Autonerd
Junior Guinea Pig
Hey all -- Been a while since I've posted because all has been well in guinea-pig land.
However, the last couple of days I've seen an uptick in dominance behavior. (I have two boys in a C&C cage. Not sure of their age but they're at least two years old.) Oreo has been incessantly climbing on Twinkie, mostly in the hide (a blanket over 1/4 of the cage) but sometimes out. Lots of high-pitched chirping and some chasing. I have't seen Twinkie fighting back too severely. In the past, we've heard the occasional scuffle, but these last few days it's been significantly more frequent. I'm not seeing food aggression (they each eat their own when I feed veggies) and no blocking of the pellet bowl or water bottle.
I have tried swapping in new hides and playthings (used to do this regularly but got a bit lax) in the hopes this was a boredom issue, but it didn't change things.
I did try a quick separation with a piece of coroplast dividing the cage, but this seemed to cause lots of agitation -- they ran around and did their best to push the barrier out of the way (Twinkie actually succeeded and they wound up on opposite sides of the cage, which was rather funny). I removed it after a few minutes.
I read the FAQs and found that a new cage element can cause such issues. I keep a single plastic tray in the hide end for them to poop in, and a couple of days ago, in an effort to make clean-up a little easier, I added a second tray to the hide area, effectively covering the other half of the floor. Other than that, there have been no major changes to the cage or life around our apartment.
After reading the FAQs, I began to wonder if the new tray could be the issue. Most of the humping did seem to start inside the hide area.
I removed the tray but it's a little early to tell if their behavior has changed. Could this have caused the problem -- effectively creating new territory in the hide?
If not -- what are the possible solutions? The cage meets size guidelines for two males (just) but we don't have space in our apartment to make it any larger. (For those to whom I haven't talked -- we got these guys from a family that bought them during the pandemic then got bored, so we're newbies doing the best we can.)
I've also got some new small soft hides and toys on the way (which I'll add in pairs).
Thanks in advance for any help!
Aaron
However, the last couple of days I've seen an uptick in dominance behavior. (I have two boys in a C&C cage. Not sure of their age but they're at least two years old.) Oreo has been incessantly climbing on Twinkie, mostly in the hide (a blanket over 1/4 of the cage) but sometimes out. Lots of high-pitched chirping and some chasing. I have't seen Twinkie fighting back too severely. In the past, we've heard the occasional scuffle, but these last few days it's been significantly more frequent. I'm not seeing food aggression (they each eat their own when I feed veggies) and no blocking of the pellet bowl or water bottle.
I have tried swapping in new hides and playthings (used to do this regularly but got a bit lax) in the hopes this was a boredom issue, but it didn't change things.
I did try a quick separation with a piece of coroplast dividing the cage, but this seemed to cause lots of agitation -- they ran around and did their best to push the barrier out of the way (Twinkie actually succeeded and they wound up on opposite sides of the cage, which was rather funny). I removed it after a few minutes.
I read the FAQs and found that a new cage element can cause such issues. I keep a single plastic tray in the hide end for them to poop in, and a couple of days ago, in an effort to make clean-up a little easier, I added a second tray to the hide area, effectively covering the other half of the floor. Other than that, there have been no major changes to the cage or life around our apartment.
After reading the FAQs, I began to wonder if the new tray could be the issue. Most of the humping did seem to start inside the hide area.
I removed the tray but it's a little early to tell if their behavior has changed. Could this have caused the problem -- effectively creating new territory in the hide?
If not -- what are the possible solutions? The cage meets size guidelines for two males (just) but we don't have space in our apartment to make it any larger. (For those to whom I haven't talked -- we got these guys from a family that bought them during the pandemic then got bored, so we're newbies doing the best we can.)
I've also got some new small soft hides and toys on the way (which I'll add in pairs).
Thanks in advance for any help!
Aaron
