Growling?

3 Musketeers

3 Musketeers

Junior Guinea Pig
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So One of My boars, shadow, has been making a low, (kinda freaky!) growl!
Today i was cleaning their cage out and some kind of low growl made me jump!

I looked up, and around, noticing nothing i got back to work.
I heard the same growling noise again, and then looked to see it was one of my Guinea pigs?! I was really surprised!

I continued working though, and just kept my eye on Shadow.
I Noticed too, that he was crawling under his two brothers, and both avoided him! And they were also squeaking like they were looking for me!
( they are babies, but they squeak when I'm near and when i shake their bowl to give them food and also if they want some cuddles!) But i was concerned this time it was like they were in trouble.

Shadow's growl sounds somewhat aggressive, Its like a dominance over a female kinda noise, But a bit higher.

They also have been pop-corning alot recently, so I'm not sure why this sounds like they are unhappy!?

Do Guinea pigs playfight, by the way? I think they have been play fighting because it seems so cute and innocent because they often popcorn during it and usually no violent noises are made!
 
He might be rumbling - it's an odd noise, and often accompanied by a slow walk and a lot of bottom wiggling?
If so this is actually a good noise - your boar is reminding everyone just how fantastic he is.
Our Eddi rumble struts a lot. :roll:
 
3 Musketeers said:
So One of My boars, shadow, has been making a low, (kinda freaky!) growl!
Today i was cleaning their cage out and some kind of low growl made me jump!

I looked up, and around, noticing nothing i got back to work.
I heard the same growling noise again, and then looked to see it was one of my Guinea pigs?! I was really surprised!

I continued working though, and just kept my eye on Shadow.
I Noticed too, that he was crawling under his two brothers, and both avoided him! And they were also squeaking like they were looking for me!
( they are babies, but they squeak when I'm near and when i shake their bowl to give them food and also if they want some cuddles!) But i was concerned this time it was like they were in trouble.

Shadow's growl sounds somewhat aggressive, Its like a dominance over a female kinda noise, But a bit higher.

They also have been pop-corning alot recently, so I'm not sure why this sounds like they are unhappy!?

Do Guinea pigs playfight, by the way? I think they have been play fighting because it seems so cute and innocent because they often popcorn during it and usually no violent noises are made!
Click to expand...

Could you please make a little video and upload it on a public setting on another place (we do not have a video uploading facility on this forum) and then link it into your post?

It is very difficult for us to judge what is going on from your description. My guess is that they are rumblestrutting, which is very mild dominance behaviour. Boars do it pretty regularly; they measure up to each other this way and show off to sows what strapping lads they are.
 
3 Musketeers said:
Ill try! But he isnt doing it very often.
Click to expand...

It is very difficult for us to judge behaviour from just a description as it is filtered through human perceptions, which can differ enormously.

Guinea pigs make several similar sounding rumbling sounds that have very different meanings. We always have to take the body language and the situational context into account, too, in order to interpret behaviour. That is the reason why we do not have a behaviour guide on this forum. ;)

Here is our guide on social interactions: Illustrated Bonding / Dominance Behaviours And Dynamics

If you want to have an audio guide, this one is the most correctly interpreted link that I have found, but please keep in mind the limitations: Guinea Pig Sounds
 
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