Licking eye to bond?

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posthistorytocome

New Born Pup
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This is more of a cute (I think) thing that one of my pigs does, rather than anything I'm worried about. When I'm stroking his brother, he often comes over and starts licking his eye - sometimes he'll cross the whole length of the enclosure to do so. What is this? Combining forces to make a fuss of his friend (very sweet)? Or competing with me? Or sensing his brother is stressed by human contact and reassuring him? His brother's eye is fine (as far as I can see). He is pretty stressy in general and always has been, but often sleeps with his eyes closed when being held, so it's not too bad.

It's difficult to tell who's the dominant pig. The licking pig will generally snatch food and run off with it. They get on so well that I don't have concerns about a disrupted hierarchy.
 
Yes, probably the case here (or dominance) - I guess the weird bit is he's doing it in reaction to me stroking his brother!
 
posthistorytocome said:
Yes, probably the case here (or dominance) - I guess the weird bit is he's doing it in reaction to me stroking his brother!
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If you are handling the submissive piggy first, then that can be a cause of some of these kind of behaviours. It’s important to always respect their hierarchy and that means always doing everything for the dominant piggy first
- feeding, handling etc.
In some cases, handling the submissive first can cause the dominant to overly exert themselves with displays of heightened dominance behaviours. Luckily if doesn’t sound like it’s upsetting him too much but it does seem he wants to make it clear that he loves his brother!
 
Licking/nuzzling eyes and ears and the face generally is affectionate behavior for guinea pigs. It's one of the reasons why when I snuggle my pigs I always make sure to stroke their ears and faces, I'm telling them I love them in their own 'language' that way.
 
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