Introducing a new female guinea pig....i have a very cross piggy!

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I have 2 female Piggies, both 2 years old.
Susie is very friendly, happy to be handled and curious and playful. Holly is HUGE, she is quite domineering, doesnt like to be handled AT ALL and generally seems to be quite grumpy! The only thing she wants to do is eat, she is twice the size of Susie :P
We bought a new, larger hutch and a new baby guinea pig (Tinkerbell) at the weekend and they seemed to be getting on ok at first. (we havent put them in the new hutch just yet, the two older ones are in a cage and the new piggy is in a smaller cage, inside the big cage!) However, after a few hours, Holly became very angry at Tinkerbell and everytime she see's her, she makes a chattering noise and tries to bite her and becomes very stressed.
What do i do?!
Pets at home told me that they may fight, i also spoke to 2 different Guinea pig rescue shelters who told me that it would be rare if they fought as they would have a very strong mothering instinct and pets at home probably wanted to just sell me a larger cage! :o
One of the shelters i spoke with advised me to put a dab of vicks on each piggies nose so they all smelt the same!
Can anyone offer me any advice?
Will they eventually get used to each other?
Holly is the size of a small rabbit where as Tinkerbell is the size of a hamster!
 
Oh dear me, you poor thing, try not to worry, i'm sure someone with sows will be online and help you pronto.
I've only had boars and they were testy with each other too, but the best of friends all at the sametime :)
Good luck and congratulations on the new additions.
A big welcome to the forum lots of lovely people and fab advice :)
 
Hello & Welcome!

Sows will usually live happily together in groups, as long as they have enough space but there are always exceptions to every rule. I personally wouldn't expect an adult sow to fight with a baby. One other thing - as she was from Pets at Home are you 100% sure that the new addition is a girl? There have been a few people who have had P@H make a couple of mistakes recently and had an extended family as a result - I thought it best to warn you!

Ideally you should do all introductions on neutral territory - somewhere none of them have been. If this isn't possible then you need to throughly clean/disinfect with an animal safe cleaner to try and get rid of any smells and rearrange the cage around. Make sure you have a towel to hand in case you do need to separate them, be patient and try not to give up to easily. Guinea pigs are vocal complainers and can make things sound worse than they are. You must expect some mounting, rumblestrutting and butt sniffing. As long as there is no aggression then just keep going. Vicks apparently can work (though I personally have never tried it) as can giving them all a bath together.

There is some great advice on this site for doing piggy introductions and tells you the difference between dominance behaviours and actual aggressive behaviours - http://cavyspirit.com/sociallife.htm.
 
Sounds horrid but what I've done in the past is get a hand full of your origional pigs litter & rub it onto the new one. Then she will smell like all the rest, gives them a bit of time to sus out she's an outsider. Then if this fails bath them together as said before- they don't like baths will look for comfort from each other. Then if that fails(!) put them all in a box & take them for a ride in the car..neve done this myself but I've heard it works well.

hils
 
Be careful that the new pig doesn't have an illness or mites. It's important to quarantine new piggies into the home - unfortunately many pigs from pet shops are ill in one way or another when they are bought. It's too late now that she's been in contact with the others?

How much space do they actually have? It took me a lot of space to get my herd to live in peace.
 
Thanks for all your advice and links.
I will try the bathing at the weekend - then maybe the ride in the car!
In fact, if things dont improve, i will bathe them, take them for a ride and then i will put them in their brand new hutch! :D :D
I'm going to give them all some floor time now and see if things improve.
Watch this space!
 
You need to give it more time. I have a group of rescue guineas, anything between 3 and 7, when 1 dies I'll bring another one or a pair in and it is a gradual process. I've only ever had 1 occasion when it all went completely smoothly, and that's when I had one who lost her friend and was on her own, then I brought 2 youngsters in and she was desperate to get to them, but only to make friends! I do usually keep them completely separate for a few days in case of illness. Try putting them on your lap together (guineas don't normally dare do anything on your lap!), and do as the others have said with getting them to smell the same, I usually let the new one have the run of its new home on its own so it gets used to the layout. Make a small area (like a cave) where the little one can get in away from the others, when you do finally put them together. When you put them in together, give them a big pile of favourite food, and just sit and watch, they'll usually eat first, then worry later about the newcomer! You'll have to keep an eye on them and separate after a while. Touch wood, I've never failed at bringing a new one in, but only by doing it really gradually, you waste a lot of time but who cares, it's time to sit and watch guineas!

Good luck.
 
Thanks for your reply. :D
When we first bought Tinkerbell home, they had some floortime with plenty of veggies and they were ok for about 30mins, then Holly got a bit grumpy, nipping and teeth chattering a lot.
That night i kept them seperate but put two cages next to each other.
The next night i put susie and tinkerbell on my knee and they took to each other straight away - very cute!
That night i put a smaller cage inside the bigger cage.
Did the same the next day/night.
Tonight they have had floor time (which was v cute as tinkerbell would not venture off our mat and when she weeeeked, susie came running!)
For the past 30mins, piggies are all cuddled up on a towel under the table.
Holly has not done the grinding teeth sound tonight and although she has sniffed a lot and give the odd push, there has been no nipping.
I may put them in the cage together tonight and then in their new hutch tomorrow.
They look so gorgeous all cuddled up!
 
uh oh spoke too soon, Holly has jut nipped Tinkerbell and now all guineas are running round like mad - think they are stressed!.
will put them to bed seperate.
 
There will be a bit of nipping , pushing & shoving - its prob more nerve wracking for the owners!
 
Just when you think it's all going smoothly they'll have a mad 5 minutes! Sounds like you're doing everything you can, that's all you can do. I expect in a couple of weeks it'll all have settled down.
 
I hope so, i think that Holly is nipping and shoving but only a little bit, i dont think she intends to cause loads of harm!
Just being bossy!
 
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