New baby pig meets BOSS pig

[BandoRoberts]

Hi, first time posting on the forum. me and my partner had our first guinea pigs around a year and a half ago called luna and memphis. sadly memphis passed away due to health complications that left us both heart broken. memphis was always the boss, sat on the hay pile and wouldnt take any crap from luna.
now luna is on her own we decided we needed to get her a new friend.
Enter Honey our little ginger ball of fluff. 9 weeks old and WAY more tame than the girls were when we first had them. we've kept them in seperate cages and we've introduced them slowly swapping scents at first and VERY supervised floor time. They're getting on rediculously well even though honey has a stupid amount of energy, no rumble strutting, chattering or chasing. unless food is involved where the dominance side of luna is starting to show. now luna isnt a small pig. she weighs in at 1.1kg which for a femal pig is quite big so shes not exactly starving. The pigs eat better than us sometimes
Obviously we want to move them into the same cage but we're afraid that luna is going to bully honey away from her food.
what steps can we take going forward to fix this situation? Any and all help is welcome

 

[Siikibam]

Do they have two of everything? She can’t block two bowls at the same time. And if you’re putting them together I think the advise is not to repeatedly separate and put together again. The bonding should be done when you have time to ‘watch’ them and see what’s going on. Hopefully it should all go well.

 

[BandoRoberts]

Do they have two of everything? She can’t block two bowls at the same time. And if you’re putting them together I think the advise is not to repeatedly separate and put together again. The bonding should be done when you have time to ‘watch’ them and see what’s going on. Hopefully it should all go well.

they're still seperated atm. we felt it was too soon to put them together. we plan to add two of everything for them but when we put luna in honeys cage we noticed luna only chases honey away from hay not from the nuggets. when they have floor time its a neutral area for them and they get on great until food is introduced. maybe luna is just being greedy

 

[Betsy]

You should not add one into the others cage as then they are an intruder into the others territory.

 

[Piggies&buns]

I agree with Betsy.
Also, once you have introduced them to each other, they need to stay together. You can’t then separate them, and then introduce them again another day. Piggies don’t do these kind of playdates. Each meeting is stressful as they need to establish dominance and hierarchy so by separating them again, you disrupt it and cause them to go through it all again the next time they meet but because they are separated again nothing ever gets established. Bonding needs to be done in a neutral space when you’ve got a few hours to watch them to ensure the bonding goes well, and then they need to go into a neutral cage at the same time and be kept together. Only separate if the bonding fails.
It sounds as if she is going to guard food which is a dominance behaviour. It sounds as if Luna is going to be the dominant pig. You need to make sure you have two of all equipment - bowls, bottles, open ended hideys.
If you look at the bonding guides on this site then it tells you how to do a bonding properly and what dominance signs are normal. It also tells you when to step in if the two piggies aren’t compatible and their relationship will not work.

 

[Pigwhisperer]

I would start again! Guinea pigs have a complex social hierarchy and specific ways of working out the pecking order. As the others have said, you just put them in a neutral place ("bonding") once and if they are OK they need to stay together, otherwise the next time you put them together they have to start working it out all over again.

This guide explains the kind of behaviours you will see and what they mean.
Bonding: Illustrated Dominance Behaviours And Dynamics

 

[Siikibam]

All the above, Andy remember to clean the cage to get rid of any of their smells. Going on what you’ve said, I would also do two hay piles