hnc900
New Born Pup
I currently have a 3 year old female, Meringue, and a 3 month old female, Spice. Meringue's previous buddy, Pumpkin, passed away about two weeks ago and I got Spice last week to keep her company. Meringue was the dominant piggy with Pumpkin and liked her space and independence. If I had to put them in a pet carrier together, they would often get into little disagreements in the close quarters.
After I got Spice, Meringue showed her dominance as expected and Spice seemed to submit to her easily. Despite that, Meringue will not stop guarding huts and toys even though there are multiples of each. Meringue will go out of her way to kick Spice out of a hut Meringue wasn't even using. It's almost like she follows her around specifically to stop her from using anything. Meringue even guards me during floor time. Luckily, she does not guard food and water and there is no real aggression. Just firm nudge on the backside to kick her off of whatever Spice is using.
Like I said, there are multiples of the same type of toys and huts, the huts have multiple exits, and their C&C cage is 15.5 sq ft total (10.5 on bottom, 5 on top.) I noticed when I got Spice Meringue lays out in the open and greets me more often than she has in the past, which tells me she's happy with a buddy. But then she seems so unwilling to share anything other than food and water.
Since the relationship is still new I am giving it more time, but I'm curious to know if this amount of (non agressive) resource guarding is normal. If it does not improve, my plan is to expand the cage and try that. If that still doesn't help, would it be reasonable to try attaching a second cage to the first via more C&C grids, keep Meringue on one side and get a third piggy to keep Spice company on the other? That way they can still interact through the grids but Meringue won't feel the need to defend her things.
Again, I'm going to give them more time to figure things out on their own, but I just feel bad for Spice who obviously wants a friend who is just as social as she is. I'm getting mixed signals from Meringue and I'm not sure if she's truly happy to have a friend or if she would prefer her own space.
Any advice helps!
After I got Spice, Meringue showed her dominance as expected and Spice seemed to submit to her easily. Despite that, Meringue will not stop guarding huts and toys even though there are multiples of each. Meringue will go out of her way to kick Spice out of a hut Meringue wasn't even using. It's almost like she follows her around specifically to stop her from using anything. Meringue even guards me during floor time. Luckily, she does not guard food and water and there is no real aggression. Just firm nudge on the backside to kick her off of whatever Spice is using.
Like I said, there are multiples of the same type of toys and huts, the huts have multiple exits, and their C&C cage is 15.5 sq ft total (10.5 on bottom, 5 on top.) I noticed when I got Spice Meringue lays out in the open and greets me more often than she has in the past, which tells me she's happy with a buddy. But then she seems so unwilling to share anything other than food and water.
Since the relationship is still new I am giving it more time, but I'm curious to know if this amount of (non agressive) resource guarding is normal. If it does not improve, my plan is to expand the cage and try that. If that still doesn't help, would it be reasonable to try attaching a second cage to the first via more C&C grids, keep Meringue on one side and get a third piggy to keep Spice company on the other? That way they can still interact through the grids but Meringue won't feel the need to defend her things.
Again, I'm going to give them more time to figure things out on their own, but I just feel bad for Spice who obviously wants a friend who is just as social as she is. I'm getting mixed signals from Meringue and I'm not sure if she's truly happy to have a friend or if she would prefer her own space.
Any advice helps!
I can’t add to the excellent advice given above but yes please do give them more time together x