New owner worried about aggression

Tildawood

Tildawood

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi all,

Newbie to here and to owning guinea pigs so I apologise if I’ve not come to the right place or sound like a bit of a wally 🙈
Please can someone help with some advice. We have had our two sows, Marshmallow and Fuzzy Wuzzy for 5 weeks so they are 15wks old and had already been housed in the same cage for 4wks with other piggies prior to us taking them home. For the first 3wks they got on brilliantly and both slept together under their shelf despite having another house and nuzzled together when being petted. Then 2wks ago the aggression started, the odd soft nip to warn the other to back off, a bit of mounting and rumblestrutting, which I wasn’t worried about but it has got progressively worse. The rumblestrutting goes on throughout the day and is daily, they are now biting quite hard ( no blood yet) but are now actively lungeing at each other and rolling round the cage today.
I now can’t pet them together on my lap or even too close with my daughter as they try and bite each other and Fuzzy Wuzzy now guards the entrance to the shelf hideout so Marshmallow now sleeps outside.

I’m not sure if it’s related but Fuzzy Wuzzy has got quite fat, her stomach seems quite swollen. I’m wondering if she was maybe pregnant when we got her as they are both definitely female or if she maybe has a hormonal problem.

They are in a ferplast 160 cage so I’m thinking it’s not a space issue. There isn’t any fighting when eating or drinking funnily enough and there are two houses so I’m a bit flumaxed as how to help.

Any help would be greatly appreciated !
 

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Welcome to the forum
Not sure I can help but there will be much more knowledgeable people along soon
 
It's not uncommon for sows to fall out, once they got over their anxiety of being in a new home then the bickering can start. Also if they were in a larger group before then the hierarchy has changed. Plus being young and hormonal doesn't help.
Firstly get the piggies checked by the vet especially if you think one may be pregnant. Health issues can cause bickering.
Secondly l would remove the panel under the platform in your cage to open up the space so that the dominant sow doesn't hog the best hidey. Take out any hideys that don't have 2 entrances and exits so piggies can't get cornered or trapped by the other. Have 2 of everything, bowls, bottles etc. Scatter food so that they don't fight over it. Give them plenty of hay to entertain themselves. Make sure they have regular floor time together.
Monitor the weight of both pigs to ensure they are thriving.
They may be never be best friends but as they get older things should settle down.
 
pig in the city said:
It's not uncommon for sows to fall out, once they got over their anxiety of being in a new home then the bickering can start. Also if they were in a larger group before then the hierarchy has changed. Plus being young and hormonal doesn't help.
Firstly get the piggies checked by the vet especially if you think one may be pregnant. Health issues can cause bickering.
Secondly l would remove the panel under the platform in your cage to open up the space so that the dominant sow doesn't hog the best hidey. Take out any hideys that don't have 2 entrances and exits so piggies can't get cornered or trapped by the other. Have 2 of everything, bowls, bottles etc. Scatter food so that they don't fight over it. Give them plenty of hay to entertain themselves. Make sure they have regular floor time together.
Monitor the weight of both pigs to ensure they are thriving.
They may be never be best friends but as they get older things should settle down.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for replying :)
I will try all those things and see how they get on although they don’t seem to fight over food, they just don’t seem to like being touched or in close proximity to one another, that’s when they bite. I was actually thinking about removing the platform altogether but I’ll start by removing the front panel. And will take to the vets this week. Many thanks !
 
Tildawood said:
Thank you so much for replying :)
I will try all those things and see how they get on although they don’t seem to fight over food, they just don’t seem to like being touched or in close proximity to one another, that’s when they bite. I was actually thinking about removing the platform altogether but I’ll start by removing the front panel. And will take to the vets this week. Many thanks !
Click to expand...
You are welcome. I think they will be ok. This thread may encourage you!
Size really does matter!
 
pig in the city said:
You are welcome. I think they will be ok. This thread may encourage you!
Size really does matter!
Click to expand...
Thank you. I’ve got the ferplast 160 which was the biggest I could find without building my own c&c which I will with time but think my children are a little too young at the moment with the open top. I’m going to try your other ideas and will let you know how we get on. We shall not be giving up !
 
