How to introduce a new guinea pig

Osler (left) and Fitzy (right) some minutes after meeting.

Guinea pigs are herd animals. They enjoy companionship and often fret when kept alone. The problem of course is that even well-kept guinea pigs die eventually, and unless that is due to an accident or natural disaster, one is left without a companion.  Thence the eternal “guinea pig chain” that those in the know speak of.

Isolated guinea pigs appear to be stressed, and may be more prone to physical illness. In my experience a lone guinea pig is less active and more flighty than one with a companion. Many publications recommend a group of three guinea pigs – two females and a neutered male. This is a species that should not be kept alone.

But how do you go about introducing another guinea pig? One has to respect that not all animals will take to each other immediately. You cannot just stick a new guinea pig into your established guinea pig’s enclosure and walk away. This can lead to fighting, wounds, secondary infections and distress. They can’t get away from their flatmates if they don’t like them.

This week we introduced a new boar, Fitzy, to Osler, an adult sow. Fitzy is three-years-old, desexed (this is imported as Osler has not produced offspring – if they don’t breed by nine months their pelvic symphysis fuses, making a caesarean necessary and these are high-mortality procedures) and had recently lost his female companion.

Here’s our policy on introducing guinea pigs:

• Know the sex. Confession: I’m guilty of not doing this on one memorable occasion. I had a boar who was fretting, and I admit I was in a hurry. It was after work, I’d been looking all around Sydney and I found a contact who had a young “boar” to introduce to my older boar (its usually easier to introduce a younger boar to an older, established boar). I trusted that she had checked, took “him” home, introduced him to my new boar and noted they got along like a house on fire. Several days later I checked “his” sex, only to be confronted with female genitalia. There are several morals to this story, one being that guinea pigs are exceptional at multiplication. Cornflake gave birth to two beautiful babies – Osler and her brother Cushing. (And yes, you need to separate young males from their mothers fairly early on).
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• Quarantine the new guinea pig or at very least have a vet check to rule out infectious disease, e.g. the cavy might Trixacarus caviae.

  

  The guinea pig mite, Trixacarus caviae.

• If you have time and both guinea pigs are well, consider scent swapping. This is where you take an item from one enclosure and place it in the other guinea pig’s enclosure, so they can get accustomed to each other’s scent.
• Introduce them in neutral territory. They are less likely to fight or disagree if both are in a new environment. I use the bathroom because I can close the door and give them space if they hit it off.
• Provide a salad. Lots of species bond over food and guinea pigs are no exception. Greens and herbs like fennel and mint are popular. Usually I put this in between the guinea pigs in their neutral environment, and let them work their way towards it.
• Clean the enclosure. Fresh substrate, bedding and food mean fresh smells that both pigs can explore. Provide at least two water sources and scatter food through the enclosure so everyone can access food.
• Provide one or more hides. The best are open-ended, e.g. tunnels that guinea pigs can run through. This way no one can be cornered.
• You may need to perform several introductions before all goes smoothly, but it often does. Usually guinea pigs become very vocal, walk around each other, sniff, occasionally “popcorn” and then share a salad.
• Keep an eye out for any tensions once they’re in the enclosure together.

In the case of Osler and Fitzy, they were enjoying their fennel salad within minutes of meeting and settled in without any problems.

What you need to know about feeding hay to pocket pets

Orchard grass. Good to hide in and also delicious.

If you own rabbits, guinea pigs or other fibrevores then you probably know that the majority of their diet should consist of a good quality hay. 

But did you know that all hays are not equal? Varying the diet of fibrevores doesn't just mean throwing in some veg and pellets and the odd bit of fruit. It means making careful choices about hay. Because your pets surely do.

It looks the same to us, but rabbits and guinea pigs will look at a bunch of hay, pick out their favourite bits and leave the rest. 

Hay houses are also a good snack.

