Bonding Trouble

[Luna-Trixie]

Hello,

I've had my two sows for a good few months now so I would have thought any dominance issues would have been sorted, but it's almost constant still, they will happily sleep in separate huts for hours but when trixie is up and about it's all about dominance, rumbling or chasing Luna out of her hidey.
Luna gets enough food and drink so that's all okay, but it's just constant and I've never seen them show any affection toward each other apart from when they are startled and hide together, should I be worried?

 

[sport_billy]

How big is their cage? Do they have two of everything? Do you know their ages? Sorry for all the questions and the fact things are fraught between them. We'll try and help advise if we can.

 

[Wiebke]

Hello,

I've had my two sows for a good few months now so I would have thought any dominance issues would have been sorted, but it's almost constant still, they will happily sleep in separate huts for hours but when trixie is up and about it's all about dominance, rumbling or chasing Luna out of her hidey.
Luna gets enough food and drink so that's all okay, but it's just constant and I've never seen them show any affection toward each other apart from when they are startled and hide together, should I be worried?

How old are your sows, how big is your cage? It is a myth that guinea pigs always sleep snuggled together, they actually don't. how well they get on depends on the personality constellation, but don't necessarily expect big displays of affection between sows.

How intense is the chasing and have you got hideys with two exits? Chucking an underpiggy out of a hidey is pretty par for the course if it is not done without heat.

 

[Luna-Trixie]

Hi,
They are around 5 months old at the moment, I'm not sure exactly how big the cage is but it is roomy, however it could be bigger I think, I'm moving into a bigger house at the end of the month so I'm going to get a c&c cage, what size would you recommend? All my hideys have two exits, the chasing looks quite heated but there is no nipping and Luna just submission squeals.

 

[Cavy Kung-Fu]

2 by 4 foot is the minimum recommended size for 2 females You could always post some pictures!

Also sounds like they're very hormonal atm so that might explain the problems a bit as they're terrible teenagers!

 

[Wiebke]

Hi,
They are around 5 months old at the moment, I'm not sure exactly how big the cage is but it is roomy, however it could be bigger I think, I'm moving into a bigger house at the end of the month so I'm going to get a c&c cage, what size would you recommend? All my hideys have two exits, the chasing looks quite heated but there is no nipping and Luna just submission squeals.

Here is our cage size guide. If you can afford it space-wise, consider switching to a 2x4 or 2x5 grid cage.

It can be that one of your girls is in season. Teenage sows also experience hormone spikes which results in dominance behaviours; these are also more pronounced when a sow comes into season or has had a strong season. As long as there is just chasing, I would leave be unless the underpiggy is so stressed that she is losing weight (bullying). It will hopefully die down again.
Sow Behaviour