Problems with two male guinea pogs

[Aicha]

Hello Everyone,

In advance I would like to excuse you for my poor English. I hope it won't be a big problem in order my question to be understood.

First of all I would like to say that I come from a small European country, where you can buy a guinea pig or adopt it from almost every pet store or other institution for adopting pets, but its almost impossible to find out a Vet or some other person, enough involved in guinea pigs and their lives, who can answer your questions.

In the past, or should I say before 2 years, I used to have one, female guinea pig, keeping it for almost 8 years. It was enough healthy and unfortunately the reason of its death is a friend of mine, who hurt it's back bones as a result of an accident. I was pretty connected with my Cavy and it just put me in depression for a while. However, before a month or so, a friend of mine offered me a guinea pig, who he had kept it for week only and couldn't put any more attention on it. I agreed and that's how I got my first male piggy.

In a few days my guinea get used to me, and I can say we get well together. However, my problem occurred just today when I decided to buy another male guinea pig, so the one I already had would have a company. I bought a 2 weeks old baby and brought it home. I was in doubt thought if I should put it in my previous cavy's cage, but after awhile I decided to place it there.

At first, both guinea pigs of mine, were just sitting in opposite corners of the cage and doing nothing. After awhile, 10 minutes or so, my older guinea pig get in close to my new one. It started licking my new Cavy, and few minutes later he jumped on his back and start moving, like he wanted to sex him or something. My new cavy started running away in panic, so I took him and placed in other cage.

My older guinea since now, used to be very peaceful. However, after I separated him from my new piggy, it started being aggressive and it even bite me when I was feeding it.

I am really desperate and I don't know what to do. I decided to bring bout my guineas to vet, tomorrow, but to be perfectly honest I don't expect any professional answer or solution. That's even why I decided to write on your forum, and every other forum dedicated to guinea pigs. Hopefully, someone is going to read my post, and answer me back.

I would like to thank you all in advance, and once again I would like to apologize for my bad English.

 

[piggyfan]

Hello. You dod the right thing by getting your boy a friend but you cannot just put a new piggy in another guinea pigs cage. They have to be introduced in another area. make a safe area with places to hide and put down some vegetables and put the two guinea pigs together. Woth guinea pigs one is in charge and they decide this through the behaviour you described. It looks bad but it is fine. You only need to separate if they draw blood. Try to bond the boys again. If they become friends you can place them both together in a clean cage. How big is your cage? It needs to be at least one metre.

 

[Shellza]

As piggyfan has said, try placing both boys in an area that neither of them have been in before and give them some food and somewhere for both of them to hide. The behaviour your boy displayed was perfectly normal, it is just a sign of dominance. This thread may be useful to have a read through http://theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=28949

Also, are you definitely sure your new one is a boy? Pet shops are well known for getting sexes wrong. If you are unsure you can post a picture on here and we can help you.

Good luck with bonding your boys. You did the right thing by getting a fried as they love company .

P.S. This link may also be very useful to help you bond the 2 boys http://theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38562

 

[Aicha]

Hello,

First of all I would like to thank you both Shellza and piggyfun for your shown interest in helping me out in order to solve my dilemmas referring to my two guineas.

I am sure about their genres; As I mentioned in my previous post I was looking after a female guinea pig for years, so the difference in their intimate areas is obvious to me.

In the moment I am keeping my two piggies separated, in two cages. My older guinea I keep it in its cage, which by the way is around meter and 10 cm long, and 50 cm wide, and its height is around 70 cm. My new guinea pig, I placed it in another smaller cage. However, I plan to go after your advices, so I am going to buy another bigger cage, and I will request some kind of grate or something other mobile which will separate the cage on two parts, but my piggies will have the chance of sniffing or smelling each others.

As well I would like to thank you Shellza for the links you added me in your comment. I read them, and they were pretty helpful for me too. The thing is when my older piggy gets on the top of my new cavy, during the position that makes me think that its the same position for sexing, he makes the sound so called as a "rumbel" deeper and deeper and then he starts making the sound so called as a" purring" followed by the vibrating effect.

However, by the time I get a new cage( today is Sunday, so here almost nothing is open, and the closest working day is tomorrow so If I order it tomorrow it will be ready in 2 days, 3 at most)bigger and with mobile separation, I will keep my piggies separated, as I am doing in the moment.

