How Long Before Separating?

[Little Piggy]

Hi,

We have now welcomed Cookie and Sparkle into the family 3 days ago. They both came from a SSPCA shelter where they had been reunited for a week after having being separated when they both had babies. Sparkle is now chasing and mounting Cookie with a lot of chattering and strutting, and Cookie is now peeing on Sparkle in response! I know from advice on here that can be normal, but how long would this type of behaviour go on for before you would consider separating them? Or would it only be if their was blood drawn? My young daughters are concerned what's happening when we are not there and are now referring to "bad" Sparkle! Any advice would be great!

 

[chesca_27]

Sparkle isn't being bad at all, just normal guin dominance. I think you would only need to separate if blood was drawn. Sorry, I'm not too good with piggie behaviour, though, so someone else may be better at helping you.

 

[Crystella]

That's just normal behavior while they sort out who is head piggie. Nothing bad and not worth separating over. This can also happen when either sow goes into season. Try to explain to your daughter that Sparkle is just making sure that Cookie knows who's the boss. Here are some threads to read to help you understand the situation better.
Illustrated Bonding / Dominance Behaviours And Dynamics
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs
Sow Behaviour

 

[Dorothy&Coco]

When we got our two sows it took about 2 weeks for the behaviour to settle and dominance to be established. My daughter also found it worrying - she was 7 at the time. How old is your daughter? I found that explaining to her about what was happening really helped and we read information on here (my daughter loved that as she knew I was also new to guinea pigs and so liked the fact we were checking somewhere 'expert' for our info!)

 

[Dorothy&Coco]

I am sure you have but make sure they each have at least one house they can hide in. The advice is to make sure they can't get 'cornered'. I used cardboard boxes with two holes cut out for exits / escape routes!

 

[Little Piggy]

Thanks for the advice folks. They have settled down a little, and I've explained to my daughters (they are 5& 7) that this is normal. It was my younger daughter who was most concerned, but I've reminded her that her and her sister aren't always the best of friends either!