Red&Sal bonding day two, not as good

[Pat Shields]

Today I reconfigured the bathroom area so that I could get in there and use the toilet without squishing poops while letting Redemption and Salvatore run around together. That required reducing the floor area to about a quarter of yesterday's area, and the smaller area made a big difference. They both were aggressive toward each other today. Not violently so, but much more pushy, "in your face" attitudes, and I saw Red attempt to mount Sal more than once. An awful lot of rumbling was going on in there, too.

I fed them a pile of vegetables in a common area, and that still works, they didn't fight over food or try to keep each other away from it. It did seem that they were each trying to be the first to finish all the food.

Sal's activity was reassuring; he kept running into the "tube" and out the other end like he was trying to hide but then didn't want to miss anything. I missed one really funny picture; Sal's head was poking out one end of the tube while Red's bottom was poking out of the other. It looked like the world's longest guinea pig. Sal was not acting submissive or frightened that I could see. He seems much more involved with his surroundings when Red is around. He scurries quickly; Red lumbers along.

Red kept doing a peculiar movement over urine spots; he would repeatedly move his head over the area like he was licking it, but he wasn't licking. He was also scooting his bottom over the towels periodically; I assumed that he was just scenting up the place. Also, Sal was doing something I haven't seen or read about anywhere else, so I will just describe it as best I can; not being able to get my eyes down that far I really couldn't see what was happening, but glimpses looked like he was trying to turn his genitals inside out as he scurried across the floor. Red would go away, and the appearance from behind Sal would return to normal.

Sal also charged a tomato box (I had some set up as a barrier) and started ripping swathes of paper from the lid and chewing the paper. I took it away as soon as he started chewing; I didn't know if the ink in it is non-toxic or not.

We'll see how it all goes tomorrow. They did get into the pigloo together once today before I took it away. I had to take it out because Red is just too big for it.

 

[Pat Shields]

One other thing that might have made a difference - Sal got a bath a couple of hours before I put them in together tonight.

 

[cucumber cuties]

we bathed Liquorice and Hartley before we put them in with Pepper too! I think this sort of gets rid of their scent I'm not sure.Liquorice always used to try and mount Pepper but gradually over time he doesnt do it as much. To stop Liquorice trying to mount Pepper we put a a brand new teddy in there. Hope this helps

 

[flintstones]

Hi Pat,

From reading your above description of how the pigs behaved that to me does not sound like a bad introduction.

The opening the sac that Sal was doing and running along the floor is scenting, and Red was sniffing Sal's urine my boys do this to.

As there has no teeth chattering, yawning or lunging which are all signs of dislike I would say they are getting more confident with one another.

They will dislike dominance - ie Chin up's, rumble strutting but that's what boars do to establish there position within the group.

 

[Guinea pigs <3]

Hi Pat,

Firstly, I would agree with Flintstones - it doesn't seem that the boys are being aggressive and more rather that they are showing normal signs of behaviour. I'm not sure if you have seen this sticky but it is very useful and describes what is normal and what is aggression http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=28949

When bonding Finley with the girls I found that I couldn't start with any sort of pigloo or tunnels etc as they became territorial over them. It worked best in the initial stages just to have a large area with pieces of veg scattered around and three separate piles of hay in opposite corners. Over time once they became more settled in each others company I started to add the beds etc. It did start off more dominance behaviour and initially it seemed they had gone backwards in their bonding but because they already had a level of companionship/hierarchy they were able to sort out their differences fairly quickly. It might also be helpful to swap the boys over into each others cage every evening so they can smell each other. I hope this was helpful! Don't worry too much, it seems they are doing well and you're doing all the right things!

 

[AndreaJane]

As you've already figured out, they need more space. You should also bath them together not seperate, therefore neutralizing both of their scents. The bum rubbing etc is all perfectly normal, Rocket's always doing it when him and Wallace are having floortime if he's caught a whiff of Moonpig, has me in stitches, stinky boy! Sounds like they're getting on okay as everyone else has said, just give them a bit more space next time, glad there's no teeth chattering.

 

[Glynis]

Perfectly normal behaviour as everyone has said..... but you're lucky that they're not having a go at each other, so things are really looking up!
I've read your other thread too where they have more room

Such a good idea not to have to squish poops in between your toes when going to the loo Pat rolleyes|)