I have two male guinea pigs. One is an adult that I adopted from a pet store of unknown age. The second is a baby that I bought from the pet store and I estimate to be 4-6 months old (because they didn't know his age either). I am trying to find out if their bond is going well/normal.
They have been together in the same cage for about 3 months now. At the beginning the only issue they had was the baby would keep trying to get underneath the adult, or touch the adults feet and the adult would bop him on the head. Now, the baby seems trained not to do that by the older and they will eat next to each other and their faces will be close and if I put two of something in the cage they will go to the same one together instead of trying to get space.
The things I'm worried about are their dynamic. Sometimes the baby will make this quick "boop,boop,boop" noise when the adult comes near him. I have 3 hiding places and sometimes the baby will be somewhere the adult wants to go, the baby will make that noise and run away when the adult comes quickly to the area. Sometimes the adult approaches slowly and the baby just makes the sound incessantly and the adult may just rumble or sniff him and then leaves. Sometimes they will both be eating at the hay feeder and the older one will shoo away the younger one. When this happens it's normally because the younger one gets really close to the older's face or feet which the older one hates I think. All of this is done without teeth chattering or biting. The only thing is a lot of rumbling from the older.
So I'm worried the baby is feeling bullied by the adult? Like sometimes they seem to get along really well and other times it seems like the baby is being bullied. But they both get enough food. I would just like to know if anyone has experience with this older and younger boar dynamic and if it's normally for them to sort of do what I've described above. Thank you.
They have been together in the same cage for about 3 months now. At the beginning the only issue they had was the baby would keep trying to get underneath the adult, or touch the adults feet and the adult would bop him on the head. Now, the baby seems trained not to do that by the older and they will eat next to each other and their faces will be close and if I put two of something in the cage they will go to the same one together instead of trying to get space.
The things I'm worried about are their dynamic. Sometimes the baby will make this quick "boop,boop,boop" noise when the adult comes near him. I have 3 hiding places and sometimes the baby will be somewhere the adult wants to go, the baby will make that noise and run away when the adult comes quickly to the area. Sometimes the adult approaches slowly and the baby just makes the sound incessantly and the adult may just rumble or sniff him and then leaves. Sometimes they will both be eating at the hay feeder and the older one will shoo away the younger one. When this happens it's normally because the younger one gets really close to the older's face or feet which the older one hates I think. All of this is done without teeth chattering or biting. The only thing is a lot of rumbling from the older.
So I'm worried the baby is feeling bullied by the adult? Like sometimes they seem to get along really well and other times it seems like the baby is being bullied. But they both get enough food. I would just like to know if anyone has experience with this older and younger boar dynamic and if it's normally for them to sort of do what I've described above. Thank you.