Choosing & Buying a Guinea Pig

One Guinea Pig, Two Guinea Pig, Three Guinea Pig, More

While one guinea pig is probably enough to keep you entertained and alert, you should put some serious thought into purchasing two guinea pigs or more.

Not only are guinea pigs extremely social creatures, they love the company of others. They can get lonely by themselves, and their health will suffer if left alone.

Guinea pigs need attention, and if you have just one, your guinea pig is going to get lonely very fast, and cry for your attention more often. If he or she has a partner or playmate to keep them entertained, you don’t have to spend quite as much time with them.

The Sex of the Matter

Should you get two women, two men, one of each, or three men, or three women, or three… oh my! Can you just imagine all of the combinations you can think of when you get up to higher numbers?

If you’re going to just get a guinea pig, sex doesn’t matter too much. By nature, female guinea pigs are going to be more docile and less active, while their male counterparts are going to have more energy and need more exercise.

A common misconception with male guinea pigs is that if you put two in the same cage, they’re going to fight to the death. While that sounds violent - and something you would watch on Pay Per View - it’s nothing but wrong.

Two male guinea pigs will fight if they don’t have enough cage space, but given plenty room, each guinea pig will have his own territory and be content with it.

If you have two male guinea pigs, you cannot introduce a female guinea pig to the cage. The males will fight for dominance (And therefore the female), and the loser would have to be removed from the cage immediately. If he’s left there, he will starve to death as the dominate male will keep him away from both the food and water.

Two females in the same cage will get along well, but you may find that they will ‘bicker’ a bit over food and water (Please men, no ‘typical female’ jokes!). Because of their docile nature, however, it’s very unlikely that a major fight will break out.

A male and a female in the same cage will actually get along best. The female acknowledges that the male is dominant, and the male accepts the female as his, and act peacefully towards her.

The only problem with this peaceful situation? The puppies (The term for baby guinea pigs) that can happen when you leave a male and a female unattended.

The female cycle is only 18 days, and the gestation of guinea pigs are only two months - while this is relatively long for rodents, it’s very possible that two lively guinea pigs can give birth to literally dozens of puppies in just a year.

I’m Staring at my Guinea Pigs… Help!

Many pet stores will have at least one cage of guinea pigs, if not two or more. It’s simply that guinea pigs give birth a lot, and there is a demand for the puppies they produce.

If you’re purchasing more then one, make sure to get two from the same cage. This will take care of any of the issues that might arise from fighting in their cage.