• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Should I take my piggies to the vet?

yoox

New Born Pup
Joined
May 8, 2018
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
20
Heyo, so this is my first post on here and I just have a couple of questions, and I'm super sorry if this is long but I'm kind of paranoid.

I'm a new guinea pig owner and we got them in February, we were told the two piggies were both girls, and that they got along fine, and were only around a year old.

When we brought them home they were both skiddish, one more so than the other, and that's fine. But my mom told me that the cage they were living in was small and they were malnourished and didn't receive the attention they needed. So we got them a bigger cage, are feeding them hay and lettuce regularly, along with vitamin c vitamins, and I visit them everyday.

But now they've started to get more aggressive towards each other. We have two Abyssinians, one tanish one, Nugget, and a black and white one, Nibbles.

Nugget has become severely dominant over Nibbles. She will push her out of the way, and rumblestrut around the cage while pooping. And I don't know if it's because she's in pain or trying to be dominant and mark her territory or something? And I don't know if this is important but her butt is kinda pinkish.

But I'm kinda concerned because Nugget will sometimes try to possibly bite her or mount her. Nibbles will whimper and rarely retaliate unless Nugget gets too close to her. I've tried to see if they are actually both female, but they hate being picked up and try to bite me, and I don't want to hurt them because they're so small and fragile.

I also remember I tried to shoo Nugget away when they were quarreling, and she kind of fell over on her side and I got scared.

I'm just kinda looking for a second opinion on what to do, and if you think we should take them to the vet.
 
You may want to go to the behavior page and take a look at the stickies at the top of the page that talk about normal dominance behavior. Chasing/mounting/rumblestrutting is normal dominance behavior, and female pigs may have periods of more aggression due to hormonal cycles. These cycles should peak and go away fairly quickly. If you are seeing continual chasing/mounting by one pig, it may be worth seeing a vet to test for ovarian cysts, which can cause pronounced hormonal that don't go away. Nipping is common dominance behavior, but you should separate if there are any bites that draw blood. Hopefully the sticky can give you a more thorough idea of normal dominance and when it crosses the line to a problem.
 
Back
Top