Buy Guinea Pigs: How To Choose And Buy A Guinea Pig Pet

Buying more than one guinea pig.

If you are thinking of buying a guinea pig pet you should seriously consider buying two or more guinea pigs.
Because guinea pigs are very social animals they absolutely adore the company of others. A guinea pig alone will often get very lonely and stressed which is not good for its health and well being.

Because they are affectionate creatures they need attention and if you only have one guinea pig he is going to get very lonely quickly and cry for attention a lot more. If you have two or more guinea pigs they have a companion to play with and you will not have to spend as much time giving them attention.

Male? Female? What should my ratio be?

Will I get one of each, two women, two men, three men, or three women, or three… goodness! Imagine the difficulties of working out the ratio when you have ten or more!

When you decide to purchase only one guinea pig,  sex is not so important. Female guinea pigs are by nature are alot more docile and less lively. Their male counterparts however are going to be a lot more energetic and require more exercise.

One common misunderstanding is that if you have two male guinea pigs they will fight if they are in the same cage. This is to put plainly, untrue.

Male guinea pigs will fight but only if they do not have enough space. To ensure this does not happen you need to make sure each male guinea pig has its own territory and as such enough room to live peacefully together.

If you do already own two male guinea pigs then you cannot put a female into the same cage with them. This is because the two male guinea pigs will fight for dominance over the female. The loser of this fight would then have to be removed from the cage. If he was to stay in the cage with the happy couple he would soon starve to death as the winning male will not let him have any food or water

You can have two females in the same cage however they may have petty fights of small things such as food and water. However as they are more gentle by nature it is unlikely that a major fight will occur.

The best combination for guinea pigs is one male and one female. The female knows that the male is her leader and the male will look after the female as his own. This will result in a peaceful living situation for both.

There is only one thing wrong with the above picture and that is all the little babies that will arise from this situation. Puppies as baby guinea pigs are called can very easily be created when the guinea pigs are unattended.

A female guinea pigs cycle only runs for eighteen days. Guinea pig puppies will only be in the tummy for two months. This means it is extremely likely that a peaceful pair of guinea pigs can produce many litters of puppies per year.

Buying Your Guinea Pig

Most pet shops you see will have at least one and maybe more cages of guinea pigs for you to choose from. Guinea pigs give birth a lot and there is a fairly high demand for the baby guinea pigs.

A very good tip to remember when purchasing your guinea pigs is to choose them all if buying more than one from the same cage. This will mean that the guinea pigs already know each other and have established a hierarchy which will lead to a more peaceful situation once you get them home.