Hi there, my boyfriend and I adopted two girls (both came from 'pets at home' and were in the same enclosure) around 6 months ago, and for almost all of that time they have gotten along incredibly well together. Zelda is slightly bigger than Maggie and it became obvious early on she was the dominant one - she rumbles aaall the time and we've seen her mount Maggie a couple of times, all perfectly normal behaviour as far as we can tell and all signs seem to show that they love each other and are a good match.
However, over the past 2 nights when we've moved them back to their normal cage after a good few hours in their play pen things seem to get tense. Zelda rumbles a lot, Maggie rumbles back and they've gotten into dominance disputes. There's heavy teeth chattering, pee squirting, snorting, and they've lunged at each other aggressively. At one point we had to split them up as it seemed to be getting quite aggressive.
Now, I wouldn't say these are full blown fights, and we're aware that this behaviour can be normal - but the fact that it's started so suddenly and is right on the cusp of proper violent fights worries us a great deal. So we're hoping someone can tell us what's going on between them, if there's reason to be worried or if we're just over reacting, and what we can do to help ease the tension?
We're not sure but we might have seen signs of Zelda being possessive over some cosy beds in the cage, it's hard to say whether or not these were the cause of the disputes though. We haven't seen Zelda acting this way before these past 2 days.
Both the play pen and normal cage are waaay more than an adequate size, they both have access to food, hay, toys, and water, and both are in good health as far as we know.
Thanks!
However, over the past 2 nights when we've moved them back to their normal cage after a good few hours in their play pen things seem to get tense. Zelda rumbles a lot, Maggie rumbles back and they've gotten into dominance disputes. There's heavy teeth chattering, pee squirting, snorting, and they've lunged at each other aggressively. At one point we had to split them up as it seemed to be getting quite aggressive.
Now, I wouldn't say these are full blown fights, and we're aware that this behaviour can be normal - but the fact that it's started so suddenly and is right on the cusp of proper violent fights worries us a great deal. So we're hoping someone can tell us what's going on between them, if there's reason to be worried or if we're just over reacting, and what we can do to help ease the tension?
We're not sure but we might have seen signs of Zelda being possessive over some cosy beds in the cage, it's hard to say whether or not these were the cause of the disputes though. We haven't seen Zelda acting this way before these past 2 days.
Both the play pen and normal cage are waaay more than an adequate size, they both have access to food, hay, toys, and water, and both are in good health as far as we know.
Thanks!
