Bonding Winston with some girls

Freya1234

Freya1234

Teenage Guinea Pig
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Hi all,
I’m opening this thread so I can have some reassurance throughout the bonding as I’ve only ever done one bonding with two males that went very well!
Following losing Smokey last week I managed to find 2 bonded girls at a local rescue for Winston and picked them up today. Winston is a 1y neutered boar, Rosie and syrup are the new girls who the rescue think are 2-3y. Rosie and Syrup both went to the rescue as they lost their companions and the rescue then bonded them together and they’ve now been bonded for about 3 weeks so still quite a new pairing. They are currently in a divided cage to allow the girls to get settled and through the bar interaction, as expected Winston who has been desperate for company all week has chewed and tugged at the divider as much as he can in his excitement, Rosie has been very nice and shown positive signs towards him. However I’m a bit concerned about Syrup who did lunge and nip at him a couple of times while he was chewing at the bars, when I picked up the girls the rescue also told me they’d noticed that syrup has started nipping Rosie’s bum if she has food she wants. Is this something I should be concerned about going forward with the bonding or is syrup just showing normal dominance behaviour?
P.s added a pigture of the new neighbours
 

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I don’t think you should worry at this point. The reality is that behaviours between the bars aren’t indicative of how the bonding will go, plus the girls are likely to be on edge in a new environment and will go through a period of reestablishing their relationship themselves.
 
Freya1234 said:
Hi all,
I’m opening this thread so I can have some reassurance throughout the bonding as I’ve only ever done one bonding with two males that went very well!
Following losing Smokey last week I managed to find 2 bonded girls at a local rescue for Winston and picked them up today. Winston is a 1y neutered boar, Rosie and syrup are the new girls who the rescue think are 2-3y. Rosie and Syrup both went to the rescue as they lost their companions and the rescue then bonded them together and they’ve now been bonded for about 3 weeks so still quite a new pairing. They are currently in a divided cage to allow the girls to get settled and through the bar interaction, as expected Winston who has been desperate for company all week has chewed and tugged at the divider as much as he can in his excitement, Rosie has been very nice and shown positive signs towards him. However I’m a bit concerned about Syrup who did lunge and nip at him a couple of times while he was chewing at the bars, when I picked up the girls the rescue also told me they’d noticed that syrup has started nipping Rosie’s bum if she has food she wants. Is this something I should be concerned about going forward with the bonding or is syrup just showing normal dominance behaviour?
P.s added a pigture of the new neighbours
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Hi
Syrup is showing strong fear-aggressive defensive behaviour (lunging is a strongly worded 'keep out of my space'. I hope that she settles down over the coming days but brace for some more fear-aggressive (they are essentially) defensive behaviours during bonding as that can play into whether acceptance happens or not.

Bum nipping is very mild and normal daily 'get out of my way' group dominance behaviour. Syrup is simply throwing her weight around a bit.

Please read up on this in these links here:
A - Z of Guinea Pig Behaviours (please look up entries Fear-Aggression, Dominance and Territorial Behaviours)

" Biting" And What You Can Do (Biting, Tweaking, Nibbling and Nipping)
 
Thank you both for your replies, the girls have only been here for about an hour and a half so hopefully everything will settle down with syrup and I’ll see how they all are tomorrow, I’ll have a read of those guides as well😊
 
Freya1234 said:
Thank you both for your replies, the girls have only been here for about an hour and a half so hopefully everything will settle down with syrup and I’ll see how they all are tomorrow, I’ll have a read of those guides as well😊
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I would give them a bit more time to settle down if those were my own piggies.
 
Just thought I’d give an update, it all calmed down throughout the day and syrup and Winston sniffed noses through the bars but there was no more lunging or nipping, she did steal a piece of pepper out of Rosie’s mouth at breakfast this morning so I think she’s just a bit bossy 🤣. Last night and this morning they were all eating hay next to each other peacefully with Winston as close to the divider as he could get! I’m going to keep them side by side again today and if all stays calm will try the bonding tomorrow.
 
I also wanted to add, Syrup seems to be drinking a lot (her and Rosie finished almost the whole bottle in 24h). They were housed outside at the fosterers but they’re now inside with me (room temp about 17C) could this be why? Or is she just a pig that drinks a lot?
I will be taking them to the vets for a health check once the bonding is sorted and will mention it but just wondered if the change in climate might be a factor?
 
Is Syrup actually drinking it all? Some pigs (Dignified Sir George) are very good at emptying the water bottle (loudly)without drinking that much of it 🙄
 
Sir George sounds very cheeky!😂 I think she is as I’ve seen her drinking (she actually is as I’m typing!) and I have a little ceramic dish to catch any drips underneath in case the water bottle leaks and that’s dry
 
Freya1234 said:
Just thought I’d give an update, it all calmed down throughout the day and syrup and Winston sniffed noses through the bars but there was no more lunging or nipping, she did steal a piece of pepper out of Rosie’s mouth at breakfast this morning so I think she’s just a bit bossy 🤣. Last night and this morning they were all eating hay next to each other peacefully with Winston as close to the divider as he could get! I’m going to keep them side by side again today and if all stays calm will try the bonding tomorrow.
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Good news. Your girls are currently in the process of re-establishing their group in their new territory so dominance behaviour is perfectly normal for this stage; it is still very much on the milder side.
 
Bonding is underway 🤞🏽 initially Winston went a bit crazy trying to mount both girls, syrup (white teddy at back) didn’t submissive squeak but instead was just constantly wheeking, however now they have decided it’s snack time - we’ll see how long the calm lasts!
 

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Been a very anxious hour!
Rosie has washed herself next to Winston so I’m not worried about her at all. However everytime Winston rumblestruts near Syrup she’s lunging at him (he’s then completely backing off) and then she just wheeks repeatedly. Everything calm and peaceful when they’re all eating hay with each other until Syrup gets approached/approaches one of them she lunges at them. I’m assuming this is again fear aggression but how do I know the bonding isn’t working?
 
Any advice is welcome!
I took some videos if it will help and can upload them to YouTube, but anytime Winston starts rumblestrutting Syrup starts repeatedly wheeking and then when she’s decided he’s too close she lunges at him baring teeth. She’s also nipped at Rosie a bit in her aggression and Rosie started squealing but she seems okay now. After about 30 seconds of drama everything settles and they start eating hay again but Syrup just won’t let Winston near her if he’s rumblestrutting, I don’t know how much longer to leave it because I’m getting really anxious and Winston seems to be wary of her now and I think he’s a bit frightened. Is it necessary to separate them, has the bonding failed?
 
I can't comment on the bonding as I've only ever bonded boars but I wish you good luck! I hope they settle down.
 
I haven’t any experience of this but I think it seems like settling in behaviour - I’d let them carry on unless fighting and blood is drawn. Hopefully they’ll settle down ❤️❤️❤️
 
I don’t know if my nerves got the better of me but after about 3 and a half hours i have separated them.
Syrup wasn’t settling and instead was getting worse throughout the bonding. She ended up hunkering down away from the hay pile and Rosie and Winston, then if either of them went near to her she wheeked, lunged and nipped (even at Rosie).
Did I separate too early? Is this a failed bonding? Should I keep them side by side a bit more and try again another day?
 
I'd try again another day but I'm not an expert. I know boars are far more cut and dried than sows when it won't work it's quite obvious!
 
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