Help - two fighting piggies :(

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n.davidhilton

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Hi Everyone,

Sorry for yet another post about my two piggies!

But I don't know what to do - I'm really upset as I've had to seperate them. :0

I have two boars, Ricco and Bruce, I think they're about five to six months old - Ricco being the slightly older one.

They've been chattering their teeth at each other, Ricco has been chasing bruce around (even when they're having floor time in the whole living room!) and they keep puffing their fur up and wiggling their bums at each other.

We seperated them because I was scared they might hurt each other - I don't know if this is right?

They've just got a new cage, so I don't know if that's affected them but it's a lot bigger than their last one so I thought it would have helped!

Does anyone have any advice? Is it just a blip or do they just not want to be friends? :(

Thank you all again!

Natasha x
 
Hi,
Really you should only separate if blood has been drawn! To me it sounds as though they may have some dominate issues... maybe just wait and see if they sort it out?
 
The best thing to do is put them back together,

In any guinea pig relationship wether it be 2 boys or a herd of girls, there will be one dominant guinea pig, the leader of the group as such,
If you think about lions, theres the one who leads the pack the alpha male, just imagine your guinea pigs are baby lions and they need an alpha male, it's like a mini pack behaviour between two pigs, you have the underdog and the leader.

A new cage doesn't belong to either of them, and so one pig has to 'take over' and basically say 'look i own this do what i say' but the pigs have to work this out for themselves, what looks like nasty behaviour to us is very normal to them, from humping in every direction to teeth chattering and wiggling there bums !

For example my two boys live together and as they reached there hormonal stages, or teenage years spent everyday chasing each other, Chester in the end gave in and Bentley now just humps him, whenever he feels like basically, if theres a hidey house they both want they rumble at each other, then Bentley will hump Chester and hop into the house, just to say, 'look I'm the boss now let me in'.But the other side is, that when Chester is scared he hides behind Bentley as Bentley to him is the stronger piggy to protect him, i hope this all makes sense, I'm terrible at explaining things !

this link will let you know about behaviours,
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=28949
 
bubble&squeak4ever said:
Hi,
Really you should only separate if blood has been drawn! To me it sounds as though they may have some dominate issues... maybe just wait and see if they sort it out?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I agree. It's just dominance. And I think a new bigger cage is better so they won't 'bump' into eachother as much. The problem with my two is that their hutch isn't big enough so Jimmy always gets backed into a corner. But I have a solution as my Grandad is making them a new bigger, double storey hutch! Result! :))
 
Hi Everyone,

Thank you SO much for the replies!

I think maybe I was just overreacting then... I just panicked when I saw the teeth chattering and chasing.


It's such a relief to know it's normal, I'll put them back together when I get home from work, maybe after piggy bath!

xx
 
n.davidhilton said:
Hi Everyone,

Thank you SO much for the replies!

I think maybe I was just overreacting then... I just panicked when I saw the teeth chattering and chasing.


It's such a relief to know it's normal, I'll put them back together when I get home from work, maybe after piggy bath!

xx
Click to expand...

Yeah, we all overreact! I still do! Definitely normal behaviour!
 
Pet ownership is a lifelong learning curve...
 
Hey,

We put the boys back together last night and there was bit of a fight.

There was no blood but they seemed to have pulled a chunk of hair out of each other.

Ricco came off worse and got quite a big chunk ripped out and he got quite scared for a while - even though he used to be the more dominant/slightly older one.

Is this still normal 'displaying dominance' behaviour or a bit more serious?

Thanks again! x
 
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