Introducing a baby female to a male.

Question
I have two male guinea pigs and they used to live together, but after they got neutered one of them had complications so we seperated them. After both were fine we put them back together but they had a bad fight so we had to seperate. So they are now living in two seperate hutches. To keep them company we recently bought two tiny baby females. Because our males are so big, should we wait before we put them together. Because there is a big difference in size betweeen both of them. When a female and male are introduced they normally mount, so would the males crush the females?


Answer
Hi Sarah,

I've never actually done this!

I've introduced a baby male to an older male, but this requires one to be much smaller so that the older male can express his dominance. This involves mounting ... but obviously is not prolonged and stops after the dominance ritual!

As your males have both been neutered, I presume they will not express the same hormonal urges as other male guinea pigs, and therefore will not constantly try to mount the females. However, if there is a large size difference, crushing will of course be a possibility as usually the females are as big as if not larger than the males.

How old are your females?! At a guess I'd say to wait until they're 2 months old; as they'll be quite big by this stage. However, I recommend you ask someone else who has experience in this area, as I don't want to  cause any pain or stress to your baby females.

Good luck and best wishes,
Jenny.