Bonding Guinea Pigs

Frau Heidelberg (Heidi)

Guinea pig bonding can be fun, entertaining, easy and yes, also sometimes difficult! Here is a story from experienced guinea pig mum and trustee, Vicky, about bonding the newest pig, Heidi, into the herd:

"One of the ‘bin pigs’ Heidi was adopted by myself after her babies had all left to go to wonderful new homes. 'Great,' I thought. 'I can now get her in with my herd!" But was bonding easy? Not a chance!

On a nice sunny day the run was all set up on the grass ready to go with Erik, (our handsome neutered husboar) first in. Then in goes Heidi and the 'rumble-strutting' started straight away from Erik, but she was having none of it and kept telling him off. As there was no sign of aggression (eg. chattering teeth) I continued to gradually add in the rest of my herd and then sat there watching and waiting.

All seemed to be going pretty well until Heidi decided she’d had enough and reared up at Erik. Erik did his usual ‘I’m scared, so I’m now going to hide behind my wives’ trick. And there ended the first bonding session. Phew!

Heidi and Erik!

Bonding day two! This time I put Apple, our matriarch piggy, into the run first, and then Miss Heidi followed by the herd. Ok so far, but I was watching Heidi like a hawk.

And it certainly didn’t take long before Frau Heidelberg (yes, I am now using her full Womble name) decided she was going to be a grumpy pig again!! The bonding session ended with me messaging Hannah (head of rescue) saying 'I think I’m going to have problems with Heidi,' only to be told that it took 10 hours for her to bond the late Habibi into her herd!! I think that was when my palm hit my forehead.

I made the decision to have a few days off from bonding (to give poor Erik a break) and to let Heidi get to know the others with being in the next door living area.

Day three. All set up and ready to go…I prayed to the guinea pig gods to help!!

It was a perfectly sunny day so once again one at a time in the run they go. Oooo it’s going well, in fact really well. No arguing, no 'rumble-strutting', no ‘Erik hiding behind his wives’, no Heidi giving attitude, just plenty of grass eating and sunbathing in the glorious sunshine. One hour later, all was still good, but my gut was telling me not to push it any longer.

Day four ('is this the day?' I thought). Another lovely sunny day, perfect for bonding. All the piggies were in the run, and I was quite happy watching them...whilst sprawled out on the swing hammock.

Success!!! Apart from my teenager pig Zee telling Heidi to move from what looked like a nice juicy patch of grass (Apple soon told Zee off), everything went perfectly. What a huge relief as it meant Miss Heidi could now join them permanently.

The whole herd! Left to right: Apple, Heidi, Erik, Gina, Cecilia, Zee, and Eowyn

If anything can be learnt from my bonding experience, it’s that all pigs are different. Don’t rush, take as much time as necessary and believe me when I say that even myself and Hannah can have fun and games with bonding guinea pigs just as many of you do."