Words-Of-Fate
New Born Pup
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2019
- Messages
- 2
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 20
I would really appreciate some advice regarding one of my male guinea pigs. I am a new guinea pig owner and I've been having issues with one of my male guinea pigs from day one.
Just to get this out of the way, let me explain what their cage is like: the cage is 2.5 feet wide and 5 feet long, so definitely enough room for 2 males. They have 2 food bowls, 2 hayracks, 2 water bottles, and 4 different hideys all with multiple entrances. Despite all this, my one piggy insists on always picking a fight with the other. I've had them both since April and I made sure to properly introduce them both. At first, they both would go at it with each other to assert dominance but after a month or so, my nice one eventually calmed down, yet my other one has not. If anything, his behavior only got worse.
If the nice pig is in a hidey, the mean one will run in their and chase him out and take over it and the moment the nice one goes to a different one, the same thing will occur. If the nice one tries ignoring him, the mean one will start attempting to bite him and a lot of teeth chattering occurs. Same goes for food; when I put down their veggies bowls at dinner time (which are placed on opposite sides of the cage to try to reduce fighting) the mean one will keep chasing the nice one away from every bowl he tries to go to. It's getting to the point where he's really starting to stress the nice one out.
It's not just the other guinea pig he's mean to either. He bites me every opportunity he gets. At first, I assumed he was just mistaking my hand for food, but once he bites me he'll continue to bite me harder and harder until I eventually give up and pull away. He's drawn blood on multiple occasions and during none of them did I ever corner him or try picking him up. I was simply just trying to feed them. And just the other day when I was refilling their food bowl, they both ran over to me and started sniffing my hand waiting for me to finish up and just as I was about to, the mean one bit down hard on my wrist, harder than he ever had before. I was bleeding a lot and I still have a huge welt from it.
At this point, I'm honestly not sure if he's going to get any better or not. I'm contemplating giving him up to a rescue organization and getting a new companion for my other guy, but the mean one is still my baby and it pains me to even think about giving him away. Before I do so, I just want to see if there's anything else I can possibly do to make him a little nicer, or if he should just be a solitary guinea pig. I just don't want to see my other guy always in constant fear of the mean one.
Just to get this out of the way, let me explain what their cage is like: the cage is 2.5 feet wide and 5 feet long, so definitely enough room for 2 males. They have 2 food bowls, 2 hayracks, 2 water bottles, and 4 different hideys all with multiple entrances. Despite all this, my one piggy insists on always picking a fight with the other. I've had them both since April and I made sure to properly introduce them both. At first, they both would go at it with each other to assert dominance but after a month or so, my nice one eventually calmed down, yet my other one has not. If anything, his behavior only got worse.
If the nice pig is in a hidey, the mean one will run in their and chase him out and take over it and the moment the nice one goes to a different one, the same thing will occur. If the nice one tries ignoring him, the mean one will start attempting to bite him and a lot of teeth chattering occurs. Same goes for food; when I put down their veggies bowls at dinner time (which are placed on opposite sides of the cage to try to reduce fighting) the mean one will keep chasing the nice one away from every bowl he tries to go to. It's getting to the point where he's really starting to stress the nice one out.
It's not just the other guinea pig he's mean to either. He bites me every opportunity he gets. At first, I assumed he was just mistaking my hand for food, but once he bites me he'll continue to bite me harder and harder until I eventually give up and pull away. He's drawn blood on multiple occasions and during none of them did I ever corner him or try picking him up. I was simply just trying to feed them. And just the other day when I was refilling their food bowl, they both ran over to me and started sniffing my hand waiting for me to finish up and just as I was about to, the mean one bit down hard on my wrist, harder than he ever had before. I was bleeding a lot and I still have a huge welt from it.
At this point, I'm honestly not sure if he's going to get any better or not. I'm contemplating giving him up to a rescue organization and getting a new companion for my other guy, but the mean one is still my baby and it pains me to even think about giving him away. Before I do so, I just want to see if there's anything else I can possibly do to make him a little nicer, or if he should just be a solitary guinea pig. I just don't want to see my other guy always in constant fear of the mean one.
