My young guinea pig copies my older one?

[Tinka]

Okay. So I know the basics of guinea pig behavior, but clearly I don’t know everything. My youngest guinea pig, Mymble, is under a year old. My older one, Snorkmaiden, is at least 2, but she could be much older.

Anyways, since they’ve been together, Mymble seems to copy everything Snorkmaiden does. She follows her around, always wants to be in the same hide, and eats and drinks when she does. (I have two water bottles, and two places to get pellets and hay, so it’s not like she’s trying to hog the food.)

Is this typical? My instinct is to say that she’s young and is learning about the world from Snork. But I don’t want to project my human emotions on them. I guess my only worry would be that this is actually a sign of stress, or is stressing out Snork. I don’t ever hear them chitter, rumblestrut, and there has not been any mounting. So. That’s encouraging, at least.

Has anyone else observed this?

 

[Wiebke]

Okay. So I know the basics of guinea pig behavior, but clearly I don’t know everything. My youngest guinea pig, Mymble, is under a year old. My older one, Snorkmaiden, is at least 2, but she could be much older.

Anyways, since they’ve been together, Mymble seems to copy everything Snorkmaiden does. She follows her around, always wants to be in the same hide, and eats and drinks when she does. (I have two water bottles, and two places to get pellets and hay, so it’s not like she’s trying to hog the food.)

Is this typical? My instinct is to say that she’s young and is learning about the world from Snork. But I don’t want to project my human emotions on them. I guess my only worry would be that this is actually a sign of stress, or is stressing out Snork. I don’t ever hear them chitter, rumblestrut, and there has not been any mounting. So. That’s encouraging, at least.

Has anyone else observed this?

Hi!

Your instinct is right. Most piggies are more independent once they come out of the formative School Weeks after weaning and reach teenage but the timid ones can continue into adulthood.

You may find this article series that I have written for Guinea Pig Magazine last year very interesting. It follows the development of piggies over the whole life time from birth to death. GPM has given me permission to share it as an infornation guide on here: Journey through a Lifetime: The Ages of Guinea Pigs

 

[Tinka]

Hi!

Your instinct is right. Most piggies are more independent once they come out of the formative School Weeks after weaning and reach teenage but the timid ones can continue into adulthood.

You may find this article series that I have written for Guinea Pig Magazine last year very interesting. It follows the development of piggies over the whole life time from birth to death. GPM has given me permission to share it as an infornation guide on here: Journey through a Lifetime: The Ages of Guinea Pigs

Thank you so much! I read through this and feel much better. It’s very endearing to watch sometimes.

 

[Freela]

Some pigs seem to just really like having someone to emulate... one of my past pigs was like this. She did what the dominant pig did. During a brief time when she lived alone, during about a two-week period between one companion passing away and another companion being introduced, she literally did not know what to do with herself. She would wheek for us to come back if we put her back into her cage alone. It was really sad. She was just a very sweet, meek piggie and REALLY needed someone to latch onto to feel comfortable.

 

[Freela]

Just to add... I've had various pigs of different ages paired up... and it's very obvious that the younger pig learns by watching the older pig. Our pig setup is that we have a cage at ground level that opens into an area that can be easily baby-gated off to keep the pigs contained, so every evening we fence off the area, set out some snacks, and let the pigs come and go as they please in the cage and hall. It does take new pigs some time to figure out coming and going from the cage. Generally the younger pig would see the older pig use the ramp and would copy them, cautiously at first. When Hadley was new, we let her out in the hall with Sundae, but she had her back turned when Sundae went back in the cage. As soon as she saw her in there, she was fascinated at how she got in and was trying to squeeze her nose through the bars, etc. We had to get Sundae back out so that she could actually see Sundae jump up the ramp for her to see how it should be used. She only needed to see her do it once to remember it, but without actually visually seeing the first pig go back in, she couldn't puzzle out how it should be accomplished!