Bonding Issue (blood drawn) advice needed!

[TillMillandLill]

Hello everyone,

I’m reaching out because I could really use some advice.

I have three guinea pigs: Tillie, Millie, and Lillie.

• Tillie (cream and grey) and Millie (black, brown, and white) were adopted together as a bonded pair from a shelter.
• Lillie (mostly white with a brown face) was introduced about five weeks ago.

Things had been going smoothly since the introduction. The trio seemed to be getting along well—eating together, resting near each other, and only occasional, minor scuffles. These only ever happened when one of them was in heat and were the typical kind of dominance or warning interactions you’d expect—very brief and never aggressive enough to be concerning.

However, a few days ago, we noticed Millie had a small cut—possibly a bite or puncture—on her upper lip, between her nose and mouth. We didn’t witness the fight, but we believe it was Lillie. She was in heat that day and behaving more erratically than usual—very active, constantly moving, chasing, mounting, and generally being overwhelming to the other two.

Millie is clearly the dominant pig. She sets boundaries and doesn’t tolerate too much nonsense. Still, in the past, when Lillie was in heat, they tolerated her hyper behavior for a day or two and kept things peaceful. This time, it seems things went too far.

Now, we’ve temporarily separated Lillie. She’s on the other side of the cage, and it’s heartbreaking because she was doing really well with Tillie and was slowly adjusting to Millie. Tillie seems to be the glue between them—she gets along great with both.

I’ve heard that once blood is drawn, the bond may be broken, and I’m really hoping that’s not the case. I want to know if there’s a chance to rekindle their bond with a careful reintroduction.

Some thoughts/questions:

• Could this have been a one-time thing due to hormones and overexcitement?
• Would separating Lillie only during her heat cycle be a possible long-term solution?
• Should we try a full rebonding process?
• Could introducing a neutered boar into this dynamic help stabilize things down the line? We have ample cage space if that’s a consideration.

Any insight, suggestions, or similar experiences would be deeply appreciated. I just want what’s best for all three of them.

Thanks so much in advance!
— Devan

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m sorry to hear this.

Sadly Fights and bond breaks occur because of a problem in the hierarchy and there is nothing that you can do to fix that - no amount of careful reintroduction can make piggies like each other. And sows tend to hold a permanent grudge against other piggies.

We can only guess as to why the issue has come about, but generally speaking adding a single pig to a bonded pair is the bonding which is most likely to have issues.
As the altercation wasnt witnessed it might have be an accidental swipe but if it looks to be a bite then sows usually only bite in defence.
if you do the a neutral territory reintroduction and there is a problem then it will give you the answer. If there are problems then either the reintroduction will fail there and then or the issue will reoccur.

In answer to your other questions:

- Separating Lillie during a heat cycle - a long term solution.
No, this is not a solution. You cannot repeatedly separate and reintroduce. This would cause stress, put even more pressure on a bond and destabilise: every time you tried to put them back together it would be bonding mode all over again and given a sow is in season every 15-17 days you would be doing it so often it would be totally unsustainable.
Piggies either need to be bonded and stay together permanently (a stable bonding would never involve needing to repeatedly separated anyway) or the bond doesn’t work and they must stay separated permanently.

- introducing a neutered boar stabilise things?
No it wouldn’t. Adding boar will not fix any problems that exist between the sows as a boar is not part of sow hierarchy. and in fact adding a boar where there are problems between the sows could make things a whole lot worse. Assuming he is accepted to begin with, if there are tensions between the sows then the boar would eventually have to pick a side between the sows and you’d have to separate anyway.

Can you give us a bit more information please so we can advise further:

- Ages of all the sows - this is important as older sows can be less accommodating and over 2 years old are at risk of ovarian cysts causing erratic behaviour.
- Cage size
-Do all hides have two exits? You don’t want any single exit hide as it can mean one piggy here trapped.
- Do you have multiple of everything in the cage so there is never any issue over resources

If Millie and tillie are appearing happier together now without Lillie there then you may need to consider that they should all stay apart without attempting reintroduction.

I will add some guides below which can help determine whether a neutral territory reintroduction is worth a try.

Bonds In Trouble
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated Bonding Dynamics and Behaviours
Guinea Pig Behaviours in their Context

 

[weepweeps]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I’m sorry your girls are unsettled. Hopefully it was an accidental injury and they will be fine when reintroduced on neutral territory.

We love pictures if you’d like to share.