B
BevBunny
Hello, I am hoping you can help. Someone we know could no longer care for their two piggies so we offered to take them with the intention of fostering them until we re-home them. We are very experienced bunny parents, but have no experience of piggies.
The piggies are two boys, about 18 months old and have been together all of their lives. Their previous owners said they have little squabbles occasionally. Well, while they are in their cage they are fine, they don't snuggle up with each other but they seem to get on OK, share the food bowl OK etc etc. But as soon as we take them out to run around then they get very aggressive with each other - they make that strange clicking noise and sort of 'side up' to each other and circle. We initially thought it was cos we'd transferred bunny smell onto them so we thoroughly wash/alcohol our hands before we pick them up, we also thought it might be the room (we were letting them out in the bathroom, which the buns have never been in but we thought it might smell to much of us) so now let them out in the kitchen as the bunnies never go in there, and the floor is tiled so won't hold any smell. The piggies have a blanket over their cage at night so we put this on the floor too so it smells like them, and give them their tunnels and things out of their cage. None of this is working, they still squabble every time we let them out of their cage.
Any ideas why they are getting aggressive while they're out of their cage? Anything we can try to do to stop it? I don't want to have to split them up, neuter and re-bond, as they've obviously been OK for the last 18 months!
BTW, when they click and 'side up' to each other we're not interfering, I will only step in if they actually properly fight as I assume its like bunnies and they need to sort it out themselves.
The piggies are two boys, about 18 months old and have been together all of their lives. Their previous owners said they have little squabbles occasionally. Well, while they are in their cage they are fine, they don't snuggle up with each other but they seem to get on OK, share the food bowl OK etc etc. But as soon as we take them out to run around then they get very aggressive with each other - they make that strange clicking noise and sort of 'side up' to each other and circle. We initially thought it was cos we'd transferred bunny smell onto them so we thoroughly wash/alcohol our hands before we pick them up, we also thought it might be the room (we were letting them out in the bathroom, which the buns have never been in but we thought it might smell to much of us) so now let them out in the kitchen as the bunnies never go in there, and the floor is tiled so won't hold any smell. The piggies have a blanket over their cage at night so we put this on the floor too so it smells like them, and give them their tunnels and things out of their cage. None of this is working, they still squabble every time we let them out of their cage.
Any ideas why they are getting aggressive while they're out of their cage? Anything we can try to do to stop it? I don't want to have to split them up, neuter and re-bond, as they've obviously been OK for the last 18 months!
BTW, when they click and 'side up' to each other we're not interfering, I will only step in if they actually properly fight as I assume its like bunnies and they need to sort it out themselves.
