Opinions On Behaviour Of My New Sows?

[SilverStarmie]

Hi all,
I have a four year old sow, Galaxy, who recently lost her cage mate and so I decided to get her a new friend to play with, who is a little baby sow called Aero. They got on extremely well and Aero sees Galaxy as practically her mother, which is adorable! A week later I caved and got another baby sow called Squeegee who has been quarantined off for just over a week; I introduced them all on neutral grounds a few times which seemed to go great, however when the time came to put them all together in one cage which I had thoroughly cleaned out, I noticed Aero lunge at Squeegee every time she approached; there weren't any aggressive noises or anything other than Aero charging at Squeegee and possibly nipping her? I'm not really sure if this is aggressive or not, but Squeegee seems to be trying to hide from Aero now, so any advice or help would be greatly appreciated

 

[Wiebke]

Hi all,
I have a four year old sow, Galaxy, who recently lost her cage mate and so I decided to get her a new friend to play with, who is a little baby sow called Aero. They got on extremely well and Aero sees Galaxy as practically her mother, which is adorable! A week later I caved and got another baby sow called Squeegee who has been quarantined off for just over a week; I introduced them all on neutral grounds a few times which seemed to go great, however when the time came to put them all together in one cage which I had thoroughly cleaned out, I noticed Aero lunge at Squeegee every time she approached; there weren't any aggressive noises or anything other than Aero charging at Squeegee and possibly nipping her? I'm not really sure if this is aggressive or not, but Squeegee seems to be trying to hide from Aero now, so any advice or help would be greatly appreciated

Aero is quite obviously feeling threatened by the new arrival in that she may lose her status as second in command; lunging is often more a sign of fear and less of aggression, especially early on in a bonding when piggies are often very apprehensive in the company of unknown piggies. Galaxy's position aas lead sow is in now way under question, so won't be involved. I would give them time together, but separate overnight and keep them next to each other so they can get to know each other better.

You may find these threads here helpful:
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/illustrated-bonding-behaviours-and-dynamics.128361/
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/sow-behaviour.38561/

 

[SilverStarmie]

Ah okay, thanks very much Wiebke
They seem to be doing a lot better now, but I'll see how it goes and separate them overnight if needs be