Floor time causing upset?

[baboushka]

I have noticed that every time I take my two male guinea pigs out of their hutch for floor time, afterwards one basically tortures the other, constantly mounting, continuous high pitched squeaking chattering and chasing him from one pigloo to the other.

I bought a bigger home yesterday for them which I thought would calm things down, and everything seemed to be a bit better until we took them out for some floor time today and when they went back into the hutch again the same thing happened, it only seems to stop when the aggressive one has to rest, but the other little piggy is not gettin much quality of life at all, he spends the majority of his time in one of the pigloos and is so timid he rarely will take any treats from my hand. He is fine when he is being lifted though, he seems to rather like it whereas the aggressive pig chatters at me and today bit me quite hard twice when I lifted him. Its becoming quite stressful and I dont really know what to do Btw I have only had them from last Sunday.

 

[Wiebke]

New territory means re-establishing the hierarchy; they have had a few upsets in their short time with you. What you are seeing is normal dominance behaviour for the top boar. The loud screaming is not pain, but submission.

Give them time to settle in the bigger cage first and shake down as a couple; that will take a few days until both boars have had their say and worked out how much top boar can push bottom boar and how far bottom boar lets himself be pushed.

 

[baboushka]

Yes I thought it was to do with so much change, and maybe they are stressed out. Its just not very nice to see, as the submissive piggy is so docile it just looks like hes being bullied. I will see how the next few days go and hopefully it will sort itself out. Can I just ask though, it is the aggressive piggy making all the squeaking noises, so I'm a bit confused what you mean by submission? Sorry I'm probably not understanding at all.

 

[Wiebke]

Often a submissive piggy will squeal very loudly as if in pain; but it is more in the way of "don't bully me, I'm no rival". Often you hear it more towards the end of the dominance phase as a "weapon" of the underpiggy to stand its ground.

Suzy has quite a few videos in her boar dating thread, perhaps that can reassure you? We generally urge people not to separate piggies unless there are real fights with bites. It comes as a surprise to many newbies that guinea pig dominance is quite drastic, but unlike us humans, the piggies have got the manual. Just weigh both piggies weekly (a good habit to keep an eye on their health. As long as both are putting on weight they are OK).
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=59233