Hello, I'm new to this forum and I really need some advise!
Nugget, my male guinea pig, has been an only pet for almost a year now and I felt as though he needed some companionship so I re-homed 2 females, the females are sisters and have lived together since birth.
I have observed the quarantine period and Nugget has been neutered, and over the last 3-4 weeks I have been introducing them all on neutral ground, and apart from the occasional nudging, in a 'get off' kind of way, I was pretty convinced that they would get along fine.
My partner built them a cube cage today, 5ft x 2ft, it has 3 hides, 2 hay racks and 2 water bottles to minimise bullying etc but there does appear to be a problem!!
One of the females, Scruffy, appears completely unfazed by the new living arrangements or by Nugget, but Speedy the other female appears to have a problem with Nugget.
There is a lot of teeth chattering, hip swaying and fur standing on end going on, on both their parts, they have chased each other around and there has been what appeared to be a charge at each other but no injury.
Speedy appeared to 'have a go' at Nugget, with outcome being Speedy having a tuft of Nugget's fur in her mouth but again no injury, I have also noticed Nugget laying down on his side on a couple of occasions as if submitting to Speedy, but when she gets close they start all over again.
I'm not sure what to do, I don't want to separate them too soon if this is normal behaviour, sorting out who's the boss etc, but also I am worried about them hurting each other.
I'd really like to know what I should be doing at this point, shall I leave them to decide the dominancy or separate?
Should I be worried about Scruffy, the female who appears to be just accepting the whole thing?
Is this all normal deciding who's boss behaviour and can I really tell if they just don't like each other and cannot live together?
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Nugget, my male guinea pig, has been an only pet for almost a year now and I felt as though he needed some companionship so I re-homed 2 females, the females are sisters and have lived together since birth.
I have observed the quarantine period and Nugget has been neutered, and over the last 3-4 weeks I have been introducing them all on neutral ground, and apart from the occasional nudging, in a 'get off' kind of way, I was pretty convinced that they would get along fine.
My partner built them a cube cage today, 5ft x 2ft, it has 3 hides, 2 hay racks and 2 water bottles to minimise bullying etc but there does appear to be a problem!!
One of the females, Scruffy, appears completely unfazed by the new living arrangements or by Nugget, but Speedy the other female appears to have a problem with Nugget.
There is a lot of teeth chattering, hip swaying and fur standing on end going on, on both their parts, they have chased each other around and there has been what appeared to be a charge at each other but no injury.
Speedy appeared to 'have a go' at Nugget, with outcome being Speedy having a tuft of Nugget's fur in her mouth but again no injury, I have also noticed Nugget laying down on his side on a couple of occasions as if submitting to Speedy, but when she gets close they start all over again.
I'm not sure what to do, I don't want to separate them too soon if this is normal behaviour, sorting out who's the boss etc, but also I am worried about them hurting each other.
I'd really like to know what I should be doing at this point, shall I leave them to decide the dominancy or separate?
Should I be worried about Scruffy, the female who appears to be just accepting the whole thing?
Is this all normal deciding who's boss behaviour and can I really tell if they just don't like each other and cannot live together?
:{
