Introduction help please

[xxLoveMyPetsxx]

I have 2 guinea sows that are 16 weeks old, one being obviously dominant, and the other is ok with that.

I have rehomed another guinea pig that is about 2 weeks younger than my other 2.
On introductions - neutral territory, it seemed fine, so I put them in there brand new cage, everything new, plenty hidey holes, pigloos, food bowls etc, hoping it will all be great. However my dominant sow and the new sow are not getting along now, and are proper fronting it out. My dominant sow is lunging at the other one and the new one isn't having any of it either. No one backing down.
Now I have not done this before, but read all i could before hand, but I really am unsure now if I'm panicking early. Its just I have never seen a guinea pig lunge! I only started yesterday morning, so maybe they just need a few days to settle?
I have seen the usually rumbling etc before, but never head raised, and lunging.
My dominant girl seem to have gotten worse off as she has a small nip about 5mm to the right of her face, and 2 marks on her nostrils. This only in a day together.
I have put a grid divider in just now, for some time out, and so they can see/smell but not hurt.

How should I continue? Do I need to seperate them now or should I hold out? Never actually seen a guinea pig fight so can ony go by what I have read.

Any advise would be fab right now.

 

[Suzygpr]

From your description I would say separating them with a divide is the best option for now - give the girls a week or so like this to allow them to become used to each other and then try the bonding again from scratch.

Unfortunately pigs do not always approve of our choice of a cagemate for them and no amount of variation in the bonding techniques will help. All you can do is try your best and have a back up plan in place if it does not work.

Suzy x

 

[xxLoveMyPetsxx]

ok then, thanks for that.

I thought the big boss might be tricky as she just seems that way lol. But thought it might be a bit of rumbling like she did with the other, not all this throwing herself at the other one, my goodness! I guess though it never got any further as my other guinea pig accepted her lower status right away, whereas this newbie is trying to be the boss too.

Hope they can sort out their differences.

Thanks again for the reassurance I was doing right at the mo.