Introducing a new cavy

Question
I had two 10 month old male cavies that were together from birth and sadly one died 2 months ago.  The surviving one was always very dominant and mounted the other one frequently but they never actually fought.  My survivng cavy is now very withdrawn and lonely and I would like to get a companion for him. I have considered neutering him and getting a female but I'm worried he'll be constantly mating with it and make it's life a misery. Is a female likely to calm him down? I have also heard adult males take to baby males quite well but with his dominant nature I am not sure how well this will work.  Any advice will be gratefully received.

Answer
Hi Rosalind,

I'm very sorry to hear of your loss. It's always so sad when we lose our loved ones - human and animals - especially when they are still so young.

I have a neutered male piggie living with three females, and I can honestly say he couldn't care less about trying it on with his women. If anything, it's the girls chasing and mounting each other when one or all are in heat rather than my boy. He tends to stay well out of it these days! He just sits back and enjoys the company of his ladies. He was also quite dominant when he lived alone, and I tried introducing one little girl (in totally the wrong way) unsuccessfully, but once I introduced them properly - neutral ground, food as a distraction - the meeting could not have gone better, and the relationship couldn't have been stronger than it is today. He leaves all the dominance behaviour to his girls, but they all know he is ultimately the big boss - he doesn't need to chase, mount, nip, rumblestrut or teeth-chatter to let anybody know this.

I have found - and so have many others - that the neutered male and female(s) combination is probably one of the best ones. If the female gets fed up with restless chasing and mounting, it doesn't take long for her to give her "boyfriend" an earful or a quick nip. When the girls are in heat (also called season, or oestrus) the boys tend to take that opportunity to mount her, and it can get hectic and constant, but it's over within a day. If he gets too aggressive, then a quick divider in the cage until things settle down again won't hurt anybody.

Older males can get on well with younger males, if you introduce them right and make sure their living circumstances are as good as possible. This means:

* A decent sized cage - see www.guineapigcages.com
* A hidey, water bottle, food dish and hay rack per pig in separate areas of the cage;
* Plenty of floor (exercise) time daily.

The idea that older gets along with younger when it comes to boars is that two younger boys of very similar ages - i.e. a 10 week old and a 12 week old - are both going through puberty at the same time, so they irritate each other intensely which can lead to fights. With one older and one younger, just one is going through puberty, so it's just one who is very hormonal. The older one tends to either ignore the behaviour or set the young one right when he gets too aggressive. These old-young relationships have been successful so it's worth considering this option.

If you have any more questions, let me know and I will be glad to assist you.

Best Wishes,

- Laura
www.cavy-care.com