Tildawood said:
Thank you. I’ve got the ferplast 160 which was the biggest I could find without building my own c&c which I will with time but think my children are a little too young at the moment with the open top. I’m going to try your other ideas and will let you know how we get on. We shall not be giving up !
Click to expand...
I think your cage should be big enough so don't worry about That, the sows is that thread were in 100cm cage 😓
 
So the aggression seemed to calm down somewhat after the lungeing incident so presumably Marshmallow backed down. Just the occasional rumblestrutting now. I’ve followed all the advice (thank you) but this has only led to Fuzzy Wuzzy sleeping under the shelf alone but kicking up the fleece to hide behind, with Marshallow now deciding that the hay bag is her home 🙈 she barely comes out accept to eat. Back to the drawing board as I can’t put the hay bag high enough to stop them jumping in it , maybe a litter box full of hay would be better or a hay box, the metal hay racks worry me 😬
I don’t think these piggies are ever going to love each other , I just want to get to a place where they are happy.
 
Tildawood said:
Thank you. I’ve got the ferplast 160 which was the biggest I could find without building my own c&c which I will with time but think my children are a little too young at the moment with the open top. I’m going to try your other ideas and will let you know how we get on. We shall not be giving up !
Click to expand...

Just wanted to say that you can put lids on c&c cages. I have rearranged my set up now, but this is now mine was. It’s hinged, so the back row of grids are fixed and the front two rows (overlapped) lift up. It does just lay on top of side grids, but there is no reason you couldn’t put a clip on the lid to hold it on to the side to stop little hands lifting up!
 

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Tildawood said:
So the aggression seemed to calm down somewhat after the lungeing incident so presumably Marshmallow backed down. Just the occasional rumblestrutting now. I’ve followed all the advice (thank you) but this has only led to Fuzzy Wuzzy sleeping under the shelf alone but kicking up the fleece to hide behind, with Marshallow now deciding that the hay bag is her home 🙈 she barely comes out accept to eat. Back to the drawing board as I can’t put the hay bag high enough to stop them jumping in it , maybe a litter box full of hay would be better or a hay box, the metal hay racks worry me 😬
I don’t think these piggies are ever going to love each other , I just want to get to a place where they are happy.
Click to expand...
My first pair of sows were like this. They did settle down as they got older.
A low sided litter tray or a cardboard box with 2 or 3 exits stuffed with hay? I find fleece tunnels good for pigs like this . If you get large ones there is often a pig sitting at each end!
 
Piggies&buns said:
Just wanted to say that you can put lids on c&c cages. I have rearranged my set up now, but this is now mine was. It’s hinged, so the back row of grids are fixed and the front two rows (overlapped) lift up. It does just lay on top of side grids, but there is no reason you couldn’t put a clip on the lid to hold it on to the side to stop little hands lifting up!
Click to expand...
Wow, thanks. It’s something I will be looking in to!
 
pig in the city said:
My first pair of sows were like this. They did settle down as they got older.
A low sided litter tray or a cardboard box with 2 or 3 exits stuffed with hay? I find fleece tunnels good for pigs like this . If you get large ones there is often a pig sitting at each end!
Click to expand...
That’s what I’m hoping for, they are very young still so with time and maturity things will hopefully get better. Yes I was thinking of a low sided litter tray and fill that up with hay, then they can have their burrowing fun but I can regularly change it. The hay bag seemed like such a good idea at the time but it’s obviously too cosy ☺️
I like the idea of the fleece tunnels so I’ll have a look, I’ve been using ziggy’s piggies for all my bits.
 
I just thought I’d give you an update a couple of weeks on. I took out the platform altogether and put in two hideys with 2-3 exits each and things have been much calmer and happier. Every so often we have a little bit of rumble strutting but that’s it so everyone is now very happy. So thank you for responding to me and your helpful advice ! ☺️
 
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