Chasing away from food?

[LilPiggles]

Hello! Yesterday, my husband and I brought home two female guinea pigs from a rescue. Their names are Penny and Pepper.

Today (their first full day at our house), my husband and I noticed that Penny (1 year old, dominant) is chasing Pepper (6 months, submissive) around and preventing her from eating hay. I’ve seen chasing, but never one preventing the other from eating. I made sure Pepper was able to eat her lettuce today, but I’m concerned for her. No matter where I put the hay in the cage, Penny will hear Pepper eating and chase her down. Pepper, of course, shrieks loudly at this and runs away. After, she seems too scared to try eating again for a while. Then, she tries, and the cycle continues.

How long should we observe this before intervening? Is this normal?

Some additional details:
- The enclosure is 30 in (76.2 cm) by 44 in (111.76 cm)
- The rescue owner claims they’re already bonded. They were together at the rescue but with other guinea pigs in the same cage.
- The rescue owner said they were at the rescue previously, adopted by a family, given back to the rescue because the daughter moved away, and now we have them.

 

[Piggies&buns]

As they are new they will establish their relationship between themselves in the new environment. So seeing some dominance is to be expected for a short while, they are both teenagers so again you expect some teen type behaviour and being in season can cause an increase in dominance.
If they had other piggies in the enclosure with them, then are you certain the two piggies you got actually liked each other? If they had been together as part of a larger herd, and had been for some time, then their dynamic would have been as part of the entire herd not necessarily just as a pair.
However, if she remains constantly being chased away from hay and not allowed to eat hay then that can signify a problem between them. Constantly being chased from food and not being allowed to eat an constitute bullying which if relentless and causes weight loss in the piggy being chased away can mean they need to be separated. The shrieking is submission squealing and that is normal.
Keep an eye on their weights - you should weigh them every week as part of routine care anyway - but if you notice she is not allowed to eat hay and is losing weight (hay is the most important part of the diet), then you may need to take action.

Ensure hay is available in multiple places and that all hideys have two exits.

Their cage is little over the minimum size for two sows but sometimes if they have too little space it can make then just get a bit cross with each other - 8 square feet is the minimum, your appears to be cage is 9 sq ft and we recommend 10 sq ft for two sows.

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