rumblestrutting

[Becca91]

one of my sows, the smaller of the two - Florence, has been shoving my other sow Alice around for a while now. it seems that Alice has now had enough and when Florence tries to chase her around Alice has taken to growling deeply and rumblestrutting at her! Is this literally just a dominance thing? I panic it's just going to end up in a big fight... Florence has started to go for Alice, kind of headbutts her...They kind of chase each others backsides in circles! never bitten her though as far as i'm aware...

I just feel like rushing to the petshop to buy another cage to seperate them, i really don't want them to fight, Alice just seems to have had enough with being ran round into the ground because she is so docile yet Florence is a bit nutty, the opposite really.

But, being a novice piggy owner i'm aware i shouldn't rush into seperating them but somethings telling me to just do it! Everything goes calm for a while then they start again, then it's calm etc etc... well if i'm honest it goes quiet when ones at one end and the other's at the other; when they keep out of each others way.

Can I have some opinions please? x

 

[Wiebke]

Rumblestrutting is mild dominance behaviour, as are the other behaviours; nothing to worry about.

You can find out more on this thread here: http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38561

 

[Freela]

It's normal behaviour figuring out who is dominant... it can also be more noticeable if one of the sows is in season. It is just part of sorting out the hierarchy. HTH!

 

[Claire W]

This sounds like normal dominant behaviour to me. One o my girls rumble struts a lot. Only when it is obvious that one is being bullied and if blood is drawn should you separate. These dominant issues always look worse to us than it does the guinea pig