Bonding help

annsuejim

annsuejim

New Born Pup
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I just bought another cage today for Sweetie one of my older pigs since she is alone due to her and Rozy, my other older pig, not getting along (Rozy has her own cage with her two 3 mo old babies). When I would bond Rozy with Sweetie, Sweetie seems to be afraid of her if Rozy walks towards her Sweetie will run as well as wheek very high pitched. Rozy nips at her never seen any blood drawn but it seems as if they will never get along so i have separated them. Fast forward to now with the new cage i decided to try to put one of Rozy’s babies, Honey, with sweetie in this brand new cage but Honey does the same exact thing her mother does ! I dont see blood drawn but Sweetie seems to just run away or sit there and take the bites but again still not seeing blood drawn she just wheeks super loud super high pitched. Any advice ? Should Sweetie just stay alone she doesnt seem to mind it?
 
On the face of it, it seems as you may have misinterpreted the interaction and separated the piggies unnecessarily.
High pitch squeaking is submission squealing. It is one pig telling the other that they accept their dominance in the hierarchy. It sounds as if Sweetie is just submitting to everybody and is allowing any pig she comes into contact with to be the dominant.
Nipping is a feature of power, it isn’t fighting and it doesn’t sound mean a bonding has failed.

I’m assuming all four piggies are sows.
Have you tried bonding all four of them as a herd (provided your cage is big enough to house them all together)?

A - Z of Guinea Pig Behaviours
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
 
Some pigs are very loud and dramatic with the submission squeals. Master Boris can sound like he's being murdered even though Sir George is nowhere near him!
 
It took me quite a while to get used to how startling and dramatic the submission squabbles are. I would panic, separate, and convince myself I had started a guinea pig fighting ring. Fast forward to just sitting through the process and crossing my fingers (watching for the red flags), one of my girls has established a gang and she is a very scary leader. But no blood and everyone mostly gets along! :D

It sounds like Sweetie may not want to be dominant - if you were to try and bond all 4 (as Piggies&buns said, provided there's room) Rozy may take a natural leader ship role ahead of Sweetie and ahead of her babies. Who knows!
 
Yes they are all females ! i have tried to somewhat bond them i have had them on the bed all together and all seems to be fine Sweetie does the same thing she just runs from then whenever the other girl come near come near 😆 How big of a cage do you recommend for them all to be bonded? i have 2 panel cages I'm sure i can find a way to combine them 😁
 
brilapiggies said:
It took me quite a while to get used to how startling and dramatic the submission squabbles are. I would panic, separate, and convince myself I had started a guinea pig fighting ring. Fast forward to just sitting through the process and crossing my fingers (watching for the red flags), one of my girls has established a gang and she is a very scary leader. But no blood and everyone mostly gets along! :D

It sounds like Sweetie may not want to be dominant - if you were to try and bond all 4 (as Piggies&buns said, provided there's room) Rozy may take a natural leader ship role ahead of Sweetie and ahead of her babies. Who knows!
Click to expand...
this is exactly how i feel omg ! I feel like i set her up to get jumped everytime😆 I always read that no blood means they should be left alone but her squeals make me think otherwise I will be sure to watch for red flags as well and hope for the best 🥲 Sweetie is a very submissive girl ive seen her get humped by Rozy after they rumble strut in circles together and sweetie never tried it again😆
 
Piggies&buns said:
On the face of it, it seems as you may have misinterpreted the interaction and separated the piggies unnecessarily.
High pitch squeaking is submission squealing. It is one pig telling the other that they accept their dominance in the hierarchy. It sounds as if Sweetie is just submitting to everybody and is allowing any pig she comes into contact with to be the dominant.
Nipping is a feature of power, it isn’t fighting and it doesn’t sound mean a bonding has failed.

I’m assuming all four piggies are sows.
Have you tried bonding all four of them as a herd (provided your cage is big enough to house them all together)?

A - Z of Guinea Pig Behaviours
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
Click to expand...
Also i have noticed that when Sweetie is housed with Honey and I try to pet Sweetie she squeals her loud dramatic squeal but when Sweetie is by herself and I pet her she stretches out a bit and seems to live it no squealing is there any reason for that?
 
You need to always do everything for the dominant pig first, so she might be expecting some reaction from Honey if she's the only one to get petted? Does Honey enjoy pets in the cage? If she doesn't still offer to her first then move on.
 
annsuejim said:
Yes they are all females ! i have tried to somewhat bond them i have had them on the bed all together and all seems to be fine Sweetie does the same thing she just runs from then whenever the other girl come near come near 😆 How big of a cage do you recommend for them all to be bonded? i have 2 panel cages I'm sure i can find a way to combine them 😁
Click to expand...

It doesn’t sound like there is any reason not to try a proper bonding.
Putting them on your bed isn’t the way to do it though. They all need to go into a neutral territory bonding pen for several hours. If all goes well then move them to the permanent cage together.

A permanent cage for four needs to be 240x60cm or a 6x2 c&c.

annsuejim said:
this is exactly how i feel omg ! I feel like i set her up to get jumped everytime😆 I always read that no blood means they should be left alone but her squeals make me think otherwise I will be sure to watch for red flags as well and hope for the best 🥲 Sweetie is a very submissive girl ive seen her get humped by Rozy after they rumble strut in circles together and sweetie never tried it again😆
Click to expand...

The squeals are normal piggy chatter for submission. Please try not to misread them as it causes you to separate them likely unnecessarily
 
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