Don't All Male Guinea Pigs Fight?

(And other common misconceptions)

     There are many misconceptions on the Internet and in books. The most common one, I think, is that all male guinea pigs fight.  We have adopters coming to us all the time insisting they want females because they've read all males fight. It simply isn't true.

    The books are partly right but they aren't telling the whole picture. Some males do fight, and some females fight. We've had over 500 guinea pigs come into our rescue and the meanest one we ever had was a female named Smudge. She didn't get along with anyone. Some males were afraid of her as soon as they met her. We had 3 males who saw her and they ran immediately to the far corner of the cage away from her and cowered. She was a tough opponent for those who dared to challenge her.

   It is very common for us to take in pairs of bonded males. They have been together almost their whole life and we rarely see squabbles out of them. They are often gentle souls who would make great pets. Of the 5 friendliest piggies we've had here, 4 were males. People who overlook males because of what they've read are missing real treasures. 

    Here's a few links to guinea pig owner's experiences with male piggies. The links are all from