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New Born Pup
Hi everyone! I'm a bit new so sorry if I make any mistakes.
I recently bought a baby sow from my local pet store and she is adorable. The problem first started with my two other girls, Zoe and Mae. I introduced the baby, Halcey, to Zoe and Mae in a new area, on a freshly washed fleece, with some hay in the center. Zoe got along fine with Halcey, would raise her chin when she got too close, but didn't really care about her (she was more interested in the hay pile :p). Mae was a different story, however. I think it's important so I'll mention it now, Zoe did bully Mae a lot when she was younger, I mean a lot. It did eventually wear off with time. Mae was always very shy so this is why her behavior was so shocking to me. Mae chased the little one around biting and nipping, and would not let up. Every five minutes or so she would go off by herself for a bit, and so would the baby. After another 5 minutes Mae would find the baby, sneak up on her as so not to alert her (which I must admit was a bit funny to watch, as I have learned that guinea pigs are not the best at being sneaky), and then lunge at her and bite her. Then the chasing would happen again.
After about 2 and a half hours of this, I separated them, which was my mistake. I had Halcey in a small pet store cage, and Mae and Zoe in their regular 2x4 C&C. The cages were pressed up against each other so they could poke noses and smell the other and such. After about a week of them being separate, I decided to put them all together in the (cleaned) C&C cage (Mistake #2?), which had been elongated to a 2x6. So I put them all in there and they all explored at first, see what's new, which is always cute. It is a bit vague in my head right now, it happened about two weeks ago but I'm just posting this now because I thought it was just dominance issues being sorted out. I don't remember exactly when it started, but the baby seems to have learned this "bully" behavior and is now bullying my other two! I'm sure Mae regrets bothering her now. She goes for both of them, she'll chase them around the cage nipping them and sometimes even leap and attack them. Mae's shy behavior has come back double over, and I think they're all very unhappy. Because a fight broke out between Mae and Halcey I've made kind of a makeshift cage inside the cage, using the bars of the pet store cage and placing them inside. I have Halcey stay in there at night, and then during the day I take it out so I can watch them interact. When she is in the cage Zoe and Mae will often go up to her, and she will rumble strut in return.
Any help is appreciated, I really don't know what to do. It's killing me to have her in the small cage, but if I took her out I'm afraid another fight might break out
Edit: I forgot to mention that before I put them in the C&C cage I did bathe them all together, but our local pet store was out of shampoo so it was just a water bath (Mistake #3)
I recently bought a baby sow from my local pet store and she is adorable. The problem first started with my two other girls, Zoe and Mae. I introduced the baby, Halcey, to Zoe and Mae in a new area, on a freshly washed fleece, with some hay in the center. Zoe got along fine with Halcey, would raise her chin when she got too close, but didn't really care about her (she was more interested in the hay pile :p). Mae was a different story, however. I think it's important so I'll mention it now, Zoe did bully Mae a lot when she was younger, I mean a lot. It did eventually wear off with time. Mae was always very shy so this is why her behavior was so shocking to me. Mae chased the little one around biting and nipping, and would not let up. Every five minutes or so she would go off by herself for a bit, and so would the baby. After another 5 minutes Mae would find the baby, sneak up on her as so not to alert her (which I must admit was a bit funny to watch, as I have learned that guinea pigs are not the best at being sneaky), and then lunge at her and bite her. Then the chasing would happen again.
After about 2 and a half hours of this, I separated them, which was my mistake. I had Halcey in a small pet store cage, and Mae and Zoe in their regular 2x4 C&C. The cages were pressed up against each other so they could poke noses and smell the other and such. After about a week of them being separate, I decided to put them all together in the (cleaned) C&C cage (Mistake #2?), which had been elongated to a 2x6. So I put them all in there and they all explored at first, see what's new, which is always cute. It is a bit vague in my head right now, it happened about two weeks ago but I'm just posting this now because I thought it was just dominance issues being sorted out. I don't remember exactly when it started, but the baby seems to have learned this "bully" behavior and is now bullying my other two! I'm sure Mae regrets bothering her now. She goes for both of them, she'll chase them around the cage nipping them and sometimes even leap and attack them. Mae's shy behavior has come back double over, and I think they're all very unhappy. Because a fight broke out between Mae and Halcey I've made kind of a makeshift cage inside the cage, using the bars of the pet store cage and placing them inside. I have Halcey stay in there at night, and then during the day I take it out so I can watch them interact. When she is in the cage Zoe and Mae will often go up to her, and she will rumble strut in return.
Any help is appreciated, I really don't know what to do. It's killing me to have her in the small cage, but if I took her out I'm afraid another fight might break out
Edit: I forgot to mention that before I put them in the C&C cage I did bathe them all together, but our local pet store was out of shampoo so it was just a water bath (Mistake #3)
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