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Guinea pig on heat?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ollyhtafc
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ollyhtafc

Hi there and congratulations on such an informative and helpful forum.

We have a slight problem. We currently have two female guinea pigs approx 10 months old. They live together and get along peacefully and never fight.

Trouble is, once every few weeks one particular guinea pig seems to come into heat, and constantly harrases the other guinea pig trying to mount it and making the 'rumbling' sound which i believe is associated with mating. This tends to go on for about a week but happens all day and night, whenever the two guinea pigs meet in their cage. Whilst this is going on there are no signs of aggresion at all, the harrased pig just runs away.

I can only think this must be very distressing for the harrased guinea pig. Is there anything i can do?
 
I apologise, this should be in 'behaviour'. I didn't see that forum.
 
welcome to the forums from us in oz :smitten: :smitten: :smitten: i have the same problem, poor zoe would be picked on by choloe, and when choloe passed away we got jessie and when jessie grew up she would pick on zoe mounting, chasing, not letting her eat etc. :( it has to do with they are trying to establish who is boss, my vet described it this way; in a paddock full of cows and one bull the bull would be exhausted if he had to check every cow to see which one is on heat. so if the bull sees one cow mounting another the bull thinks woo hoo that one is on heat and off he trots. some have suggested using a water squirt gun when it happens. sadly it has gotten to the stage that when zoe sees jessie with the barrier down (zoe was ill, had surgery, and bland diet) zoe has a piggy panic attack. so depending on the piggy it can be stressful for them O0 the late petal used to do the same to the late rosie, one day rosie just snapped and started to fight back so they had to be seperated. so i would suggest the water squirt gun or a teeny tiny dab of vicks to prevent the other piggy mounting her. good luck if you find a solution please let me know. O0 welcome again :smitten: :smitten: :smitten: good luck with your girls O0 the girls send :-* :-* :-*
 
It only happens every few weeks though.Which led me to believe it was something to do with their cycling i don't know though.

Also the female being mounted often sprays pee at the other female when she approaches trying to mount from behind ! is that normal?
 
This is typical dominance behaviour which can occur/get worse when the piggies are on heat (they get PMS too! :)).
Mine are the same and because I have 3 there is always on on heat pretty much!

Unfortunately there is not much you can do but make sure that have enough room to get away from each other from one of them. As long as there is no sign of aggression and the harassed piggy is not prevented from eating, drinking, sleeping, there is nothing to worry about.
 
I just feel bad when you can hear it alllll night long!

But if it's natural i guess that's that.

Thanks.
 
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