Introducing Snickers and Zoey!

As you know, guinea pigs are social animals and like to live in groups of at least two piggies. When I started this blog, Oreo was a lone guinea pig waiting for her new cage mates. After a long wait, I have finally found her two cage mates: Snickers and Zoey!

Zoey and Snickers are both still babies. Zoey is 4 weeks old and Snickers is 6 weeks old. Both are being kept together in one cage separate from Oreo and will stay separate for two weeks. This is known as a quarantine time. The purpose of this is to ensure that neither is sick and to keep anything one of them may have from spreading to Oreo. After this two week quarantine, they will be introduced to Oreo and aloud to have contact with her. 

These two are still babies, and because of that they are still learning social behaviors. They do nip once in a while, but other than that I haven't had any issues with them. I am very impressed with how social and cuddly Zoey already is at her age. Snickers will need a little more work with taming and bonding with me, but they are both already trusting me which is great!

Zoey is the more social of the two. She is also more dependent on others than Snickers. She will either seek comfort from Snickers by snuggling up under her chin or by climbing onto me, usually hiding in my hair. Zoey is definitely bonded to Snickers, but Snickers isn't as bonded to her yet. By the end of the quarantine time, I have no doubts these two will be a bonded pair.

Snickers had a lot of possible names. A friend of mine voted S'mores, the boyfriend voted Snickers, and I also was thinking Moxie. In the end, I thought Snickers was the more fun and fitting name for her. Snickers is very adventurous when outside the cage, but likes to hide when in the cage. She is the more dominant of the two, but does not push Zoey around too much as Zoey is content being the non-dominant. 

I will be starting to introduce veggies and fruits to them in a day or two. The important thing to remember when introducing new foods is to be patient and do one at a time. We will be starting with bell pepper and then lettuce. Bell pepper and lettuce are usual favorites of guinea pigs (Oreo loves both). Eventually they will get a bowl of veggies to share just like Oreo gets daily.

To follow how Snickers and Zoey do on their way of adjusting to their new home and how Oreo does with them, don't forget to subscribe and follow on social media! Have any questions regarding new guinea pigs and/or the bonding process, comment below!