Hair eating..

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Hey Everyone,

So to my shock today, my long haired female guinea pig had an extreme hair cut this morning when I went to feed her. I had noticed her hair had become significantly shorter and I took her to the vet with her babies that needed to be sexed, he said it was quite normal for her hair to be thinner and fall out when she is lactating.

The cage is a reasonable sized C&C cage but with the babies getting bigger it was obvious that it was a little crowded, now that the babies are separated I noticed that her room mate Sophie has been eating her hair when I had them on the couch and I'm really worried.

Here are some other bits of information

- I clean their cage every 2 days inside and out but I had only cleaned it after 4-5 days because I was extremely sick with a viral flu so I'm not sure if this was a factor. (It's spotless now) Could this have anything to do with it?

- Sophie is 3 months old, the Mum is over a year old but she is has always been the boss, I have noticed that she has been less dominant lately.

- I have a combination of different hay baskets, litter boxes, toys, tubes, and houses that I switch around every time I clean the cage to keep things interesting, I also re arrange the cage each time.

I'm really worried, do I have to split them up? I have the female baby in the cage as well as I plan to keep her (the boys have moved outside). Sophie doesn't seem to eat the hair off any of my other Guinea pigs.

Please help :(
 
The first thing i could think of is it may be something called Barbering, and as i don't know much about it myself i did a quick google and found some links to things about it,

http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=39151&highlight=Barbering

As far as i can tell, although it can be stress or boredom it can also just be down to no reason ! However this link did say something about the stress of being in a new situation or new pigs, maybe the babies ?

http://www.guineapigwelfare.org.uk/2009/01/barbering/
 
Ive got a group of six that used to be a trio, a pair and a singleton - my trio used to have lushious locks (coronet, texel and peruvian) - when i bonded them all, it seems one of my abby girls has taken up the art of hairdressing - my texel girl has a lovely bushy skirt - my peruvian girl has a bad fringe - my neutered boy has some very strange layers going on.

It's definitely not a boredom or a stress thing with my pigs - they have plenty of toys/things to chew on and these are rotated to keep things new for them. Likewise they all popcorn daily and none ever appear to be stressed (i weigh them weekly and check them over regularly)

The ones being barbered just sit there and allow her to do it - they dont seem stressed by it at all - while they all may look a bit sorry for themselves with their new haircuts as long as none are bothered about it - it's something ive got used to....
 
Sophie has been particularly needy lately, she has needed a lot more cuddles lately. But other than that she was just the odd one out I guess with Mum and the babies she was a bit left out.

But they all seem happy enough, am I just going to have to adjust to Mumma's new mullet hair style? =\
 
As a child i had two peruvian sows, they use to chew and eat eachothers hair. Unless they are seperated it will carry on theres not much you can do about it .. It doesnt hurt the piggy they just end up with a daft haircut :-) its called barbering.
 
Sigh, little update. Now my two longhaired girls are almost bald while Sophie struts around her hutch with her luscious Abyssinian locks :(
 
Sigh, little update. Now my two longhaired girls are almost bald while Sophie struts around her hutch with her luscious Abyssinian locks :(

haha ... Bless them. Theres not alot you can do to be honest.. Only to seperate them but it seems a bit drastic as the barbering doesnt hurt the victim piggys its more a cosmetic thing
 
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