guinea pig partners

Question
I have a male guinea pig who has never been alone in his LIFE, but his friend just
died, and we're trying to find him another friend. We don't think he's getting
enough attention and we are usually pretty busy. He gets along alright with one
of our gerbils, but they always have to be supervised, so we tried to find a friend
who owned a guinea pig because we're not allowed to get any more. The
problem is we only found girl guinea pigs. I was wondering if since they're all
too old to breed they would get along OK.

Answer
Hi Maggie

Firstly I am sorry to hear about your loss.

As you say, dont leave a gerbil alone with a piggy as a gerbil will come off better in a fight.

I would strongly advise not to mix your male with females as whilst they may seem too old to breed, a female getting pregnant is still a possibility and a disaster at older than 9 months as their pelvic bones will have fused together meaning birth is impossible.

There is a chance your male wont show any interest in breeding but it really isnt worth the risk.

I dont know if my advice will alter the opinion of the person (parents?) that says you cant get any more piggies, but by far the best course of action is to get your pig a new baby male as a friend as he will be much happier with company.

Andy