I can't just sit there and watch them

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Rocketpunk

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From the sow behavior thread:

"When sows are pretty evenly matched, there can be a dispute. Teeth chattering (with the other party making an answering defiant clucking noise), yawning, going chin to chin (pushing their heads up facing each other), chasing, nipping and little scuffles can result. It can look pretty rough to us humans. Don't separate until there are serious, bloody fights; the girls NEED to sort out their differences without our interference!"

Sasha was the dominant one, now Penny is making a STRONG effort to exert herself. They were the best of buddies, now if they get anywhere near each other it's rumble city and the chase is on.

It scares the crap out of me to watch them sort out their tiffs. It looks insane. It's like watching two people fight. At what point do you step in? When blood is drawn? That seems to be the point where everyone agrees to separate the piggies. But, dang, isn't that the point where there is no hope? These little angels gave me so much happiness, watching them play and popcorn. But now it's like I'm a warden in a jail and I've got to spend every waking moment keeping them from tearing each other apart.

Is this piggie adolescence? WHEN WILL IT END? When. That's my main question.
 
Please help! If you have ANY advice, however small, it would be greatly appreciated.
 
I'm not much help but as said in the section from the sow behaviour thread try not to separate until blood is drawn or one of them are injured. Try having two of everything e.g 2 water bottles, 2 food bowls & 2 hideys :))
 
Okay I will try. In my experience when you have two sows they are very much like you describe,always chasing and picking on one. I felt sad to see it to so I got a bigger herd. I know that is useless advice though. With guinea pigs they are often close but do not show it. If you take one out of the cage does the other ever show she misses her friend? Often they will show that which means they do really love each other deep down. Often when in season the submissive piggy will change and want to assert herself and it is a matter of waiting for the period to be over. I am sorry as I know I have not said anything helpful but I did not want to ignore your post as you sound so worried.
 
Hi Rocketpunk,

I'm no expert but I did rescue 2 girls when they were about 5-6 months old, they are now 11 months old or so. I did think they would always be grumpy with each other but now, apart from the odd rumble strut or nose in the air, they seem to get on pretty well! They are now MUCH better friends than I thought they would ever be a few months ago when i assume they were pretty hormonal.

Stick with it unless, obviously, one is being badly bullied to the extent of drawing blood etc. I'm sure it will get better x
 
It seems strange they have suddenly stopped getting along :( I know with boys they suggest bathing them together, it may be worth a try to do that with yours, then put them back into a thoroughly cleaned cage. Personally I wouldn't put hideys in, just lots of hay & food scattered around to interest them after the bath. I think the bathing may work for boys, but as it's a last resort I would try bathing them together.

Mine were like that at first, it took a whole week for them to settle down, it was heartbreaking to watch. If bathing doesn't work then I would think about getting a new friend for each or possibly a neutered boar :)
 
Thinking on, it could well be season-related (mine appeared to go through the rumble strutting thing at some frequency known only to themselves!) but have you checked that your formerly dominant sow is ok? I think I've read that guinea pigs can take advantage when another animal is unwell.

I don't want to worry you and am happy to be shot down !
 
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Just to add it may also be possible one of them has ovarian cysts, which can cause them to get overly amorous rolleyes Sometimes females that do have ovarian cysts have a slight loss or thinning of hair on their sides, but not always.

A cavy savvy/exotics vet will be able to check for you. One of mine has a small cyst & she is only just one years old.
 
I pick them up every day and hold them to my ear to hear for breathing and heart beat patterns. PetSmart sold me a sick piggie months ago, and got my original sow, Sasha, sick (URI). I had to return the sick piggy, but kept Sasha and used eye ointment on her eye (her only symptom of being with the sick piggie, back in may). I bought the second sow from a much more reputable, locally owned store, staffed by hipsters. I don't know why, but I trust hipsters. They seemed truly dedicated to the animals.

I got Penelope (Penny) from that store. Sasha showed dominance at first, but it was just rumbles and chin raising. Three to four months of piggie bliss. Then, out of nowhere, they were in a whirlwind. I freaked the beep out. Little Penny is acting like a CRAZY alpha female. I used to have two cages but I sold the other one. It's not that an expensive of a model, I can buy another one. But I thought once you separate them, all deals are off, and trying to reintroduce them might fail.

