1 Piggy, 2 Piggy, 3 Piggies, More!

Perhaps one guinea pig is about right to keep you well entertained, but you might think about buying two or more:

• The reason why is they are social animals and they adore the company of other guinea pigs. If left alone they will get lonely and their health and well being could suffer.

A guinea will need attention from you and if you only have the one, as they can get lonely really fast and therefore will cry for your attention. Believe me they will cry much more often for you to show them this attention. However if they have a playmate or partner to help keep them entertained, you won’t have to spend as much time with them.

The Sex of the Matter

You might decide to get two girls, two boys or one of each.

• If you are just going to be buying one cavy then the sex will not matter all that much.
• Females, by nature, are going to be more quite and less active, while the male will have much more energy and will require more exercising.
• It’s a common misconception with the male cavy that if you place two in the same cage that they will fight themselves to the death. While this sounds extremely violent and wrong, nothing could be further from the truth.

Provide a large enough cage!

If you place two males together they will fight if they do not have enough space in their cage. However if you provide them with plenty of room so that each male has their own territory and space then they will live quite content with one another.

• You also need to remember that if you have two male piggies that you cannot have a female guinea pig in the cage.
• Do not introduce a female to them.
• This will make the male guinea pigs fight with one another to show who is the more dominant of the two. If this were to happen you would have to remove the female and the male loser from the cage immediately as the winner will be so dominant at this point he will keep the poor little loser away from the water and food.

Now if you place two females in the same cage along with the other you might find that they will “argue” over water and food. (Now please men, no joking here about us women). Since females are so gentle and quiet it is really unlikely that a major fight would ever happen.

Best combination

• If you place a female and male together in the cage they will actually get along the best. Why? The female will know that the male is the more dominant of the two and the male will accept the female as she is and will act very peaceful with her.

• It’s great to have a peaceful environment but there is one problem to having a male and female together. Yes, that’s it, puppies. Puppy is the term used for baby guinea pigs. If a male and female are left with no attention and unattended this could and will happen. It’s easier and best to have the male fixed by the vet.

The female pig has a cycle which last only 18 days and the gestation period for new baby guinea pigs is only two months. So naturally it is in all likelihood that the female guinea pig will and can give birth to absolutely hundreds of little puppies in a years time.

Most pet stores will have one cage of guinea pigs or possibly two or more. This depends on the size of the pet store. With the piggies giving birth often there is a demand for the puppies that they produce.

If you are going to buy more than one then make sure you choose two from the same cage. This will lower the risk of fighting after you have brought them home.  Tips to think about before  you buy guinea pigs!