New Piggies - fighting!

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sazmatazz

sazmatazz

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Helllppp!

I have just adopted 2 female piggies - Daisy (albino) is approx 6 months, the other one (who doesnt currently have a name, but is brown & gingery) is much bigger and is approx 1 year old.

They only arrived with us yesterday, but i'm already worried about them. the bigger pig seems to be a huge bully, all theyve done since they arrived is fight, it mostly just involves scuffling and lots of noise, however there have been some bites and some pushing and shoving, resulting in banged heads and things. ive had to remove the bed box from their cage because the bigger pig was trying to bite daisy when she tried to go in. daisy seems very very stressed, constantly crying out and really on edge all the time- the bigger pig just seems to be winding her up constantly, following her aroung nudging her and basically picking a fight.

i dont know what to do - i cant stand the thought of piggy bullying!

:(
 
I'm having a bit of that at the moment with two boys who have been together for a year. This board has been great in helping me understand what's going on!

I can't offer too much advice. Our two are still chattering at each other but no more blood has been drawn.

I hope you get them sorted out.

Kelly
 
If there has been blood, please separate them.

They're obviously not going to bond! I'm sory, but it happens sometimes.

Where have you got "ginger" from?
 
no blood as of yet - thankfully!
We got them both from the same place - have always lived together previously, but with the presence of an another adult female.
No idea what to do!
 
Firstly, are you 100% sure they are both sows? sex them to be sure..

What size cage/hutch are they in? do they have enough space, a hidey house each, basically 2 of everything?

If they do have a big enough area, sometimes when they are removed from a previous group, it takes time for the hirearchy to settle again. The older sow is establishing dominance but at the same time, the younger one must have her own space to hide away in and be able to eat, drink etc..

Unfortuanately, some sows just will not get on and you may have to seperate them but see how things go. Hopefully, they will establish their roles and be happy!
 
they don't have to be best of friends to live happily together. in most groups of three or more there will be the odd bout of bickering every now and then, and it seems that your pigs are used to being in a bigger group and are trying to establish the pecking order that they would have experienced there.
try giving them a bath together, get them out for cuddles and shared snacks together, and making sure (as someone else said) that there's plenty of room for them to retreat for a break if needs be.
you need to give them time and some patience to let them sort things out between them. it must be odd for them to get used to being without this third sow; just keep an eye out for any serious fighting, but squabbles, chattering, a bit of spraying and occasionally chasing are things that i would expect from them. it's nothing to worry about unless they start to fight properly.
 
My two girls were terrible to start with, one bullying the other terribly, but several weeks into them being here they did settle down. As long as there is no blood drawn they may sort things out given a bit of time. I used to hate hearing the smaller little one of mine squeal before I realised that she was a wee bit of a drama queen! I was watching them very closely one day and she started squealing like a girl possessed when the other one was just walking towards her! So there was me thinking that she made the noise when she was being "attacked" when in actual fact there wasn't much going on at all!
 
As long as there is no blood, just tough it out (it IS hard to stand by and watch!) as they sort out the new hierarchy. With the dominant sow gone, they have to. Guinea pigs always operate in a hierarchy. They sould settle soon, as they know each other.

Don't separate them in this case, as they will have to start from square one each time.
 
Sad news! :( I spoke to the lady who we adopted them from to tell her about the fighting (which did seem to be getting progressively worse) and she insisted on putting the 2 pigs back with the other female. so they have now gone back to their original home! I was heatbroken, we'd only had them a few days and already i was very attached. In their place we now have 2 female babies, born on easter sunday... they are very small and unbelievably sweet, very relaxed. I've seen a couple of fights (one was over some dandilion leaves, so understandable) but there doesnt appear to be any sort of consistent bullying going on. they dont seem to be talking at the moment, one is hiding in the bed box and one in the big tube - however generally they seem fairly content. its apparently not long since they left their mum so i suppose that will affect them too as they have been living with her since they were born. had some cuddles yesterday - so exciting!
So, the new new piggies are called Poppy and Dora. :)
 
I'm sorry to hear they have been given back but you could have worked it out rather than taking them back,
many piggies will fight or disagree and it just takes time and patients and maybe if it was that bad you could have seperated them and gotten them a friend each,I'm sorry but i think that its unfair on the piggies that you gave them only 1-2 days rather than persevering with this,i would never rehome my boars because they didnt get along,anyways well done on the new additions i hope they work out better xx
 
Believe me, i really feel terrible about it. I'm not going to make excuses, I did agree to give them back, because i just couldnt bear the thought of them hurting one another because of me seperating them from the other female. we don't currently have the space or the money to seperate them and get extra companions. (outdoor space isnt a problem at the min, however we are due to move house in november and its likely both indoor and outdoor space will decrease then.) Basically I didn't want to cause injuries between them and had it gotten any worse we don't have the capacity to seperate them on a permanent basis. this added to the fact that the lady we adopted them from seeming keen to put them back with the other female meant it seemed like the best option, as sad or as unfair as that sounds for the pigs. they were happy in their original home, the lady just has too many piggies, so we agreed to take on some babies instead who have always been together.
 
do you have room for the three?

do you have room to take all three?,if they were getting along together is that an option?
we had a similar situation i have 3 boys and three girls(boys kept together,and the girls together)tilly,biscuit and bessie patch elvis and cookie (cookie is biscuits brother) and totally fell in love with another girl we saw so we bought her took her home introduced them outside in ther garden they were fine tried to put them in thier cages together and war broke out! the new girl named gypsy was holding down biscuit by her throat and bessie got bitten,luckily i was watching them and removed gypsy straight away,i decided to put her in my spare cage and contacted where we got her from
they said she came in with her sister and they never left each others sides,so i went and got the sister,dolly and put dolly gypsy and my blind girl tilly in together and they are perfect together occasionally gypsy tries it on with tilly but tilly is the dominant female and wont have it! :)
you have to do what you feel is best for piggies an yourselves x
 
If you take apart an established group and remove the dominant member that can create problems as the remaining piggies will have to start right at the beginning! The change of home would have stressed them out additionally.That lady should have rehomed them together.

But I'm glad that you are so happy with your lovely new girls - seen the pics; they're really sweet!
 
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