Teeth Chattering.

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abby

abby

Junior Guinea Pig
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After 3 weeks together settling in, there's been an increase of teeth chattering over the last 4 days, it's been pretty continual tonight..... Every now and then a bit of squabbling goes on, but it mostly seems to be for show... Should I be concerned yet, or is this likely to settle soon once they they decide on pecking order, or should that already be established?
 
Teeth chattering is usually a more moderate warning sign :( If it is loud then you may need to separate them :( It will sound like a clacking noise. Are they indoors & how big is their home?
 
They are indoors, they have a cage 120 x 62 with two upper platforms and they get floor time in a space that's about 7x5 sqft. Floor time ranges between about 1 hour to 6 hours a day as I'm a stay at home mum.... Not that they are doing much running around during that time, they seem to hide in their wee houses a lot.
 
I wouldn't worry too much. It's typical dominant behaviour. They're probably just trying to be the "big pig". One of mine do it all the time, along with lots of bum waving and rumbles. He's the little guy so I think he just wants to show how big and tough he is. It's funny because he usually popcorn straight after the big show. Don't separate them unless they actually start having fights and blood is shed. They're just establishing their ranks. Depending on how old they are, it could go on for a while.
 
Like gus+walter said, it is just dominant behaviour so nothing to worry about. However, if it gets worse and they start to bear their teeth and stand on their hind legs, you definitely need to separate them as they have probably fallen out, but by the sounds of it they're okay.
I forget which thread off the forum I got it off, but if you put a stuffed toy/s in their cage/hutch it can sometimes help them to take their anger out on the toy rather than each other, it worked for me, I'm not sure about other people. As well, lots of distractions such as toys and hay can take their minds off fighting. What gender are they?
xx
 
I get the occasionally teeth chattering - I heard Maple do it yesterday at Rambo and slowly but surely Rambo calmed down and backed off.
 
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