daisiespalace
New Born Pup
Hello everyone!
I'll try to explain everything as good as possible so this post may be long, but here are some information beforehand that I think could be useful for what my problem is:
I have three guinea pigs in total as of right now, 1 male and 2 female. Kiri is the male and about 5-6 years old (I don't know exactly how old he is, all I know that he was about 2 years old when I got him and Asu was 10 weeks old back then) Milky was added to the two, and she is now three years old, and Minka is two years old.
I keep them in a 7x3 c&c cage at the moment with fleece liners. They get fresh veggies everyday (salads, cucumber, tomatoes, bell peppers, carrots, fennel... and much more, they get a great variety of veggies, whatever I can get for them which is also safe for them to consume) and of course, unlimited hay and water. They also get some type of fresh herb with every veggie meal. I also like to throw in some dried herbs throughout the day. They also get some pellets (versele laga cavia complete), mostly in Winter though, when it gets hard to buy the right veggies for them in my area.
The cage gets cleaned weekly with some small cleanings through the week, before I exchange everything.
So now for my problem:
When my group was still consisting of four guinea pigs, everything was literally perfect. Everyone got along perfect with each other without really fighting, except for food of course Which piggie doesn't want the best piece of food?
Besides that, I really can't say anything much else about that time. There were no problems, like ever. The only time it was hard was when Milky was added to the group - but that only lasted for some hours and after two days everything worked out fine. The addition of Minka to the group was flawless, no problems at all. Not even fighting.
The only thing which might be worth mentioning is that Minka and Asu were always the ones who loved to play with each other as they were both quite playful by nature, and always very curious piggies. Milky, on the other hand is more of a reserved personality, but still very dominant. Kiri is just... relaxed, he doesn't care about anything.
But that "perfect group" did change when Asu passed away last year in November after she had some very heavy problems with her ovaries which sadly ended up in euthanization after the vet told me that treatment wouldn't be really an option especially because it worsened suddenly and she was in a lot of pain and her body started to give up. In the time when Asu's condition was worsening, it already started to strain the relationship between everyone. I seperated Asu from the group when I saw that she was in a lot of pain and I wasn't really sure what exactly the issue was, especially because it was so suddenly. After I came home from the vet and came to the conclusion that euthanizing her probably would be the most human way to let her go and end her suffering - I put her back to the others so she can spend her last day with the other piggies but that ended up in Asu and Minka fighting (even though they were always best friends ), like actual fighting. Teeth chattering, they jumped at each other... it was just a huge mess, I seperated them immediately and put Asu in a seperate cage again. After a while I decided to put Kiri in there too, just so she wouldn't be alone on her last day and that worked out fine, he was friendly and it was just perfect, I don't regret it a second. Putting him back to the others the next day when it was time for Asu to go, also wasn't a problem at all.
I put Asu's body back in the cage when I got back, just so that the others can sniff her one last time, to understand that she is gone. Kiri was the only one who reacted quite badly, he screamed loud when he sniffed her and realised she was dead and hid immediately for some time before he came out to sniff her again and tried to move her body around. He also was more inactive the days after and didn't eat as much (it is better now! he's doing just perfect which I am so thankful for because this scared me) Milky just sniffed her a bit and licked a little bit around her lower body. Minka didn't care at all actually and ignored it completely.
Now to my problem: Minka and Milky actually never had problems until weeks after Asu passed. I understand that a herd sometimes need time after a friend passed, and everything was going somewhat well except that their relationship was a bit strained, which I understood. The only thing which I'm worried about now is Minka (for the most part). She lost her only piggie friend who always was running around and playing with her, which definitely shows as she seems lost in the group, as Milky has always been more quiet and doesn't seem interested in playing around a lot, she likes running around but not really with others, does that make sense? And Kiri is just very chill and somewhat similar to Milky, except that Minka gets along with Kiri just fine. The only thing is that Minka always starts to get very noisy whenever Milky is coming close to her, especially when Minka is just chilling in the cage or eats hay and Milky just wants to eat some hay too. The noises Minka makes when Milky comes close to her is the same as what you'd normally hear when piggies are rumblestrutting, and the submissive one does like the complaining noise? (
at 0:30, it's the same noise Minka makes) but I have to say this doesn't happen all the time either?! But what I've noticed that it worsens a lot after 5-7pm. Like right now it's 2pm for me as I'm writing this and Minka is close to Milky and no complaining, whatsoever. Milky doesn't even try to dominate her most of the time, she only did it the first weeks after Asu's passing but not anymore, or at least not as much. It's only Minka that seems to have an issue? They don't even fight, there's also no teeth chattering involved most of the time, teeth chattering is only present when there's something with food going on, like when I'm still preparing it and stuff but also not always. Minka sometimes lifts up her head against Milky and lets out a loud snort while doing so, while also doing these complaining noises as I've told earlier.
Personally I feel like Minka is (still) feeling a little bit lost in the group right now after everything, especially because she's the only one talking almost everytime within the cage when she walks around and explores everything. It feels like Milky and Kiri are completely aware of their roles within the group except for Minka. But maybe you can help me out? Is there anything I can do to make it more comfortable? So far I've tried reorganizing the cage like changing the hiding spot areas and everything and also gave them things to keep them more busy, but Minka's behaviour towards Milky is still the same so far.
