Guinea Pig Home

maureenlas · 01-31-2007, 12:28 AM

Hi..This is my first post to this forum as I mostly work with the rabbits at our humane society. About a month ago we received a surrender of a 5y old female guinea pig and a 2 yr. old lop eared bunny . They were crowded together in a guinea pig cage. I offered to attempt to separte them humanely as we felt they should not be housed together and would be adopted easier if separated. I had mixed feelings about this as I was concerned about the emotional health of both animals. I took them home to foster them and started out by separating them but allowing them to remain in the same room. I discovered that the bunny had a huge bare spot on his rear end due to over zealous grooming by Cookie the guinea pig; also Higgins the bunny was scheduled to be neutered and I knew they would have had to be separated after surgery anyway.
I soon discovered that Higgins seemed fine with out Cookie but I thought Cookie was lost without her bunny buddy. I took a stuffed rabbit rubbed it over Higgin's fur and placed it in the cage with Cookie. She could then huddle at the side of the stuffed toy in the same place she had been with Higgins. I have done this before with a grieving mate of a bonded bunny with much success
It seemed to work well as Cookie became more comfortable and was eating and drinking well. I have noticed recently,however, that Cookie has begun to groom the stuffed rabbit and has actually eaten some of the fake fur . Now I don't know what to do. Higgins is already up for adoption in our Petco store and I don't want to remove the stuffed animal until I can figure out some other way to make her comfortable. If I bond her with another female at the shelter she could still be adopted individually and I don't want to do that to her again. I assume that eating the stuffed animal is not good for her. Does anyone have any suggestions to help me with this.

applelady · 01-31-2007, 08:05 AM

How much control do you have over how animals are adopted out at the shelter? Guinea pigs definately need a cage mate. Personally I would bond her with another female and not let her be adopted out to anyone who will not take both animals. That is the only fair thing to do. Honestly, they shouldn't be adopting single piggies out unless they are going to a home that already has at least one. Guinea pigs need social interaction from their peers.

maureenlas · 01-31-2007, 08:55 AM

I am a volunteer at the humane society in the small animal room. If a pair is surrendered together then we adopt them out together but if a single pig comes in it is adopted out alone. Right now we have only 2 other female pigs at the shelter ..a mother and her adolescent daughter . They are housed together..if I tried to bond Cookie with them I know that all three would not be adopted together. We don't always have a lot of guinea pigs so I am sort of in a bind .

VoodooJoint · 01-31-2007, 09:15 AM

You may want to to try to contact a reputable GP rescue for help. They may have room or a potential home for a single pig needing to be bonded. Other then that try to find her a home that already has a female pig or neutered male so she won't be housed alone.

maureenlas · 01-31-2007, 12:33 PM

Some of our pigs have been accepted by the Baraboo rescue (I'm in Wi.)..they just recently took three of our males. I have contacted one of the rescuers but have not heard back from them yet. In the meantime I feel that I should leave the stuffed animal with her until I figure out what to do. When I separated her from Higgins the rabbit she didn't eat well for several days. Does that sound OK?

applelady · 01-31-2007, 03:14 PM

For now, maybe you could get another stuffed rabbit. One that is made of a different material, maybe one that has shorter fur?? You def don't want her eating stuffed animal parts.

maureenlas · 01-31-2007, 08:20 PM

I was thinking of trying to get another object to place in the cage that she could hide behind like maybe a large willow ball; I have access to the bunny that she was bonded to as he is being adopted out from our Petco and I actually went over to see him today. I was thinking I could buy a large willow ball and rub that over the bunny and then take the stuffed rabbit out and place the ball in instead. If she ate the ball it wouldn't hurt her. I am supposed to be taking her back to the shelter soon. The advantage of that is that she would be in the same room with a few guinea pigs and rabbits; the down side is that she is so sensitve and frightened I hate to keep changing her environment. The ideal situation would be if we got another single female that I could bond her with. She is 5 yrs old and I really hate to put her through all of this when she is older.
She has not eaten enough of the fur of the stuffed animal to worry me. It is only a little... but I saw how she groomed the rabbit and I know that she could eat a lot of it if given the chance. Anyway I am sort of turning things over in mind trying to find a good solution to this. I am sort of afraid that some people won't want to adopt an older guinea pig..anyway I will be able to write up her description for pet-finder and people do actually really pay attention to what is said about the animals. I may be able to get her a home if I describe her a certain way. She is really a cute little girl pig and I don't think that she's had the kind of life that she should have had.

VoodooJoint · 01-31-2007, 09:37 PM

Have you listed her here on this site? You may be able to find her a home if you start a proper adoption listing here.

kbarrett2000 · 01-31-2007, 10:07 PM

I have a female guinea that needs a cagemate. where do you live? I am in Calif. about 40 minutes
from LA.

maureenlas · 02-01-2007, 01:09 AM

I wish you were closer but I'm in the Midwest in Wi. She still belongs to the shelter but I think I could work it out if someone wanted to adopt her.