8 week old girls - play fighting?

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Hemmy

Hemmy

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Hi everyone!

I got 3 eight week old sister piggies 3 days ago, and haven't owned Guinea Pigs until now. I've called them Daphne, Beatrice and Mabel! x)

I'm buying a garden run for them later this week, but for the last 2 days I have guinea-pig-proofed my bedroom so that they can get a little bit of exercise and I can check how they're doing. I've made sure I've only put them in there for about 10 minutes; they're **** very nervous and wriggly! Haha.

However, I noticed that when they weren't eating their red peppers or darting around(!), Daphne was getting picked on a little bit by the other 2, and Mabel and Beatrice were sort of biting at each other's teeth. No one was hurt but Daphne got very scared and squeaky, so I took them back to the hutch.

Why do you guys think the pigs are fighting/nipping each other? Are they just sorting out a pecking order or playing? Is this normal for 8 week olds? Is Daphne probably just the runt of the litter?

Thanks :)
 
Hi! It looks very much like dominance - which you will get with any new group and any new territory. You seem to have one underpiggy and two pretty evenly matched girls going for top spot.

I would leave the run time until they have settled down somewhat and make sure that there are hideys dotted around any new open space or that the new space is part covered by an old beach towel. Guinea pigs are prey animals and prefer to explore new potentially hostile territory from a safe base; one of their main predators are birds of prey.

Here are tips on how to settle in new piggies:
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=36239

You can find more helpful information for piggy newbies in our reference section.
 
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