Aggressive behaviour to poorly Piggie!

[GPMomandPop]

Hi,

We have two Guinea boys, Albert and Henry. Albert is 2 years and 4 months and Henry is 1 year and 4 months. We adopted Henry a year ago, after Albert's brother passed away. They have an amazing friendship and are like two peas in a pod.... Albert (the eldest) is the boss! Henry (the youngest) had a trip to the vet today as he has a sprained front leg. He is resting lots today and not running around as much as usual but is absolutely fine... In the last hour I have noticed Albert being very aggressive to Henry, what looks like trying to bite his nose whilst he is just sleeping. Henry was asleep in a tunnel and Albert mounted him very aggressively and wouldn't get off, Henry was squealing so I had to remove Albert. He kept on going back to do it again and again so I have put him in the cage on his own to calm down. My Husband noticed the same last night, but nothing to get involved in. Just a little more than the usual 'I'm boss' behavior the dominant Piggy will do.

Has anyone else experienced this? If so, how did you deal with it.

My Husband read that some Guineas will reject a sick member of their group! Is this the case and should we be worried.

Albert seems to be calmer now but I will keep him in the cage for another 10 minutes just to be sure.

Your advice and experience would be much appreciated!

Many thanks,

Nikki xx

 

[Abi_nurse]

The mounting is just a dominance thing and although the squealing may seem distressing the underpig is simply shouting for him to get off. It may be that you split them up to take him to the vets and caused a bit of a split in the bond for a temporary time. Unless blood is drawn then leave them be to sort it out. The nipping is normal dominance behavior too. I havent heard of guinea pigs being mean to sick ones, but i may be wrong.

x.

 

[GPMomandPop]

Thanks for the quick response. We took Albert to the vet too as he needed his claws clipped. He has been fine all afternoon, up until then. Normally I'd leave them to it but as Henry is lame at the moment, I thought it best to keep them apart whilst Albert was in this funny mood. It just seems odd for him, he does the whole dominance strutting, nudging with his nose and mounting but this just seemed a whole lot more aggressive. He seems to have calmed down now so fingers crossed he'll stay that way.
Thanks again.xx

 

[Mother Hubbard]

Hi,

When my dominant sow (at the time -bloss) was ill, the next in line, so to speak, started trying to get her spot, by pushing her out of the way off the food. I just made sure there was no squabbles due to food and tried to keep them calm, when she got better, she made them know she was back.

When I've had a lesser dominant sow be one unwell, there does appear to have been some nudging but it soon resolved itself. You think you don't notice until something like that happens. It will likely sort it's self out but if the fighting kicks off, it's curtain time, and as abi-nurse says, it's when bloods drawn, and separation is needed is my view. But I honestly reckon a few more days or a week and it will return to norm.

Fingers crossed, hope it helps.