Horatio and Pip - new friends for Bertie

[shiny]

So we went today to look at some baby guineas that needed a new home & chose Horatio to be Bertie's new friend (Bertie lost his cagemate Willow on Christmas Eve). Horatio is beautiful, a Magpie guinea but mostly white.

On the way home we decided to stop at the big pet store to pick up a new drinking bottle for Horatio's quarantine cage. All was ok until we looked at the baby guinea pigs... one of the big baby males was chasing around the littlest one of all & wouldn't let him have a moment's peace, the poor little thing looked so sad . I asked to have a look at him & checked he was actually male (he was getting humped a lot!). His poor ears are all tattered, not recent wounds at all & when I asked the shop assistant she said, "Yeah a lot of them have ears like that" .

Anyway, we got him & brought him home. My girls have named him Pip. He is kind of peach & cream colour with little tufty ears & a wavy coat.

We now have two guinea pigs in seperate quarantines in separate bedrooms! Pip is in the spare hamster cage but seems quite happy as he is no longer being plagued by other guineas. He is eating & drinking, hopping about & was happy to be sit by the cage door & be stroked. He will only quarantine in the hamster cage, don't worry! It's more roomy than many guineas get in hutches their whole lives after all. Pip is teeny & looks about six or seven weeks old.

Horatio on the other hand is petrified, he is sitting in the corner of his (much bigger) cage under the towel drape. He has eaten a tiny bit of hay (we heard him) & a few bits of veggies but won't move or eat while we are in the room. I have moved the water bottle to be nearer to him. I will weigh him tomorrow & see how he goes over a few days. If he is really sad & not eating then we may have to break quarantine early & introduce them all. He left his brother & another older male to come to us so is probably not pleased to be by himself, poor little chap. He is 10 weeks old.

I know it is a bit mad to aim to introduce all three at once but I am hoping by the end of the quarantine period they will all be so glad of some guinea pig company again that they will get on. Fingers crossed! We will do the neutral ground introduction again like we did with Bertie & Willow last time.

They are all such lovely boys, I am looking forward to Bertie having company again especially as they will all be similar in age & hopefully playful together .

[souffle]

aww what a softy you are but lovely they will all have friends. Hope they all settle together and form a close and friendly group x

[shiny]

Thanks souffe yes, I am a terrible softy and I guess I am teaching my kids to be softies too! My poor husband... he said to me in the car on the way home "no more pet shops for you!" he doesn't mind really, only the vet's bills I suppose!

[kyrilliondaemon]

Good luck with the intros when the time comes

[Dandelion07]

Yep, I can imagine the perils of entering big pet shops!

I can't wait to see your new babies! I hope Horatio understands he is in a good home ASAP x

[racinghamster]

They sound as though they just need plenty of patience and love shiny and they will get that now. Being the age they are, I`m sure Bertie will be chuffed to be daddy to two little munchkins!

That `shop` needs to pull it`s act together and spot these troubling issues within their groups of animals rather than just wave it off. Humping is a sign of dominance but to be chased by a much larger pig all the time must be very stressful for a smaller animal. Can`t wait to hear how they are doing. Will you put their cages near Bertie to socialise them for a while or do you just place them together and hope for the best?

[shiny]

Yes, the humping is a dominance thing with young male guineas but it was a much larger male terrorising a group of younger males so all a bit much. Pip was clearly very stressed & couldn't get away. He has eaten & drunk loads since he got here so I imagine he was very hungry, he must have had no chance at all to eat in the situation he was in . Horatio has got a bit braver overnight & is eating more now so hopefully he will realise he is ok here .

As we got 2 guineas from 2 different sources yesterday & both had been in contact with lots of other unknown guineas, we are having to observe strict quarantine in different rooms, probably for a week although strictly speaking it should be two weeks but we will see how they are looking after a week. We will then put up the really big playpen on the kitchen floor, put giant piles of hay & veggies inside & put the guineas in at different corners & let them find each other... We will stand by with towels / oven gloves in case the fur flies & we need to separate. Last time we did this with Willow & Bertie there was a bit of sniffing & licking then they became best friends. We hopefully then can get all three boys in together in our big cage, we will clean it out completely while they are meeting on neutral territory & take out all toys / tunnels etc so there is nothing to compete over. We will reintroduce tunnels etc carefully & see how it goes.

They are all such lovely boys, can't wait to get them together

[shiny]

Bertie & Horatio got on ok when we introduced them but Bertie was really cross about Pip for some reason . Pip is currently in an enclosure by himself & we will find him a friend soon, hopefully an older rescue male.

Here are some pics of them all:

Bertie (black & tan) 5 months & Horatio (magpie) 10 weeks



Pip (6-8 weeks probably)

1st pic looking a lot like a hamster!



& here he is again



They are all such cutie boys

Bertie wore himself out running around rumbling at Horatio & seems to be more accepting of him now, they are asleep near each other just now.

[Kissa]

Aww, poor Pip! Is there no way to make Bertie more accepting of him? Also Bertie is such a scruff!

[shiny]

Tee hee! Yes Bertie is a scruff, he is only just getting his coat growing back properly after 2 lots of surgery on his neck / back. He does have very sticky out rosettes too, he is an Abyssinian cross but was the most rosetted of the litter when I saw them all. Bertie's ears are also very high on his head due to the difficulty the vet had in doing him up at the back of the neck following the first surgery to remove the massive abcess, Bertie got a Hollywood-style nip & tuck as there wasn't really enough skin left, poor boy!

Guinea pig boar trios are pretty hard to achieve & it's unlikely now that Bertie will tolerate Pip well given how the intro went. It's unfortunate that we have had to try to bond Bertie with a new male at his age (5 months) as he's right in the middle of his teenage hormone crisis stage! Anyway, we now have a good reason to get another guinea pig for a friend for Pip and hopefully it will be an older rescue male, they often don't easily find homes so I will be glad to give one a forever home here .

My poor husband sometimes looks around & I can see him thinking he's now living in a small animal zoo