Leeni
Junior Guinea Pig
I am having major problems with my group of 6 piggies (one neutered boar, four sows and one neutered sow due to ovarian cysts ) Tyllerö (very dominant neutered sow) and Esko (neutered boar) have been slowly falling apart for the last five months. Sorry about the long text! If anyone can offer expert advice, I would really appreciate it!
Tyllerö has been losing weight steadily since new year and has seem a bit depressed at times. She also had 5 months ago a urinary stone removal (no surgery needed there so I put her straight back to pack). I only now became sure that her issues are not medical but caused by the social issues. I just came back from a week long holiday and my sister was looking after two of my special medical need piggies Tyllerö (she has a stone prevention meds) and Mimmi (elderly sow with tummy issues) in her house. It came apparent that Tyllerö was feeling much better away from the pack. She was much happier and gaining weight.
Esko came to the pack in September and him and Tyllerö had really intense period of seeing who’s the boss, they were almost fighting. It looked fierce but since no-one was hurt I let them do the show-offs and in a couple of days time Tyllerö gave in and became submissive. I was wondering if this trouble was because Tyllerö is neutered or is it just her character? She is quite dominant but was happily a number two in her pack before Eukko, the older dominant sow passed so she was number one for a few weeks before Esko came in.
After this few days dominant phase a few months passed just fine and then Esko’s dominant behaviour slowly increased towards Tyllerö. He would sneak behind her and nip her butt and would come lie in front of her preventing her from moving from her favourite spot. He let her eat and drink so I thought that maybe it’s ok since it was occasional. But then he would start to deliberately search for her to bully her several times a day and even though she showed nothing but submission he would not let her be. I would hear her submission squeals several times a day. Sometimes when he heard her scream he would lick her ears and eyes and sometimes give her “a peck” and send her scurrying away. When he started to rip her fur when nipping her butt I decided to separate them. Over-night separations didn’t do much to Tyllerö’s weight though I never saw Esko trying to prevent her from eating. So I think that the weight-loss was caused by the constant stress since she immediately improved when she was away.
So here we are, they had been a week apart and when they yesterday saw each other it was an immediate tension and almost a fight. I separated them immediately and they would rattle their teeth at each other even through bars and act really threateningly so I had to cover the view. Today, a day after, I removed the cover and now they ignore each other through the bars at least.
Do you think there is anything I could do to re-unite the pack? Is it impossible at this point? Could a neutral ground and after that a thorough pen clean-up work? Should I also wash the piggies to give them neutral scent? Is there anything I could try or should I just give up?
Tyllerö has been losing weight steadily since new year and has seem a bit depressed at times. She also had 5 months ago a urinary stone removal (no surgery needed there so I put her straight back to pack). I only now became sure that her issues are not medical but caused by the social issues. I just came back from a week long holiday and my sister was looking after two of my special medical need piggies Tyllerö (she has a stone prevention meds) and Mimmi (elderly sow with tummy issues) in her house. It came apparent that Tyllerö was feeling much better away from the pack. She was much happier and gaining weight.
Esko came to the pack in September and him and Tyllerö had really intense period of seeing who’s the boss, they were almost fighting. It looked fierce but since no-one was hurt I let them do the show-offs and in a couple of days time Tyllerö gave in and became submissive. I was wondering if this trouble was because Tyllerö is neutered or is it just her character? She is quite dominant but was happily a number two in her pack before Eukko, the older dominant sow passed so she was number one for a few weeks before Esko came in.
After this few days dominant phase a few months passed just fine and then Esko’s dominant behaviour slowly increased towards Tyllerö. He would sneak behind her and nip her butt and would come lie in front of her preventing her from moving from her favourite spot. He let her eat and drink so I thought that maybe it’s ok since it was occasional. But then he would start to deliberately search for her to bully her several times a day and even though she showed nothing but submission he would not let her be. I would hear her submission squeals several times a day. Sometimes when he heard her scream he would lick her ears and eyes and sometimes give her “a peck” and send her scurrying away. When he started to rip her fur when nipping her butt I decided to separate them. Over-night separations didn’t do much to Tyllerö’s weight though I never saw Esko trying to prevent her from eating. So I think that the weight-loss was caused by the constant stress since she immediately improved when she was away.
So here we are, they had been a week apart and when they yesterday saw each other it was an immediate tension and almost a fight. I separated them immediately and they would rattle their teeth at each other even through bars and act really threateningly so I had to cover the view. Today, a day after, I removed the cover and now they ignore each other through the bars at least.
Do you think there is anything I could do to re-unite the pack? Is it impossible at this point? Could a neutral ground and after that a thorough pen clean-up work? Should I also wash the piggies to give them neutral scent? Is there anything I could try or should I just give up?
