Hormones etc

[Hoshishi]

We have adopted two new guinea pigs and started to introduce them to our other four.

One of our new girls, Betty, has given birth to four babies earlier on this year (her babies were at the rescue as well - it was really hard not taking her wee baby girl as well).

Although Betty is only a tiny bit bigger than Jenny, our other new pig, my old girls seem to have more of a problem with Betty. Now I think part of the problem is that Betty was quite afraid of them once they weren't separated by bars anymore and became quite aggressive. She's much better now and starts integrating a bit better.

However my father-in-law thought that she might smell really different from my other girls as she produced certain hormones while being pregnant and giving birth and that my other girls might be more affected by that. She gave birth at the start of April I believe...

Could I get other people's thoughts on that theory?

 

[mackpossum]

The theory could work but I always find that some piggies just get on like a house on fire and have no problems accepting newcomers into the hutch where as other piggies are quite dominant and have a problem integrating.

I have five girls living together now in a bigger hutch and they get on allright. Had them in another hutch in two's and three's because Caramello and Snowflake just didn't get on. After a year apart they are not the best of friends but the tolerate each other without the nudging. A bigger hutch made the difference.