Older pig (nearly 2yo) always whining when baby (8 weeks) walks near him!

P

Puckerfish

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Jul 15, 2022
Messages
74
Reaction score
28
Points
155
Location
Warrington
I don't know whether this is grounds for separation and finding a new friend for the baby, but the older pig keeps whining when the baby walks near him or tries to lay down near him. The baby rumblestruts occassionally but the older pig does not.

The whining is going on pretty much all the time as the baby tries to socialise with older pig and barely lays down somewhere in the cage alone to rest. I am not sure if the older pig is happy with the baby around.

It's just constant, there's no moment of respite (for me or the older pig lol)
 
Hello. If there is no fighting I’d leave them to it. Are they both able to eat and rest? Are their weights stable?
 
Older pig has dropped 50g and been stable at that, since living with the baby. I am not sure if hes getting rest. He does not bother or block the baby so it is getting enough rest and food and gaining weight a little.
 
How long have they been together and did you do the bonding? Over what period of time has he dropped the 50g?
 
They've been together for 12 days and bonding was done in a neutral area with a towel down and new bars so there were no smells from either. This was preceded by one night side to side separated. After an hour I put them in the cage (cleaned etc), because older boar mounted baby once during introduction and that was it, then they just sat and ate hay together side by side. There was no rumblestrutting after the first 15 minutes.

In the past 12 days, he dropped nearly 100g from his usual stable weight, done every week at the same time of the day. Then quickly regained 50g and has been stable since (5 days). Weighed at 9 AM every day.
 
Hmm it’s good that his weight is now stable. But given the previous 100g in 12 days, I’d consider getting him to the vet for a check up. Just to rule out anything medical.

It can take two weeks for them to settle into their new hierarchy and relationship and they’re just shy of that. Was he doing this during bonding? Having said that, an hour wasn’t particularly a long time before moving them into their cage.

@Piggies&buns
 
Already brought him to the vet last week, couldn't find anything wrong with him. Teeth fine and did not appear to be in pain.

He was not doing that during the bonding. I moved them in after one hour because there were just eating/resting as if they were lifelong friends. The whining only started after a few days.
 
Would you be able to film it, upload it to YouTube and then post a link to it here?
What you describe as whining may be more identifiable if we could hear it
 
My two make that noise. It’s just them talking to each other.
 
Do they behave like in the video you’ve linked to above? It might be better if you can do a video of yours so the body language can be seen as well. You can upload it to somewhere like YouTube or another third party site, then post the link here.
 
Will try to make a vid, its difficult because the baby runs to hide everytime I stand up, hes still very skittish

I put fresh hay in, 2 piles and some in a rack, older goes towards one and baby comes to join, tries to take hay from his mouth and older runs to hide, doing the annoyed/submissive whining and gives up on eating hay, rather than going to eat elsewhere. I think before he tried to go towards another source of hay but still was followed and 'annoyed' so he just went to a hidey. I put hay in the hideys too but baby runs around like a tornado so its a mess in 30 seconds and neither want to eat it.
 
Also unsure if the lack of eating hay is due to new hay perhaps - I ran out of my Haybox timothy blend and the new box has been atrocious - dusty and mostly 1 inch and less and neither is keen on it. At this point I've tried 15+ different hays, they don't even want Alfalfa King Timothy which has always been a success in my previous experience.
 
They can be surprisingly picky with hay. I’d go back to the one they like, sorry.
 
Siikibam said:
They can be surprisingly picky with hay. I’d go back to the one they like, sorry.
Click to expand...

I did, previous was Hay Box Timothy blend, same as what I got them but they dont like it anymore. 14 more hays (orchard, timothy, meadow... 8 of them were sample packs) later, they don't like any, just picking a few pieces out of huge piles, then then they're left alone.
 
😯 sometimes the batch does change between orders. You’ll just have to try. Put in different piles in the hope they’ll eat it. If they are gaining/weight is stable then they’re eating enough.
 
The baby has gained 40g since 2 weeks ago, now hes about 520g which I think is alright for 8 weeks old. I feel like the older boar's weight is slowly trickling down, now it seems about 10g a day. :(

I was actually so angry with the Haybox hay. They refused to refund me and would only accept it back unopened, with me covering return postage, which would be £10+ for 2x 5kg box. Honestly not buying from them again! It's so dusty and majority of the box is short pieces.
 