I thank you again for your replies and advices. They really " calm me down" a little. However, If I mark any other unusual behaving of their, that even might worry me or so, I will post again. As well, in the future I will post again for the progress of my piggies in their process of getting know each others.

 

[Shellza]

Yes, do keep us updated on any progress. Males (and females) do show dominance by mounting (i.e. getting in the sex position). It's their way of saying I am the boss. My 2 sister guinea pigs do it to each other too rolleyes. It's perfectly normal, so as long as your little one has somewhere he can hide or get away from the older boy they should settle down ok in time. Let us know how you get on

 

[piggyfan]

I really reccommend making a c and c cage as you can make it any size you want and it is easy to separate your boys too. Have a look at the housing threads and you can see how people make them. You can get the grids of ebay and Amazon.

 

[melody]

you could try giving them both a bath so they smell the same and introducing them again in neutral territory. the older guinea pig probably wants to be 'the boss' but as long as they don't fight and draw blood, then it sounds like normal behaviour.

 

[Abigail86]

2 weeks old? he should be with mum until he is 3 weeks old.
my boys hump all the time its them telling each other who is boss

 

[Aicha]

Hello Everyone again,

I would like again to re-thank you all of you guys, for writing me your advices and tips. All were pretty helpful to me, and for my piggies as well.

Past few days, since I got my second cavy, I was spending more than a 15 h in a day with them, watching every their move and playing actively with them more than 2h( I even moved my bed in my living room where I placed them p ). Finally, my two piggies don't "argue" each others, and I can say they "started living in peace". Here is a picture of both them, so you can see them. The bigger and more colorful one is named Buci( eng. FLUFFY) and the smaller, and totally white one is named Bejbi( eng. BABY). They are so adorable together. Just sometimes, I got the feeling like my older piggy is a sort of a role model to my younger. For example, if my older piggy starts drinking water from its bottle, the younger does the same from its etc.

On monday, I ordered for them a cage, so hopefully it will arrive tomorrow. Some of you suggested me to buy C&C cage. The thing is, I live in Republic of Macedonia, and as I already said in my previous posts, here you can buy with zero problems a cavy from every pet shop, or adopt it from almost every adopting center, but it is pretty problematic to find the needed equipment, even cages, and other necessary things for your cavy. I even searched on internet to see if I can buy from other countries around here, such as Serbia, Bulgaria or Greece, but believe it or not, in non of them it could be found. Even some friends of mine, who are living over there tried to find in their local pet shops, but naah. Some of you suggested me to order via Amazon or eBuy but almost non of those online shops, dispatch goods to my country.

Anyways, I ordered 2,5m/75cm/55cm glass cage, and because as well no toys or other equipment is available in shops here, with help of my brother and other friends of mine, I started making some objects( when the whole cage is going to be ready, with other things we are about finishing, I will post a picture of it over this forum)and things for playing. By now, I just have a guinea pig run- about exercise ball(which I bought years ago in France, for my previous guinea pig) and some kind of "labyrinth" my brother made for them, from carton boxes. For sure, they enjoy the both.

I have two more questions, but I am not sure if I can pose them as part of this post, or should I open another post. However, I will say them here.

I was looking to buy some shampoo for showering my guinea pig, but again they didn't sell any. Some retailers, suggested me to buy a shampoo for rabbits, as long as they had those, by adding that they were almost same by their ingredients. I searched over internet to check, but on some forums I found some people who tried it declared it as helpful, some were totally against it. What do you think?

My second question refers to my piggies and if in a case I re-place their cage in other home, and then return it back to mine, would it affect somehow negative on my piggies? The thing is, in two weeks my brother and I have to leave for a journey abroad for two weeks. Before, when I had my previous cavy, we lived with our grand ma as well so we didn't face this problem when we went somewhere for few days or traveled abroad. However, nowadays we are living alone. The closest friend or relative of our, lives like 45 minutes driving by car from our home, so nobody really agrees to come and treat our piggies few times in a day. My question is, if we move the whole cage to some of our friends home and then when we come back home again, may it effect somehow negative on our piggies? What are your opinions? There are few so called hotels for pets, who look after you pet while you are on a journey, but I am skeptical about them and wouldn't like to let my cavys there.

Anyways, thank you in advance. Hope you all have nice day as well as your pets.