I was able to interview Dr Marcus Clauss, arguably the world expert on hay feeding of pocket pets and guinea pigs, and he revealed that studies have shown that rabbits can differentiate between hay cut from the same pasture in the morning and the evening, maybe because of the sugar content changes through the day.

In one sense this information isn't all that mind blowing. After all, if we spent all day eating hay we'd probably expect that we'd develop a taste for some cuts or types over others. On the other hand though, as a species we are notoriously rubbish at paying attention to our senses and we may not be in tune with the sensory world or umwelt of companion animals and subsequently overlook factors that are important to them.

In his book How to Connect with Nature, natural navigator Tristan Gooley cites William James: "What is called our experience is almost entirely determined by our habits of attention". Too true.

John Burroughs has a slightly more alarming take on that: "There is nothing people differ in more than in their powers of observation. Some are only half alive."

Nobody wakes up in the morning and decides to shut down their senses and stumble through each day in an oblivious bubble, and yet some people end up having much richer experiences than others. If two people go on an identical walk, one of them might have a profounder, more fascinating experience than the other. One reason will be each person's life experiences to date (p48).

Spending a bit more time thoughfully selecting, touching and sniffing hay is then probably just as good for you as it is for the animals you want to feed it to.

So what does it all mean? It means that we should be a) providing excellent quality hay that has been stored appropriately so that it is free of potentially toxic moulds; b) topping up hay daily so rabbits and guinea pigs can choose the bits they want; c) varying the hay that we purchase, including the source, to provide some variety in the diet.

You can read the full article in the latest issue of Rabbits USA here. The article I wrote is geared towards rabbit owners, but if you fancy something a bit more technical check out this brilliant article by Dr Marcus Clauss.

Guinea pig pregnancy

This is a conscious dorso-ventral radiograph of a guinea pig sow, heavily pregnant with two foetuses. To the untrained eye, radiographs or x-rays can be challenging to interpret. So I've labelled the foetal skulls in the image below - you can even spot their little incisors.

A is the most easily visible skull, from which you can trace the spine coursing toward the right of the image. B marks the other foetus - again fully calficied, with the spine coursing to the left of the picture. Guinea pig skeletons are visible on radiographs from about 6 weeks into gestation.

This pregnancy is entirely my fault (well, there were other key players as one might imagine). When my boar Radike Samo passed away I needed a companion for his cohabitant and lifelong friend, Randy, who fretted so much he stopped eating. I made some contacts and found someone with a young boar JUST THE RIGHT AGE. However, I was in a hurry. I had double parked. I took this well meaning person's word for it, raced home, introduced the new boar to Randy and then looked downstairs. The "boar" had female genitalia. Or, in the words of Paul Anka, performed by Tom Jones: "She's a lady...whoa whoa whoa she's a lay-deh!..."

As one well-worn guinea pig website attests, guinea pigs don't change sex spontaneously. They are mis-sexed. Which admittedly is easily done. (The best resource on sexing GPs is here). Palpating for a guinea pig penis is a task best not attempted when one is double parked in peak hour with the thought of a boar at home fretting to death. Nor should it be left to anyone selling you a guinea pig for cashola. At the end of the day, if you ask for a boy, they're gonna give you a boy, right? 

Despite his name, Randy showed little interest. I considered desexing him but as he is quite old the anaesthetic risk was not insigificant. And speying female guinea pigs brings its own risks. So pregnancy was inevitable.

This week, Cornflake - a very flighty, petite lady, has been waddling around looking like she swallowed a discus. Since there is no sort of pee-on-a-stick equivalent for animals, I decided to take a radiograph.

(My tip for taking conscious radiographs of a guinea pig - just pop them in a nice small cardboard box for a moment and they tend to sit still for the few seconds it takes).

Flash, a former guinea pig of mine, demonstrates the box technique for radiographing guinea pigs. This position is very helpful for ruling out nephroliths, uroliths and for counting foetuses in gravid sows.

