Andrea999
Junior Guinea Pig
Hello all,
I was a new guinea pig owner in Feb when we got Petey and S'mores. They're now about 4 months old. They're both males and have always lived together. They've always gotten along perfectly and had such a great bond.
After having moved their cage and made it bigger we decided to get them a friend. Their cage is a c&c 3x8 so it's quite large. After a quarantine we did an introduction and things went great!
We had been most worried about one of the older pigs fighting with the baby. Lots of normal rumble strutting and humping but nothing serious. All were eating, sleeping and getting along ok.
After about 5-6 days we noticed S'mores was kind of being left out. I also began finding chunks of hair in the cage but couldn't find out who it came from. Eventually we noticed it was Petey and S'mores not getting along! They would go face to face and chatter their teeth. Lunging towards each other. I had to break it up and separate them. A few hours later I tried floor time with them which went better. Still some face to face and noises towards each other but no biting or fighting.
Since that seemed to go ok and I didn't want to separate them if I didn't have to. They had such a great bond and it was breaking my heart to see this! I put them back together and within 30 secs Petey went right for Smores and fur went flying. I was horrified! Both were ok though.
I have them separated. But even after that Petey (the dominant one) was still visibility agitated. Walking back and forth in his cage and just looked so angry. He was still trying to bite through the divider cage between them, which is just a grid. So we put some coroplast and cardboard on the wall so they can't see each other and hoped that would lessen the aggression.
During the night Petey jumped out of his cage! (luckily not into S'mores cage!) He has never done this and I feel like it's because he's still so amped up and wants to fight!
In hindsight maybe we shouldn't have brought a 3rd into this. Their bond was great and now it's a mess. After some research I've read this can happen even just between 2 pigs that have been together since birth. Once puberty hits it just doesn't work anymore. Petey is in puberty. His testicles are large and S'mores isn't at that stage yet although they seem to be close to the same age.
Initially we left the baby with him, but although he wasn't being aggressive with him, he was continuing to follow him around and chasing him endlessly. The little guy couldn't catch a break. So we put the baby with S'mores.
This is heart breaking to me for Petey to be acting so mean and aggressive. I'm especially sad about the bond between him and S'mores being broken.
Does anyone have any experience with this? Any insight or advice is appreciated!
I was a new guinea pig owner in Feb when we got Petey and S'mores. They're now about 4 months old. They're both males and have always lived together. They've always gotten along perfectly and had such a great bond.
After having moved their cage and made it bigger we decided to get them a friend. Their cage is a c&c 3x8 so it's quite large. After a quarantine we did an introduction and things went great!
We had been most worried about one of the older pigs fighting with the baby. Lots of normal rumble strutting and humping but nothing serious. All were eating, sleeping and getting along ok.
After about 5-6 days we noticed S'mores was kind of being left out. I also began finding chunks of hair in the cage but couldn't find out who it came from. Eventually we noticed it was Petey and S'mores not getting along! They would go face to face and chatter their teeth. Lunging towards each other. I had to break it up and separate them. A few hours later I tried floor time with them which went better. Still some face to face and noises towards each other but no biting or fighting.
Since that seemed to go ok and I didn't want to separate them if I didn't have to. They had such a great bond and it was breaking my heart to see this! I put them back together and within 30 secs Petey went right for Smores and fur went flying. I was horrified! Both were ok though.
I have them separated. But even after that Petey (the dominant one) was still visibility agitated. Walking back and forth in his cage and just looked so angry. He was still trying to bite through the divider cage between them, which is just a grid. So we put some coroplast and cardboard on the wall so they can't see each other and hoped that would lessen the aggression.
During the night Petey jumped out of his cage! (luckily not into S'mores cage!) He has never done this and I feel like it's because he's still so amped up and wants to fight!
In hindsight maybe we shouldn't have brought a 3rd into this. Their bond was great and now it's a mess. After some research I've read this can happen even just between 2 pigs that have been together since birth. Once puberty hits it just doesn't work anymore. Petey is in puberty. His testicles are large and S'mores isn't at that stage yet although they seem to be close to the same age.
Initially we left the baby with him, but although he wasn't being aggressive with him, he was continuing to follow him around and chasing him endlessly. The little guy couldn't catch a break. So we put the baby with S'mores.
This is heart breaking to me for Petey to be acting so mean and aggressive. I'm especially sad about the bond between him and S'mores being broken.
Does anyone have any experience with this? Any insight or advice is appreciated!
