jesse1234
Junior Guinea Pig
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2019
- Messages
- 55
- Reaction score
- 20
- Points
- 195
Hello all. So, we have 3 pigs, two females and 1 male. The females are Bow and Queen. Bow is 4 and has had a really eventful life. She had a bladder stone about a year ago, and the vet managed to manually remove it. Afterwards, she stopped using her back legs for quite some time and we never thought she would use them again. We got her a pig wheelchair and after some practice with that, she started to walk again within a couple of months. She walks a little weird, like the way she stands is a bit odd, but she can do everything normally. Queen is about 2 1/2, and was rescued from a home where she was a solo pig in a hamster cage and she had never even eaten vegetables before! She was ill-mannered and seemed confused about how to be a guinea pig lol.
Queen and Bow get along though, and Queen really likes to stand by Bow and chooses to lay right by her a lot of the time. Bow seems to be the dominant one of the pair, because Queen backs off of Bow snaps. However, within the past week, Queen has been getting snippy with Bow. Not just that, but she got snippy with the male pig, too. She was trying to hump Bow today, and was chasing her to try to do so. Bow was running away and successfully warded her off each of the 3 times Queen was trying to do this. The other day, with the male pig, Oswald, Queen was making some cranky noises through the cage at Oswald and then she was trying to nip him through the bars of the cage. Oswald just tried to nip back but they couldn't really make much contact because it was through the bars of the cage. Oswald is 6, and has some chronic inflammation problems so he is on metacam long term, but other than that, he is very bold, sociable and not meek at all. He reminds me more of a small dog with his attitude. I mention this because both of the other pigs, Oswald and Bow, are older and have some type of medical history. I don't know if Queen's behavior could be related to her smelling them having these kinds of troubles and perhaps she is interpreting it as illness. Bow and Oswald have both been to the vet within the past 2 months and have a clean bill of health, excluding what I've already mentioned. Behaviorally though, they are totally normal and thriving. Neither of them have acted differently at all lately, just Queen, who has been totally normal except for these little outbursts.
I guess what I am wondering is what this could be about? Queen has been pretty shy, submissive and clueless acting up until this. I wonder if she is just coming out of her shell and being problematic while doing so? Like I said before, she's always been a little strange acting and I think it's because she went about a year of her life not ever seeing another pig and she just didn't know how to act. She's been with us for about a year, and has been in the cage with Bow for about 6 months. Normally they all get along and like each other a lot. It's just very sudden and concerning since she's done it 4 times now, with both of her friends. Just looking for some input or any similar experiences. I read that there were some similar instances on here already but figured I'd give my background info to make the situation as clear as possible.
Queen and Bow get along though, and Queen really likes to stand by Bow and chooses to lay right by her a lot of the time. Bow seems to be the dominant one of the pair, because Queen backs off of Bow snaps. However, within the past week, Queen has been getting snippy with Bow. Not just that, but she got snippy with the male pig, too. She was trying to hump Bow today, and was chasing her to try to do so. Bow was running away and successfully warded her off each of the 3 times Queen was trying to do this. The other day, with the male pig, Oswald, Queen was making some cranky noises through the cage at Oswald and then she was trying to nip him through the bars of the cage. Oswald just tried to nip back but they couldn't really make much contact because it was through the bars of the cage. Oswald is 6, and has some chronic inflammation problems so he is on metacam long term, but other than that, he is very bold, sociable and not meek at all. He reminds me more of a small dog with his attitude. I mention this because both of the other pigs, Oswald and Bow, are older and have some type of medical history. I don't know if Queen's behavior could be related to her smelling them having these kinds of troubles and perhaps she is interpreting it as illness. Bow and Oswald have both been to the vet within the past 2 months and have a clean bill of health, excluding what I've already mentioned. Behaviorally though, they are totally normal and thriving. Neither of them have acted differently at all lately, just Queen, who has been totally normal except for these little outbursts.
I guess what I am wondering is what this could be about? Queen has been pretty shy, submissive and clueless acting up until this. I wonder if she is just coming out of her shell and being problematic while doing so? Like I said before, she's always been a little strange acting and I think it's because she went about a year of her life not ever seeing another pig and she just didn't know how to act. She's been with us for about a year, and has been in the cage with Bow for about 6 months. Normally they all get along and like each other a lot. It's just very sudden and concerning since she's done it 4 times now, with both of her friends. Just looking for some input or any similar experiences. I read that there were some similar instances on here already but figured I'd give my background info to make the situation as clear as possible.
