Grumbles And Trying To Mount

[kayelljay]

Hi, I just wanted to post to get a little advice. I have 2 sows and they have been together for about a year and a half - never had any problems, they have always been really close and the more outgoing one has actually made the quiet one come out of her shell a bit more which is nice.
My concern is that the past 3-4 weeks, Daisy (the outgoing one) has been grumbling, I only noticed it at first when I was sweeping out their cage so I thought she may have been scared of the brush or something. But I stood outside the bedroom door the other day and I could hear her grumbling again. Today I noticed it a bit worse when I went in to see them, she was trying to mount Lola (the quieter one) which she has never tried to do before. The other day I noticed a big knot of fur on Lolas back end, and I thought it was just off her sitting in mess (as she always does lol) but now I'm a bit concerned that it could be Daisy thats done it while shes trying to sniff and mount Lola. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had similar issues? Should I be concerned? How could I stop Daisy being so grumbly!

 

[Wiebke]

It can either be a strong season or - if the rumblestrutting and mounting persists - the sign of some hormonal issues, usually due to a small growing ovarian cyst. Neither is uncommon in sows; I am seeing this kind of behaviour every now and then with sows of mine. Often it pases after a while.

So far, the behaviour doesn't alarming to me. There are now much less invasive hormonal treatments available if things get to the point that the relationship is severely strained (rather than a spay, which is a major operation), but you may need to see an exotics specialist over them.

https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/sow-behaviour.38561/

 

[kayelljay]

Yeah, hopefully it passes soon, I was just worried because she has never been like that before, and I didn't want to leave it without getting some advice first incase something did happen between them! Thank you