Please help, I'm so worried.

[Skelly]

Hi Everyone,
I got a 5 week old sow a week ago and decided to get her a little sow as a friend today, all went well in their first meeting so I adopted her.
They were fine until a few minutes ago, lavender (the new girl) started being aggressive towards my daisy, not letting her near her corner, lunging at her and teeth chattering, my poor Daisy looks lost, she was being nice and chatting to lavender.
I feel so bad because its Daisys house and now she is being bullied in it, I don't know what to do?
is it early days and is this normal?
should i separate them?
should i let the get on with it?
please please help me, I'm so worried.
jess.
xx

 

[Wiebke]

The place being Daisy's may be reason why Lavender is feeling put upon and has gone on overload. It is not uncommon for a new piggy when there are just too many things to take in and they are feeling completely out of depth and far from any home they've known.

Could you separate Lavender to give her space and time to come down from her overload, please; but have her next to Daisy so they can still interact and get used to each other. Reintroduce them tomorrow or the day after on neutral ground first and give your cage/hutch a good old clean (including walls and "furniture" ), as well as rearranging things. Make sure that you have two of everything; ideally no hideys with only one exit until things have settled down. Put Lavender in first.

The out time will give Lavender time to get her bearings and get used to Daisy being there. Then the intro into Daisy's ground won't be the one stress factor too many.

 

[Freela]

I would do introductions on neutral ground rather than in the cage. A lot of piggies who are territorial about their cage will be happy to meet a friend in neutral ground. I also know for me that completely scrubbing down the cage and removing all former scents helped when we introduced a younger sow to our 18 month old girl after her former cagemate passed away. Linney (older sow) was happy to have a friend and was happy to play with the friend in the hallway- however, she was not keen on having the friend in 'her' cage. Once the cage was totally disinfected, scrubbed down, and made into 'neutral territory' she was happy to share it with her new buddy.

 

[helen105281]

Any news? are they getting on better today?

 

[Sharon.Mackay]

I agree with Freela, scrub the house clean (white wine vinegar is good for neutralising smells) and move it around to make it 'new'. The new piggy has been placed into another girls territory and needs to assert herself and make herself a place.
You could give them both a nice bath together too, make them smell the same. This also forces bonding. Other than that a bit of dominance display is normal. It looks awful to us but its the guinea pigs way. Unless one of the girls gets really hurt then leave them to it. Teeth chattering, butting, kicking, humping and even little nips are normal. Good luck Xx