My Guinea Pigs Aren't Getting Along? They Are Fighting? Please Help!

[sweetcake]

I just bought 2 baby guinea pigs about 4 days ago from the petstore and a nice cage from there as well. I also put 2 waterbottles, 2 food bowls and 2 huts. However for some odd reason one of the guinea pig chases the other one (I think it is the dominant one) her name is Pumpkin (They are both females) and everytime my other guinea pig, Latte, goes some where, for example when shes drinking water, Pumpkin would chase latte out and would snatch everything whenever Latte has something like when she's eating hay or playing something. One time when Latte was in the hut, Pumpkin chased Latte out and Latte started making high pitched noises but i cant seem to understand it but i think it was shrieking and whining? Another odd thing is that they dont really fight after and they are near each other. Then they start smelling each other and it looks like their playing? It keeps going on and off and I am really worried. I went online to see some info about why this is happening and they say that it is normal and how they are babies and eventually they will get along.
My guinea pigs never chattered their teeth or anything like that

 

[Doragon]

I wouldn't worry unless there's blood! They're working out who is the most dominant of the pair and this can take a couple of weeks to settle down. The best way is to just leave them to sort it out! Don't worry, they will sort it out as as long as they're not drawing blood they'll be the best of friends eventually!

 

[Wiebke]

Hi and welcome!

What you are witnessing is typical dominance behaviour, as your two girls are establishing a hierarchy. The high pitched squealing is submission and not pain.

Just make sure that you have each same item as far from the other as possible in order to make it more difficult for Pumpkin throw her weight around while she is establishing her dominance in strange new surroundings. The top spot is not in dispute, but as Pumpkin is obviously rather bit unsure about herself and her new surroundings, she is rather at the top end of dominance behaviour. Things should hopefully calm down more over the next two weeks as your girls settle into their new home and get their bearings.

If necessary, even have a third bowl ready for distraction and switch to serving veg and pellets in smaller portions 2-3 times a day, so it can be all eaten in one go. 80% of the food intake should be hay anyway, so your girls won't go hungry in between meals.

https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/sow-behaviour.38561/
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/dominance-behaviours-in-guinea-pigs.28949/
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/how-do-i-settle-shy-new-guinea-pigs.36239/
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk...or-a-balanced-general-guinea-pig-diet.116460/
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk...-preparing-your-piggies-for-lawn-time.111794/

 

[Freela]

This is normal as they sort out dominance issues and decide who will be top pig. Pumpkin sounds like the dominant pig and she is just going out of her way to assert that in a new environment. This is really normal and should settle down. The squealing sound you hear is submission- it's Latte saying, "I agree, you're the the boss!" It sounds worse than it is! LOL! Some pigs are more dominant than others and will go out of their way to assert themselves. Out of my last pair, Linney and Sundae, Linney was EXTREMELY dominant and liked to throw her weight around, just because she could! Other pairs are less obvious about it (with my current pair, Sundae and Hadley, Hadley is the boss, but doesn't go out of her way to commit random acts of 'put you in your place' the way Linney did.) As long as there is no fighting and no blood drawn, it's pretty normal and things should settle down once they adjust a bit more to their new home.