Ophelia

My Tofu barely fits inside the biggest carrot cottage too! Hope Ophelia is recovered! I’m pleased the bonding went well, it sounds all typical dominance to my limited knowledge 😊 I hope you are taking some time to relax where you can as well
 
Well, Betsy is a very happy piggy. At clean-out time she does circuits of the run, chuntering and popcorning. She is beginning to know when it is food time and comes out wheeking.

HOWEVER. I am increasingly concerned about her over-dominance towards Ophelia. If Ophelia wants to go past a hidey in which Betsie is sitting, she will do a quick scuttle at that point, before slowing down again. She is being chucked out of wherever she is. This morning, Betsie was having her breakfast from within the carrot cottage and I had placed the bowl at an entrance pointing in a different direction from Ophelia, who was eating in the open. When Ophelia went past a different entrance of that carrot cottage, to come for some more pepper from me, Betsie nipped her. Later, she took the pepper from Ophelia's mouth, whereupon Ophelia ran away. At another point this morning, they came nose-to-nose and Ophelia immediately ran away.

We go away in a couple of weeks and they will be in a Ferplast 160 for a week. That means there is less scope for Ophelia to escape Betsie. (Their run here is about 6 x 3 foot.) I will ask my friend to keep a close eye on the behaviour and give her the grid to put down between them if it comes to that.

I am very worried for Ophelia. She was supremely happy and relaxed when the grid was between them, but to have them living side-by-side is not going to work for us. I would be grateful for any input, please. Ophelia is a gentle little piggy and I don't want her to have a life where she is skittish and running away from her companion.

I am wondering whether we keep watching for the next two weeks and if the behaviour continues/worsens, we rehome Betsie before we go away, and start again with Ophelia when we get back. It would be awful for Betsie, and therefore for us, but it is upsetting to see this behaviour towards Ophelia.
 
I would keep a close eye on her general happiness as well as her weight to check she isn’t being chased away from food.
Sows can be a bit more subtle about bullying so it can be a bit harder to spot.

Have you tried scatter feeding instead of using bowls to see if that helps?
 
Piggies&buns said:
I would keep a close eye on her general happiness as well as her weight to check she isn’t being chased away from food.
Sows can be a bit more subtle about bullying so it can be a bit harder to spot.

Have you tried scatter feeding instead of using bowls to see if that helps?
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Thank you very much for your reply. I am worried about her weight and am trying to find where I put the precise scales. Using not-so-accurate scales, it is around what it usually is, so maybe it's the contrast with the much bigger Betsie. Ophelia has always been very slight. We do stay there whilst they eat --but, of course, I don't know about the hay consumption. We'll start weighing her daily/every other day.

The behaviour of sows sounds to be like that of human girls, if sows are also more subtle in their bullying. Again, I watched Betsie tip her out of the carrot cottage and, at a different time, suddenly lurch her head towards Ophelia as she was near, as though to nip her.

We are trying to work out Ophelia's general happiness, to assess whether she would be relieved were Betsie not there or upset for her to go. With my guinea-pig experience limited to the interactions between Bianca and Ophelia, I don't know if this is an acceptable situation for a less dominant piggy. I certainly don't like it.

We haven't tried scatter-feeding with their vegetables, but could give it a go.
 
KHBz said:
HOWEVER. I am increasingly concerned about her over-dominance towards Ophelia. If Ophelia wants to go past a hidey in which Betsie is sitting, she will do a quick scuttle at that point, before slowing down again. She is being chucked out of wherever she is. This morning, Betsie was having her breakfast from within the carrot cottage and I had placed the bowl at an entrance pointing in a different direction from Ophelia, who was eating in the open. When Ophelia went past a different entrance of that carrot cottage, to come for some more pepper from me, Betsie nipped her. Later, she took the pepper from Ophelia's mouth, whereupon Ophelia ran away. At another point this morning, they came nose-to-nose and Ophelia immediately ran away.
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I would definitely try feeding without bowls, scatter-feeding as @Piggies&buns suggests. But reading the quoted para, I do feel concerned, especially Ophelia being chucked out of whereever she is.

KHBz said:
We go away in a couple of weeks and they will be in a Ferplast 160 for a week.
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I would be concerned about that, with their current behaviour.
But do try scatter-feeding right away! I think you can only make a final decision after you've tried that and observed their behaviour.
 
Thinking of you and Ophelia and Betsie. The first two weeks of bond establishing can be rough but you don’t want it to cross into bullying. I agree with the above suggestions, try scatter feeding and see what happens after two weeks

You’ve done so well giving these girls a chance and letting them decide if they like each other
 
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