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Not sure what to do. One guinea pig died, leaving the other one alone.


mazakaal
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We had two guinea pigs and two rabbits. One guinea pig is 6yo, the other is 4yo and the rabbits are 2yo. The older guinea pig has been losing weight and seems to be getting a bit feeble, so I thought it would be dying soon and we could move the rabbits into the hutch with the younger, bigger, stronger guinea pig. Surprisingly, the younger guinea pig died yesterday. The poor thing seems so sad to be without her friend; she keeps sitting in the spot where Beauty died. I tried putting the rabbits in her hutch with her. They've been together before in the run and always gotten along fine, but she seemed really freaked out in the hutch with them.

 

Now I'm not sure what to do. I don't want to leave her alone, but I also don't want to get a new guinea pig. The cycle will never end. Any suggestions?

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Does your piggy like to be cuddled? If so, I would just give him lots of extra attention. At 6 years old, I'd be afraid of introducing a new pig, especially in your guy's condition. I know when I got my second pig they had to go through the whole "establishing dominance" thing. I don't know how well that would go with your older piggy. It's so hard when animals are bonded and one of them dies. :(

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We were in a similar situation... We got 2 piggies from a rescue, both about 6 months old, both fixed. The male died suddenly (at 2 years) and the female was lonely. A friend brought her male (not neutered) over and they got along, but friend took him home - kids said it was a playdate. So we went back to the rescue and tried her with a bunch of other piggies. She was awful to all of them. Friend decided to give us her piggy and they were happy together. Then, friend's piggie died suddenly (we now call our piggy 'The Black Widow').

 

We decided not to get another piggy because she was so intolerant of the other piggies at the resuce, plus she is nearly 5 now and we don't expect her to live much more than a year or so and we don't want to keep having piggies (bunnies, maybe!). So, we give her extra cuddles and she is very happy. She does like when we have my dd's class rabbit here for long weekends. She likes to cuddle up next to him!

 

So, just give your piggy extra cuddles and floor time with the rabbits - she'll be fine.

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Thanks for all the responses. I had heard that you should always keep piggies in pairs, so I'm glad to hear that other piggies have happily lived alone. Tap, I had thought to 'borrow' a piggie as a companion for a few months until Fudge dies, but I don't know any one with pet guinea pigs any more, nor are there any rescues around as far as I know. I guess we'll just keep Fudge on her own and give her lots of curdles. Do you think giving her a stuffed animal to cuddle would be a good idea? Dd has three stuffed guinea pigs.

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