It may just be the batch isn’t as good as the others.

In the grand scheme of things, 10g loss in a week isn’t a significant amount. But when it’s a continual downward trend then it does become an issue. It shows he’s possibly not eating enough bath. I don’t know if that’s because the little one ‘scares’ him away or something else.

I would perhaps switch to weighing daily for now and see what his weight is doing.
 
Yup been weighing daily for over a week, thats why I know its a trend, but might just average out a week's worth of weighings to get a more accurate picture. It does seem his weight is slowly trickling down.

I wonder if its because hes been kinda spoiled and overweight when he was living side by side a piggy who did not like living with him, and probably a little overfed with veggies. Still can't feel his ribs at all so hes not underweight despite the weight loss. Pellets are kept to a tablespoon for both altogether as the baby does not warrant adding more currently, I think older piggy would just eat it all because he eats so fast. Same with veggies, still feeding a little under a cups worth.
 
I do wonder if its a dysfunctional bond, because older piggy becomes much more active and spends the whole time eating hay, when I take the baby out for lap time... He acts withdrawn with the baby piggy in.
 
Puckerfish said:
I do wonder if its a dysfunctional bond, because older piggy becomes much more active and spends the whole time eating hay, when I take the baby out for lap time... He acts withdrawn with the baby piggy in.
Click to expand...

It’s a possibility and something to explore
 
Not a single poop from older piggy for the last 16 hours or so, so going to a vet again. It seems like getting a friend for him has only brought trouble. :(
He's eaten his veg yesterday (half a cup) but not gone off hay altogether, so I think his teeth have overgrown.

The baby is only 8 weeks so I wonder why the older piggy feels so intimidated. He's not even hormonal yet. He's not mounting or doing anything apart from rumble strutting and wanting to be near, he doesn't nip or anything
 
No poop for 16 hours means he hasn’t been eating properly for a bit longer than that - poop output is 1-2 days behind food intake
Syringe feed and do speak to the vet

If he seems happier away from his cagemate, then I would suggest a trial separation
 
He was only losing ~10g a day so I assumed normal fluctuations and poops were good quantity before this, so I thought he was eating fine.

They just had a proper pignado fight, so I am separating. Crazy that the baby is already hormonal at 8 weeks but I guess it can happen.
 
Sorry to hear they have had a fight. It may not be hormones but that they’ve found they don’t particularly like each other. Hopefully your old boy will perk up now he’s got his own space again. Have you been syringe feeding him? If not I would do so, given the lack of poops today. Even though they are 1-2 days behind.
 
Yup he has been syringe fed today. He made 2 poops in the past 16+ hours and both are smaller than usual and teardrop shaped so definitely slacking on the hay eating. Vet at 4 PM, but I think the teeth have slowly overgrown now because he was eating some hay, but not enough.

They've been separated now, older pig is in his house and ignoring hay that I stuffed in, so I think it's definitely teeth now. And baby will be going back to the previous owner as that was the plan if they don't get along.
 
Definitely a good idea to get him checked by a vet, but you said a few days ago that his teeth were checked and they were fine? They don’t overgrow that quickly unless there was a problem already forming and the vet just missed it on examination. A follow up would definitely be wise
Bonding is stressful and living with a companion with whom they don’t get on is stressful, so here is hoping that it’s not dental and he just didn’t want to be with the baby
 
Last edited:
All the best at the vets. Hopefully he will be fine and it’s just the youngster that’s had him riled up.

If his poops are teardrop then he needs to come off veg until at least 24 hours after they return to normal.
 
Last vet visit was 20th and on that visit, the vet could not find anything, molars were fine (it was Aidan from the Ashton vet, so knowledgeable).

But since running out of old haybox and him not liking the new batch, he has not been eating hay much, less and less. In this time period, I've tried 15+ different hays. So it might not be the hay, it might be that the baby has caused him to be withdrawn. But he did not want to eat it even when he was alone in a hidey with the hay in it. So I dunno...

Currently waiting at the vet!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top