Cornflake is a very flighty lady and not keen on being handled, so I've kept that down to a minimum. Gestation is supposed to range from 59-72 days depending on the size of the litter (larger litters are usually born earlier in the piece).

There are plenty of complications that can occur including pregnancy toxaemia, foetal resorption, premature birth, uterine haemorrhage, dystocia, stillbirth, uterine or vaginal prolapse, post-partum haemorrhage, mis-mothering, mastitis, agalactia and eclampsia to name but a few. Even well-meaning guinea pig mums can maul their bubs if they try to pull them out when they get stuck.

So its something of a nail-biting time here at SAT headquarters. Thankfully we're all stocked on orchard grass and vegies. Exciting times!

Preparing pets for evacuation in emergency & RIP Radike Samo, guinea pig

Radike (right) meets his new cage-mate Randy: you know guinea pigs are hitting it off when they share bok choy leaves.

I cannot begin this post without acknowledging that so many people have lost beloved pets in the terrible fires over the last week. There are many animals affected - even those that survive the initial blaze are subjected smoke inhlation, terrible burns walking on the fireground, dehydration and other injuries. 

Many areas remain under threat. The Australian Veterinary Association has provided advice for pet owners close to affected areas which you can view here. The RSPCA NSW blog has info on preparing pets for evacuation here.

If you have not already, consider volunteering your time or making a donation to wildlife care groups, such as WIRES (click here), which will be inundated. 

On a personal and wholly unrelated note, this week I farewelled Radike Samo, a guinea pig named after my favourite Wallabies player (I had to qualify the title of the post lest Wallabies fans read it and think that the great man himself had died). Radike (the guinea pig) passed away in his sleep peacefully due to unknown causes. He had suffered from recurrent dermatitis, cause undetermined, but at the time of his death was in excellent condition. His co-habitant Randy is missing him terribly.

Randy and Radike tuck into two faves: Dutch carrots and celery tops.

Radike came into my live as part of the cavy-chain. Anyone who owns cavies will know what I am talking about: you start with one, for which you need a friend, so you find that second guinea pig. Years later, one dies. But because guinea pigs are herd animals, they need company. The remaining guinea pig needs a companion.

So you get another one...and the eternal cavy chain is established. In my case the cavy chain has involved not just owning guinea pigs, but learning and writing about their husbandry, attending guinea pig shows dressed as a giant fairy (sometimes I wonder how these things come to be) and attending guinea pig medical and surgical emergencies anywhere from Sydney to Darwin (one of my most painful work-related experiences was a guinea pig bite sustained when trying to break up a fight between two pet boars living in a backyard pen 300km Northwest of Alice Springs. They were fighting over a sow. I underestimated their passion. Excruciating). 

When I adopted Radike I had just seen the most exhilarating sporting footage of Wallabies player Radike Samo scoring a try against the All Blacks. I'm not a sports fanatic but this moment left me breathless (especially the bit where he "throws a dummy" and sprints across that field with two huge, determined, pretty scary looking blokes in hot pursuit).

This by way of explanation that Radike the guinea pig was named such because of his ability to sprint. Sans All Blacks in hot pursuit, but you get the picture.

Randy and Radike enjoy fennel tops together.

When Radike's co-habitant Popcorn died I found Randy.

Randy and Radike hit it off - so much so that unfortunately I don't feel it would be appropriate to post the video of their first thirty seconds together (let's just say there was a mutual attraction and leave it at that). 

I will remember Radike, but Randy will fret for him until he finds someone else to eat and hang out with. What I do know is that cavy-chain wasn't meant to be broken. So I'm making preparations for a new addition.

[If you want to read more about guinea pigs, check out the guinea pig salad here or read about guinea pig treats here].

How to make the little boars in your life very happy

Twigs? Kindling? Nope. They're apple tree chews for guinea pigs and rabbits.

