I’ve merged your two threads as it relates to the same issue.
As I say, seeing dominance is very normal and isn’t a worry.
Are you noticing the chasing at any specific time?
With boars there are some key things you need to do:
- always handle with the dominant piggy first. It’s important you don’t go to the submissive first because it can upset the dominant and make him feel like he needs to reinforce his position in the hierarchy thus causing more dominance
- ensure you have two hay areas; at least two hides. They need to be sure they don’t ever have to share or compete for resources
- scatter feed. Throw veg and pellets directly into piles of hay or loose around the whole cage floor. This encourages foraging and keeps them occupied; but it also means the dominant can’t food hog.
- an important one is around cleaning out.
Don’t clean the whole cage in one go. Only ever clean half at a time - so if you use fleece have two smaller fleeces in the cage at one go. Remove one side on one day and the other side another day.
If you remove all bedding in one go then you totally remove scent. That means they don’t feel like it is their territory and will cause increased dominance while they reestablish.
- What can trigger a new hierarchy sort-out?
- What can I do to mitigate the impact?
With an average life span of only around 3 years and a hostile environment, wild guinea pig social life is much more fluid and eventful, whether that is losses, births, regular leadership changes, new boars being accepted or changes to the territory due to climate extremes, infectious illnesses, predation and the waxing and waning of group fortunes and the amount of territory they can claim around their denning areas.
What can trigger...