It looks like I'm supposed to sit here and watch them work tiffs out. But that is really, really hard for me. Especially when they're at it. You all know what I mean. They have my undivided attention AS SOON AS I hear those defense wheeks and the rumbling, and the inevitable chase and nipping.

If it's "seasonal", how long will it last?!
 
I have only boys but I can appreciate how hard it is watching this sort of behaviour having gone through some horrendous scenes myself. It is difficult but you just have to steel yourself and wait it out. I think their scuffles look worse to us than they really are to piggies.
 
I initially had a pigloo, which "forced" them to sleep next to each other. Then I got card board hidey tubes, but they tore those things to shreds. So I bought a huge chunk of pvc pipe and made two plastic hidey tubes. That gave them ultimate mobility, they could run in circles all day. Which they did! At first! Now every morning Penny is chasing Sasha in a domineering way.

This is confusing to me because Sasha is the bigger one, the elder one. If she wanted to unleash, she'd whoop poor Penny. But Penny constantly chin-pushes Sasha. Almost like she wants to fight. Sasha just runs away and wheeks. Is this some kind of "I could whoop you but I won't" thing?

Ah! I am so confused right now and I have no one to turn to. No one experienced.
 
UGH this sure does sound hormonal.......
I had this with my two 3yr girls recently!
I'm going to message Wiebke and see if she can help you also, she has a Tribe of piggies and see's daily what they get up to!
If there's any blood separate!
I found a bit of time out worked also........ i'd pop the domineering one (in my case it was Onyx) into a cardboard box and give her a snack till she calmed down. This behaviour lasted for two weeks, it was a nightmare for me and her sister Velvet (who was not well at the time!) So i can sympathise with you totally HUGS XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
One thing i was told that maybe my girl who was being agressive could have ovarian cysts..... i'll pop a link on for you to read.

http://www.guinealynx.info/ovarian_cysts.html

i'll send Wiebke your thread link so she can help you perhaps :)
 
They are both under a year old, as far as I know.

My main question: Will this behavior end?
 
I'm fairly new with piggies, so don't know how much help my experience of just under two weeks will be, but we got two sows (aged 1 and 2) who have lived together previously and we had the same thing as you describe, lots of rumbling, squeaking and bottom nipping which does just seem to have settled down after a week and a half of having them.....but I know how hard it is to just sit by and watch and not intervene, but now that we've done it I do wander if things would have settled down sooner if we'd done it from the start?
But yes, in my very limited experience it does end. Lots of hugs though, it's horrible.
 
It can go on for a few weeks at worst. Like boars, sows can suffer from hormonal spikes (often triggered by a strong season) and the results can be very upsetting. Unlike boars, real fights and permanent break ups are very rare, but there can be plenty of scuffles! :{

To ease the pressure, you can do the same things you do for hormonal boys (if you have a look through the boar guide):
- give each sow her own space with a hidey, a bowl and a water bottle and as much space as you can, so they can get away from each other if they wish to.
- give the girls a little bit time out from each other; however, this can be counterproductive, so it is not something to do lightly or often. You may find that they are even less happy on their own!

- In the long term, if your two girls really don't settle together again well and continue to squabble frequently, you could consider splitting them up and pairing each with a neutered boar (preferably an already neutered one from a rescue, even if that means some travel - it is still cheaper, a lot safer for you and much less nerve racking!)
Cross gender pairings are the most stable of them all and boars are usually quite good at soaking up the moodiness. Just adding one neutered boar to a couple of squabbling sows will likely lead straight to an outsider problem with one of the girls; in my experience, two sows need to be good friends to make a trio with a neutered boar work.

Best of luck - I have been where you are quite a few times; it is not a happy situation. Thankfully, things have usually calmed down again at some point.
 
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Our two settled girls had an issue like this although not as extreme. It turned out that treacle had cysts and after hormone injections it has all settled down. One thing that helped ours was lots of extra run timeso that they had lots of extra space.
 
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