I don't know about you, but I'm always looking for ways to ensure my guinea pigs are happy with their lot in life. Mostly that comes down to providing excellent hay, time outside and a decent diet. I do try treats but the reaction is usually negative. e.g. I offered Radike Samo a strawberry last week and he ran as far away as he possibly could from the offending food. 

When I received my orchard hay in the mail this week there was a sweet little surprise in the box: at first I thought someone had wrapped a few twigs but they are Apple Tree Chews.

They are sourced from apple trees on a family orchard (Baraka Station) in Stanhope QLD, pruned by hand and never sprayed (important when you are going to allow the small mammals in your life to have a nibble on them).

Randy with his chewed chew. He did pick it up and run around with it but everytime I tried to take a photo he put it down. 

My boars tasted them right away, but the lovely peeps from Specialised Animal Nutrition provided a list of suggestions for the neophobic cavies and bunnies out there:

1. Bending the stick back and forth to bring out the aroma;
2. Holding it up to their mouth to tempt them to have a first bite;
3. Rubbing a bit of fresh apple, banana or pear onto it (oh apples and pears - my boys LOVE these but I try to feed these foods sparingly).

Yep, these are a winner. (Well, at least in my house - N=2).

Happiness is...guinea pigs munching on their favourite vegies

Few things signify that all is right with the universe than the crunching sounds of a pair of cavies chowing down on their favourite vegies (in this case celery tops and dutch carrots. Oh, and if anyone reading this works in a supermarket, DON'T CUT THE TOPS OFF THE VEGIES!!! The humans might not eat them but that bunch of dutch carrots may be destined for non-human members of the household. Ditto celery tops).

A vegie bouquet for the cavy lover in your life. This arrangement is made from continental parsley and coriander, but you can use basil, mint, dutch carrots, Asian greens. Okay, so flower arranging is not my talent - but you get the idea.

If you're looking to do something nice for the guinea pig lover in your life, skip the bouquet of flowers and opt instead for a vegetable bouquet - it looks nice but its also edible (remember to serve in sensible portions - they aren't called pigs for nothing).

Nothing washes it down quite like a timothy hay chaser. Hay and grass should account for around 80 per cent of your guinea pig's diet to ensure an adequate fibre intake and ensure that the teeth are worn down appropriately.

Uneven incisors in a boar.

Guinea pig treat: fennel

Fennel. You just need to paint some eyes and eyebrows on the bulbs and they look like Beaker from the Muppets.

A few weeks ago I wrote this post on making your guinea pig/s a salad and what to feed guinea pigs in general. Jennifer from Oxbow suggested I try fennel tops.

Fennel tops! 

I'm a simple girl, I only learned about fennel when it was on Masterchef and whilst I have sampled fennel cheesecake, a good old fennel bulb is something I consider more appropriate in a still-life (don't they look like a heart?) than the kitchen.

I asked where she gets them and she replied: 

They generally sell just the fennel bulbs for human salads at the shops so I bought a plant at Bunnings years ago. It went to seed even with daily picking and its seedlings are now available almost year round here in SE Queensland climate.  Oxbow’s original Critical Care is aniseed flavour because that is very popular with pigs.  Then I read somewhere that fennel is an aniseed (liquorice) flavour and thought I’d give it a go.  Well, the little ones here have definitely approved.  You’ll have to let me know if your little neophobes agree!

Well, Jennifer, lets see.

Exhibit A: A small arrangement of fennel leaves prepared for the boars.

Turns out I have been depriving them! They took to the fennel leaves like ducks to water.

Radike Samo and Randy, who run in the other direction most of the time I present a new vegetable, go berserk over fennel.

Thanks for the excellent tip Jennifer. Its not something I would feed them every day, but if I do find myself with a fennel plant or whipping up a fennel cheesecake I will know what to do with those leaves. I also discovered that the bulbs make excellent objects to hide behind, although I didn't want to leave them with the boars in case they went on a fennel binge.