Owen&George
Junior Guinea Pig
Hi everyone!
So as some of you know, a little over a month ago our youngest piggy George, passed away unexpectedly.
This past weekend we traveled to our nearest rescue to find our other boy, Owen (one year old), a new cage mate. We did a few unsuccessful dates at the rescue until we came to a 6 month old boy named Edward. There was some introductory dominance behaviors, mostly humping, but no worrying actions. They did this for about 10 minutes until they calmed down and laid next to each other happily. We adopted Edward and they were 100% peaceful on the way home. Once we got home we put them in a neutral large playpen away from the cage to let them get to know each other better. It was at this point things took a turn. They began exhibiting a little bit more dominance behaviors, still humping back and forth, but they were starting to have face offs; going in circles and rumble strutting until one would nose punch the other, they would seem to be about to fight and we would intervene. Eventually we decided to clean the whole cage (a 3x4 c&c with a 1x4 loft) to take out smells, and put them into it. They calmed down quite a bit over the past three days and there has been no evident fights. We've only noticed some barbering and Edward has a very small scratch on his nose, which we read can happen and isn't too much of a worry. After 3 days of being together they still have face offs and exhibit dominance behaviors through-out the day. Most confusingly though, there is no pattern to their aggression; sometimes they are fine and can lay next to each other and sometimes can't be near each other. They both eat and drink and no big fights, but there is almost constantly rumbling and circling unless they are not near each other or eating. Also Owen was always in his hidey house before the adoption, but now Edward has taken residence in his main house and Owen will not go inside. All day and night he sleeps and lays outside. We also never used to see him lay completely down, and now he is constantly fully laying down. Could his new cage mate have taken dominance and made him depressed? and do they just need more time or should we call this one quits? Even when they are getting along they make a constant high pitched fast squeaking noise, it sounds more like the annoyed noise than the more bubbly "talking" noise but we're not sure because they'll be getting along and make the noise too.
Attached is a picture of Owen laying down, and them next to each other (during which they are making the presumed annoyed noise)
(BTW We have more than one hidey, and two of everything, there is also always grates on the top and front just removed for pictures)
So as some of you know, a little over a month ago our youngest piggy George, passed away unexpectedly.
This past weekend we traveled to our nearest rescue to find our other boy, Owen (one year old), a new cage mate. We did a few unsuccessful dates at the rescue until we came to a 6 month old boy named Edward. There was some introductory dominance behaviors, mostly humping, but no worrying actions. They did this for about 10 minutes until they calmed down and laid next to each other happily. We adopted Edward and they were 100% peaceful on the way home. Once we got home we put them in a neutral large playpen away from the cage to let them get to know each other better. It was at this point things took a turn. They began exhibiting a little bit more dominance behaviors, still humping back and forth, but they were starting to have face offs; going in circles and rumble strutting until one would nose punch the other, they would seem to be about to fight and we would intervene. Eventually we decided to clean the whole cage (a 3x4 c&c with a 1x4 loft) to take out smells, and put them into it. They calmed down quite a bit over the past three days and there has been no evident fights. We've only noticed some barbering and Edward has a very small scratch on his nose, which we read can happen and isn't too much of a worry. After 3 days of being together they still have face offs and exhibit dominance behaviors through-out the day. Most confusingly though, there is no pattern to their aggression; sometimes they are fine and can lay next to each other and sometimes can't be near each other. They both eat and drink and no big fights, but there is almost constantly rumbling and circling unless they are not near each other or eating. Also Owen was always in his hidey house before the adoption, but now Edward has taken residence in his main house and Owen will not go inside. All day and night he sleeps and lays outside. We also never used to see him lay completely down, and now he is constantly fully laying down. Could his new cage mate have taken dominance and made him depressed? and do they just need more time or should we call this one quits? Even when they are getting along they make a constant high pitched fast squeaking noise, it sounds more like the annoyed noise than the more bubbly "talking" noise but we're not sure because they'll be getting along and make the noise too.
Attached is a picture of Owen laying down, and them next to each other (during which they are making the presumed annoyed noise)
(BTW We have more than one hidey, and two of everything, there is also always grates on the top and front just removed for pictures)
