dominance after bath?

[LittleEskimo]

Ive just bathed both my guinea pigs and ive been cuddling them on my bed. They have been laying down and relaxing and letting me stroke them and dont seem to mind each other too much but now and again they keep having rumblestruts and head rasing and teeth chattering to eachother and one gave the other a nip that made him cry out so i checked him and he had a little mark where the other had taken some hair out. But now they have just stopped and one is laying down near the other while one is just cleaning himself :S they are both boars and they do get on with the occasional little scuffles but this is odd. I'm guessing its because they smell different after a bath as they were smelling under the chin and eachothers bums but I dont get the random aggressive behaviour and then laying down the next second :{

 

[Lucy&Anton]

Gus and Darwin have to go through a whole dominance routine anytime anything changes for them, including baths and cleaning out their habitats.

I think they are just checking that it's still their friend! My pigs aren't great friends (they won't lie next to each other ever), but when the chips are down, they can be great with each other. Gus is recovering from an accident right now and Darwin is being very gentle and understanding with him.