Old And Young

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Chief907

Chief907

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So I have a older piggie ( she is rescued from years of neglect ) she is about 3-4years old and has had her own cage her hole life, my seven year old wanted her to have a friend. Well I have had to seperate them, the younger one is just about 1. When left alone the younger one picks or nips at the other well the other night I hear one of them screaming like nothing I've herd. I separated the cage that night. The older one was in her spot and the younger one was bumping or biting her (no blood) just a lot of screeming so end all is this something that will stop? Or do I need to keep them seperate?
 
@Wiebke Am tagging in one of our piggie experts in bonding
 
The screaming sounds like mostly submission screaming from what you are saying. it can upset people who don't know that it is mainly to prevent the more dominant piggy from exerting its dominance and not from the actual pain of being bullied - and it is generally pretty effective with the other piggy!

Have you you given the two girls time to get used to each other through the bars first for some time and have you done intros on neutral ground?
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/faq-introducing-and-reintroducing-guinea-pigs.38562/
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/sow-behaviour.38561/

I would give them more time out on neutral ground under supervision before leaving them together at night. Middle aged/older sows that have been alone for a long time can struggle to bond. Best take it slowly. Unlike with boars, you can spread sow bonding over several days provided you give them more than just 5 minutes or half an hour at a time so they can work through the important bit of the hierarchy sort out; ideal are several hours in one go unless the tension is rising and they are exchanging signs of aggression or hostility. The dominance phase itself can take several days to several weeks.
 
They have spent about three months in the same cage and I thought giving them a bath together worked because when I moved them into a c&c type cage this was new to both of them and seamed to work for a while there were the whole posturing and puring and shaking but no screaming. This is recent like within 3 weeks. So Rosa has begun to chew on the bars. (The young) and Patches (The old). Is this something I need to let them hash out on there own?
 
Mine do the screaming thing often & when I peep through the window there's not a lot happening & one is just making the noise because they don't want the other one touching or being close to them. Most of the time they're OK but I sometimes think it's just like 2 kids with one trying to get the other one in trouble. I would put them back together at a time when you can sit quietly and monitor them. As long as there's no blood or torn ears etc then there's still a good chance they will be fine. Sometimes it's just a hormonal thing while they're in season. I hope they do settle down together. Good Luck.
 
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