aspiring_dino
New Born Pup
For some background context, I have 2 young male guinea pigs. The girl we got them from said they were bonded, we quickly realized we really don't think they are. They've had some behavioral issues lately, lots of little fights but it got to a place that we were uncomfortable with, lots of mutual teeth chattering, some lunging, chasing out of areas so we upgraded them to an even bigger cage, added two lofts, and set it up so we could completely separate if needed short term or long term.
There was one day a couple weeks ago we had to completely separate and it was really good after we separated them for 2 days then reintroduced them, they were playing with toys, loving their lofts, no fighting, occasionally even snuggling up in the same spots which is something they had never done before! They became a lot more vocal for the first time, one would be sleeping and the other would be running around, wheeking, popcorning, playing in the lofts.
These last 2 days there was some more behavior we were uncomfortable with, a lot of chattering, chasing, and now the older one sitting at the bottom of the loft ramps (even though we have 2 ramps for each loft its taken the little one a little longer to get the hang of it/confidence on the ramps) so the little one won't come down. We separated them for a couple hours just because they started fighting in the loft which caused one of the supporting pieces to come loose so we separated them while we fixed it. However, while they were separated they kept putting their noses to the grids that separate them, eating next to each other at the grids, and the little one was digging at the grids. The weirdest thing we noticed though was that when the older one is sleeping on his side or in his own loft doing whatever, the little one will kinda wander around his half of the cage squeaking & talking like crazy. We can't tell if the little one is so vocal now because he can't get to his brother (not actually brother, uncle if we're being technical) or if he's so vocal because he is happy that his brother can't get to him? Sometimes the younger one will go into the ramp and make the same vocal noises/squeaking which we were worried it was because he was afraid to come down at first but then he would do it in the loft while popcorning so we assume it's because he likes it. When we separated though, he wasn't popcorning he was almost wandering.
Additionally, is it bad if when they start to get too nudgey with each other if we separate for a couple hours until they settle down a little?
There was one day a couple weeks ago we had to completely separate and it was really good after we separated them for 2 days then reintroduced them, they were playing with toys, loving their lofts, no fighting, occasionally even snuggling up in the same spots which is something they had never done before! They became a lot more vocal for the first time, one would be sleeping and the other would be running around, wheeking, popcorning, playing in the lofts.
These last 2 days there was some more behavior we were uncomfortable with, a lot of chattering, chasing, and now the older one sitting at the bottom of the loft ramps (even though we have 2 ramps for each loft its taken the little one a little longer to get the hang of it/confidence on the ramps) so the little one won't come down. We separated them for a couple hours just because they started fighting in the loft which caused one of the supporting pieces to come loose so we separated them while we fixed it. However, while they were separated they kept putting their noses to the grids that separate them, eating next to each other at the grids, and the little one was digging at the grids. The weirdest thing we noticed though was that when the older one is sleeping on his side or in his own loft doing whatever, the little one will kinda wander around his half of the cage squeaking & talking like crazy. We can't tell if the little one is so vocal now because he can't get to his brother (not actually brother, uncle if we're being technical) or if he's so vocal because he is happy that his brother can't get to him? Sometimes the younger one will go into the ramp and make the same vocal noises/squeaking which we were worried it was because he was afraid to come down at first but then he would do it in the loft while popcorning so we assume it's because he likes it. When we separated though, he wasn't popcorning he was almost wandering.
Additionally, is it bad if when they start to get too nudgey with each other if we separate for a couple hours until they settle down a little?