Bonding two girls

[teddy7625]

I have Chavela (1.5 years old, darker brown) and my yet-to-be-named piggie (almost a year, light brown). I’ve been trying to bond for about 4 months.

At the first meet they were doing pretty good for the first 20 minutes but then I had to separate them. I put them in a split cage so they can still see each other and smell each other. In between weekly cleans I’ve tried to give them lots of floor space to try and bond. This time I gave them nearly three weeks of the split cage.

Right now I’m about an hour into the bonding and I’ve noticed that my new piggie isn’t too bothered by Chavela. The issue is that Chavela will all of a sudden go for her and try to pick a fight. New girl would just be chilling eating some hay and Chavela goes up to her rumblestrutting and get close enough to try and lunge at her. All the while new piggie doesn’t care until Chavela goes for her. Then the new girl would run away and try to find a new spot to eat some hay.

I’ve tried bonding Chavela with a baby before but she didn’t accept it either. She would do about the same thing.

Is it possible that Chavela just doesn’t want to be around other piggies? Or is there something else I can do?

 

[teddy7625]

Also want to mention. They have moments where they lay down and groom, then they go at it again. Almost always Chavela is the one initiating it. They can eat pretty close together but as I mentioned, Chavela has to ruin the moment lol.

 

[Deleted member 146752]

Have either of your piggies ever gotten injured during these fights? To me it sounds like Chavela is a rather dominant piggie (which is totally fine and normal) How many months old was the baby you tried to bond her with?

 

[teddy7625]

Have either of your piggies ever gotten injured during these fights? To me it sounds like Chavela is a rather dominant piggie (which is totally fine and normal) How many months old was the baby you tried to bond her with?

Luckily no blood has been drawn thus far but the first time a mouth full of hair was pulled.

The baby I had tried with was 4 weeks old. My godmother’s Guinea pig had an accidental pregnancy (luckily only two babies and both were healthy).

Chavela stumps me. I recently got a pair of boars and their bonding went super smoothly, better than I could’ve imagined. You would think the boys would’ve had a harder time…

 

[Deleted member 146752]

That’s good! Are those the only 2 pigs you tried to bond Chavela with, all that I can think of is that maybe those two bondings just coincidentally didn’t work out. Sorry I can’t be more help, you can try to read this article and maybe it can help!
Behaviour, Bonding & Bereavement Guides

 

[dhill_cb7]

Sounds like all dominant behavior to me. If a physical fight does not occur with blood drawn you should not keep intervening and reintroducing. This causes stress on the pigs.

Meet and greets don’t work for pigs. My dominant boar still faces off, nips and rumblestruts on the daily at my submissive boar.
The key is blood being drawn and if they are actually happy together. You want to focus on the submissive pig’s behavior.

I trial separated my boys a week after I rescued them by splitting up their cage. Mocha, my submissive, bit at the bars and was depressed without his bonded dominant pal cappucchino.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Perhaps she is fearful. Lunging is not an aggressive behaviour, she isn’t trying to pick a fight. Lunging is instead a defensive behaviour.

Generally, bonding Is a one time thing. You cannot put piggies together for bonding and then separate them repeatedly as that interrupts the process and stops them from getting through the stages of being able to form a relationship. With fear aggressive piggies, though, you can take things more slowly.

These guides may help further on whether the bond has a chance and where to go from here

Moody Guinea Pigs: Depression, Bullying, Aggression, Stress, Fear and Antisocial Behaviour
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics

 

[teddy7625]

Thank you to everyone.

Little Update:
I ended up spending 6 hours in my bathroom last night lol (6pm -midnight) I even set up camp in my bath tub.

It did get to a point where Chavelas behavior became less frequent and right around midnight I was pretty confident nothing serious would happen. Only the occasional chase. They spent the rest of the night in there (piggie proof of course) with a doggy gate at the door so I could still see and hear them from my bed. Everything went good. Still waiting to catch them snuggling close to each other but I know it will take time.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Thank you to everyone.

Little Update:
I ended up spending 6 hours in my bathroom last night lol (6pm -midnight) I even set up camp in my bath tub.

It did get to a point where Chavelas behavior became less frequent and right around midnight I was pretty confident nothing serious would happen. Only the occasional chase. They spent the rest of the night in there (piggie proof of course) with a doggy gate at the door so I could still see and hear them from my bed. Everything went good. Still waiting to catch them snuggling close to each other but I know it will take time.

I'm glad things went well.
Not snuggling close does not mean anything - a lot of piggies will never snuggle together but still have a good bond (mine are such piggies - they are never in the same hide etc but are very happy together)

 

[dhill_cb7]

My boys never snuggle. The closest they get is a few inches from each other while sleeping and that was a rare site. Normally they sleep in different hideys.