nose query

Lizzie.1987

Lizzie.1987

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Oct 10, 2018
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Hi all,

So Donald and Speedy have been doing this odd thing for a while and I thought I should ask you guys about it:

Basically Speedy goes to touch Donald's nose with his own, in my mind a sign of affection, but Donald starts putting his nose up in the air. Is Donald rejecting the show of affection or is he thinking Speedy is trying to "nose duel"?
 
Pushing noses up from under the chin is a dominance thing. I suspect Donald is putting his nose up as a sign of submission so Speedy doesn't actually push it up. Sorry I've not explained it very well, there's a thread on dominance behaviour in the guides.
 
Chin-up nose-poke is a mild dominance game, you can play too and ruffle naughty piggies under the chin then touch their nose when they put it up until you can reach higher than them then you win and they behave and you can nibble their ears and you are the boss pig :) we played this with naughty Piggle until she stopped trying to dominate piggy daddy and bite him!
 
I think as dominance behaviours go its quite a friendly one they'd use to settle differences of opinions and status with a sibling or mate or other family member because obviously they have to trust the other piggy not to bite... Piggle and Puggle do this a lot (they are female cousins born in the same hutch 1 week apart so they've always been together) and Puggle and her beloved Theo do this when Theo has been a naughty inattentive husboar... Puggle does it most and Theo is like, stop poking me with your snout woman, I already said I'm sorry! Then she nose-slaps him with her head in the air and he has to lie down all submissive and get chuckle-nagged at for an hour :)
 
When Velvet had her babies two and half years ago she would often put them in their place by lifting up their chins up until they learnt how to behave. I saw it as the equivalent of telling your child to go to their room and not coming out until they could behave.
 
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