# Introducing guinea-pigs



## Alicia2011 (Dec 27, 2011)

I have 3 female guinea-pigs, Edie and Marmalade are 3 and have lived here since April and June 2010, and Sasha is 2 and has lived here since April 2011. They are all from the same breeder, but I got them all as adults. I got Marmalade first, to keep one of my guinea-pigs company. My other guinea-pig died, so I just had Marmalade so I went back to the breeder and got another adult guinea-pig, Edie. Then I added Sasha, ad the guinea-pigs started fighting. Marmalade is the dominant guinea-pig and didn't like Sasha, so she had a fight with her, then had a fight with Edie and drew blood so I seperated them, and for the first night Sasha and Edie were together and Marmalade was seperate, with the breeders help, I reintroduced them the next day and they have been fine since.

As there are 3 of them, I've noticed that Sasha seems to get left out a bit, and I've been advised that even numbers are best, and a friend of my mum's guinea-pig has had babies, and they've offered me the only girl, so I've said I'd like to have her. I've been told babies are easier to introduce than adults, but how can I really try and make sure they get along?
I have added females to other female guinea-pigs lots of times before, and last time was the only time I've ever had a problem so I just want to make sure I introduce them correctly this time.


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## Ingrid25 (Oct 1, 2011)

i haven't had to do this before, as my two girls are mum and daughter- but i think just put them maybe in a big box- with a towel/smaller box on either side so if they feel threatened or scared they have a place to hide
but i think they should be fine- kaytie was fine with meeting my friends ladies Flower, Ruby, Mop and Lola!
but just in case introduce them slowly maybe- in case something happens again!


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## swatton42 (Oct 29, 2011)

To be honest females 90% of the time bond pretty well, but if 1 has already drawn blood then I would be concerned and keep watch on them because she might do so again and have to be split.

When bonding you need a neutral area such as a run, or a bath works quite well. Put them all in together, with some food scattered in the centre is a good idea. If they eat from the same chunk of veg chances are they'll be OK.

There might be a bit of bum-sniffing, rumbling, etc but that's normal. If they start teeth-chattering, yawning, lifting their head and the hair across their back sticks up then get ready to split them, but don't jump into soon. These are signals of dominance, if it is going to work then 1 should back down and they will settle. If this lasts for an exceedingly long time and seems to get worse then they might be getting ready for a fight, I would split them then, but others will say wait untill blood has been drawn.

If it seems to work in the neutral are then completely disinfect the cage and furnishings so it neutralises that too. In my experience only put in 1 food bowl, 2 if you have a bowl for pellet and a bowl for veg. Don't put there toys, tunnels, hides back in as they will fight for territorially. If they're in an indoor run maybe use 1 hide for a bedroom but other than that leave it very minimal. You can introduce toys and furnishings slowly later on.

Still, as they're female it's likely to go fairly smoothly.

Hope this helps.


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## kate_7590 (Feb 28, 2009)

You shouldn't have any problems introducing a baby to the group. They usually take them in very well.
I would just pop newbie in with the group and watch them for half an hour, but Iv never once had a problem with females. As long as they have lots of space to get out of each others way if they want to they should be very happy together.

I used to have a herd of approx 25sows all living in a 6ft X 30ft run and all I did when introducing a newbie was to clean them all out and then introduce the new one when they were all eating some greens


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