New Guinea pigs bonded immediately, safe to house together?
(Picture of them in their bonding playpen)
My older girls, Freckles and Chewie, are 4.5 years old, and I bought them together. The new little one is Orange Blossom (or just Blossom) is probably 8 weeks from what I can tell, and we got her recently. After the initial wait period we had their first bonding session, which I was expecting to go more rocky, but it actually went really well! After they ate all their salad all three cuddled up inside the house, groomed each other, and napped.
They’ve shown minimal and healthy dominance behaviors (no tussles, no pulling fur, and not even any rumble strutting, only prodding at each other when annoyed). My only concern is that Chewie can be overbearingly protective at times and seems to want Blossom to stay in the house for safekeeping for the most part, and for her to sleep when Chewie sleeps. It isn’t an attempt to hoard resources and I have multiple food sources across their enclosure, she will just herd Blossom until she’s inside the house and then lay down curled around her.
I was originally expecting this to take multiple sessions and to gradually put them together but they already seem very emotionally invested in each other and according to google & some articles I read it could stress them out more to separate them after a bond is formed. Are they safe for me to allow them to live together? My original pair are my first guinea pigs and this is my first time introducing one so I want to make sure I’m doing everything right. Thank you so much!!