I'm currently planning with some people I know to upgrade my c&c cage to a self-built two-level cage made out of wood to the size of 98" x 47" (1st level) and 98" x 23.5" (2nd level). I'm also planning to add a second hay rack so that they can always eat hay in two completely different spots without annoying each other in case if there's some tension between some piggies. And I'm thinking of adding two more guinea pigs to the group when the cage is done, but currently I'm still a little bit uncertain because of Minka, but personally I think she does need a piggie friend like Asu again who will play with her and everything. What do you think? I've tried looking around online but I somehow can't seem to get an answer as I've never heard of something like this before.
I'll try to explain everything as good as possible so this post may be long, but here are some information beforehand that I think could be useful for what my problem is:
I have three guinea pigs in total as of right now, 1 male and 2 female. Kiri is the male and about 5-6 years old (I don't know exactly how old he is, all I know that he was about 2 years old when I got him and Asu was 10 weeks old back then) Milky was added to the two, and she is now three years old, and Minka is two years old.
I keep them in a 7x3 c&c cage at the moment with fleece liners. They get fresh veggies everyday (salads, cucumber, tomatoes, bell peppers, carrots, fennel... and much more, they get a great variety of veggies, whatever I can get for them which is also safe for them to consume) and of course, unlimited hay and water. They also get some type of fresh herb with every veggie meal. I also like to throw in some dried herbs throughout the day. They also get some pellets (versele laga cavia complete), mostly in Winter though, when it gets hard to buy the right veggies for them in my area.
The cage gets cleaned weekly with some small cleanings through the week, before I exchange everything.
So now for my problem:
When my group was still consisting of four guinea pigs, everything was literally perfect. Everyone got along perfect with each other without really fighting, except for food of course Which piggie doesn't want the best piece of food?
Besides that, I really can't say anything much else about that time. There were no problems, like ever. The only time it was hard was when Milky was added to the group - but that only lasted for some hours and after two days everything worked out fine. The addition of Minka to the group was flawless, no problems at all. Not even fighting.
The only thing which might be worth mentioning is that Minka and Asu were always the ones who loved to play with each other as they were both quite playful by nature, and always very curious piggies. Milky, on the other hand is more of a reserved personality, but still very dominant. Kiri is just... relaxed, he doesn't care about anything.
But that "perfect group" did change when Asu passed away last year in November after she had some very heavy problems with her ovaries which sadly ended up in euthanization after the vet told me that treatment wouldn't be really an option especially because it worsened suddenly and she was in a lot of pain and her body started to give up. In the time when Asu's condition was worsening, it already started to strain the relationship between everyone. I seperated Asu from the group when I saw that she was in a lot of pain and I wasn't really sure what exactly the issue was, especially because it was so suddenly. After I came home from the vet and came to the conclusion that euthanizing her probably would be the most human way to let her go and end her suffering - I put her back to the others so she can spend her last day with the other piggies but that ended up in Asu and Minka fighting (even though they were always best friends ), like actual fighting. Teeth chattering, they jumped at each other... it was just a huge mess, I seperated them immediately and put Asu in a seperate cage again. After a while I decided to put Kiri in there too, just so she wouldn't be alone on her last day and that worked out fine, he was friendly and it was just perfect, I don't regret it a second. Putting him back to the others the next day when it was time for Asu to go, also wasn't a problem at all.
I put Asu's body back in the cage when I got back, just so that the others can sniff her one last time, to understand that she is gone. Kiri was the only one who reacted quite badly, he screamed loud when he sniffed her and realised she was dead and hid immediately for some time before he came out to sniff her again and tried to move her body around. He also was more inactive the days after and didn't eat as much (it is better now! he's doing just perfect which I am so thankful for because this scared me) Milky just sniffed her a bit and licked a little bit around her lower body. Minka didn't care at all actually and ignored it completely.
Now to my problem: Minka and Milky actually never had problems until weeks after Asu passed. I understand that a herd sometimes need time after a friend passed, and everything was going somewhat well except that their relationship was a bit strained, which I understood. The only thing which I'm worried about now is Minka (for the most part). She lost her only piggie friend who always was running around and playing with her, which definitely shows as she seems lost in the group, as Milky has always been more quiet and doesn't seem interested in playing around a lot, she likes running around but not really with others, does that make sense? And Kiri is just very chill and somewhat similar to Milky, except that Minka gets along with Kiri just fine. The only thing is that Minka always starts to get very noisy whenever Milky is coming close to her, especially when Minka is just chilling in the cage or eats hay and Milky just wants to eat some hay too. The noises Minka makes when Milky comes close to her is the same as what you'd normally hear when piggies are rumblestrutting, and the submissive one does like the complaining noise? (
Personally I feel like Minka is (still) feeling a little bit lost in the group right now after everything, especially because she's the only one talking almost everytime within the cage when she walks around and explores everything. It feels like Milky and Kiri are completely aware of their roles within the group except for Minka. But maybe you can help me out? Is there anything I can do to make it more comfortable? So far I've tried reorganizing the cage like changing the hiding spot areas and everything and also gave them things to keep them more busy, but Minka's behaviour towards Milky is still the same so far.
I'm currently planning with some people I know to upgrade my c&c cage to a self-built two-level cage made out of wood to the size of 98" x 47" (1st level) and 98" x 23.5" (2nd level). I'm also planning to add a second hay rack so that they can always eat hay in two completely different spots without annoying each other in case if there's some tension between some piggies. And I'm thinking of adding two more guinea pigs to the group when the cage is done, but currently I'm still a little bit uncertain because of Minka, but personally I think she does need a piggie friend like Asu again who will play with her and everything. What do you think? I've tried looking around online but I somehow can't seem to get an answer as I've never heard of something like this before.