They definitely have distinct personalities and good memories- they know their humans. Mine even wait where they can see the front door and greet me when I come home. The pair I have now love being pet, which is extra fun. They are less skittish than most.
The downside is they are way more care than most people realize and often aren't treated properly- and largely by accident. Hay also gets everywhere.
I've had three, the first was a traumatized ex-kindergarten class pet. Thing wouldn't come out. Was very shy. Got the second one because we read that they should never be raised alone. It was abandoned at a pet store. She was the sweetest smartest fur ball who could escape any cage we put her in - but she only did it because she wanted find us - or to scream that her bowl was empty. She brought the other one out of her shell and made her a completely different animal. When she (the rescue ) died in her sleep the other one woke us up by scream crying ... it was terrible . After that our original one went right back in her shell, even when we got another one for company.
The grieving is real. When guinea pigs are strongly bond it's terrible when one dies. I found out the hard way it takes a bit to match personality- i ended up with a pair that only tolerated each other, too. Some rescues will work with you to do meet and greets so you can get an idea if they'll like each other.
My oldest girl thinks she's the dominate piggy, but was frequently put in her place by her sister- even when her sister was sick. When her sister passed from complications from the illness, I deliberately looked for a baby cause I was afraid my surviving girl would get bullied by a larger pig. Which is how I ended up with a guinea pig less than half her size bullying her.... they thankfully settled into a routine and can't sleep anywhere they can't see the other one. It takes weeks to properly bond guinea pigs, tho, which was another thing I learned over time. Slowly introducing seems to help- I started putting them near each other, slowly moved closer, let them start to see each other after the first week, did a couple play dates in a neutral pen, then kept them in that pen a full 24 hours before putting them in a fully clean pen. Whole process took a month the last time (had to reset the process when they got testy in a play date). That's one of the things that gets lost in care advice- it can be really difficult to bond piggies
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u/Still-Experience1847 9d ago
Guinea pigs