try one more time to get them back together as buddies? Any good advice would be greatly appreciated.
If you can expand to a 2x6 split in half that would be best. There's no reason to keep trying however maybe after some time passes they can enjoy short supervised playdate sessions. Make sure to wrap your hand in a towel and never put your hand in between fighting guinea pigs or you will have to get antibiotics from urgent Care
@@ScottysAnimals
Thank you for your response! I've been trying to come up with some creative ways to expand their living spaces. Maybe one on top of the other, or an L-shape configuration. ?? I will try the play dates in a week or two and see how it goes. Thanks again!! I love your videos and all of the awesome information you provide to us newbies!!
Scott your beautiful.😊
Bar Buddies.
I kinda feel like it would just be better for males to be neutered so they could have a female companion. The males just aren't naturally made to want to be around other males. I know some get along well and are happy with their male cagemates, but it just seems like they would have their absolute best life with one or more girls since that's their natural way of living.
I am picking up girl Karna to be a bar buddy friend for my antisocial girl Brooke who came from breeder using small cages.
I will take solo piggy Big Boy Bengal please. ❤😅😊
Nope
@@ScottysAnimals 😂❤😅
I have three boys who live side by side because they don't get along.
I'm sure they're living their best life with lots of love.
Hey Scotty, this is horrendous advice. This solution may work for your setup, because you work as a rescue and have 20+ pigs in one room, so you can arrange for social time. But, please consider the normal pig owner with their single pig. They don't have a huge pool of pigs to allow for controlled interaction like you do. And they likely only adopt a second guinea pig and condemn it to a life in solitude for the sake of the first pig? When that one dies, you have the next pig that is unable to tolerate another pig in their enclosure, because they never learned any conflict management.
If you have a boy, who is unwilling to bond with another boy, then get him neutered, wait 6 weeks for the incision to heal and make sure he is no longer fertile and then find him 2-3 girl pigs to form a herd.
Your boy will be as happy as a clam.