Relocation & Fighting

[teatime]

Hi all - I’m hoping for some help.
Last weekend (Apr 20th) I had to move my two male piggies’ cage to a different room in my house, and ever since then the more dominant one (French Fry) has been quite aggressive in his chasing and vocalizing towards his companion (Peanut).
Background: I’ve had them for around 10 months, and they had been bonded before that - I rehomed them from a family with a child who has allergies. The piggies are about 2.5 years old. I believe they were not bought at the same time.
Anyway, the piggies are now in my living room, so I’ve been able to notice them squawking and chasing a lot more. Peanut seems quite distressed by French Fry’s aggressiveness since the move, and so after reading online about the issue, I went out and bought another cage to separate them.
Initially, all was good - the scared sounds stopped. However, French Fry then started aggressively biting his cage, rattling it a lot in the process. Both piggies were stood at the ends of their cages nearest to each other. Eventually, French Fry was so aggressive in his biting that I thought maybe I had overreacted to their “fighting”, so momentarily placed them in the same cage. French Fry immediately then chased after poor Peanut who yelped and was quite upset - they are now separated again.
All of this is to say, I don’t know what to do. I’ve read variously that it can take two weeks for dominance to be re-established after location changes, but I’m seriously concerned for Peanut’s well-being (emotionally as much as/more than physical). Equally, I’m concerned that French Fry is so insistent on being with Peanut that he’ll hurt himself biting the bars of his cage.
Does anybody have any ideas on what to do here?
The only thing I can think of that I haven’t tried yet is to separate their cages more so that French Fry can’t see Peanut - but this goes against everything I know about companionship and sociability.
Any and all advice is welcome!

 

[Piggies&buns]

Welcome to the forum

When you moved them to a different room, they would have gone into a two week period of reestablishing their relationship and hierarchy. It’s what had to happen in a new environment.
In a well bonded pair it just amounts to dominance - rumbling, chasing and amounting. You do not separate them for that. You just have to let them get on with it and not misinterpret anything. High pitched squealing (which could be the helping you referred to) while that is going on is called submission squealing and is a normal part of interaction. It sounds distressing to us but is normal to them and is the correct response for the piggy ranking in the hierarchy.

Is this what you were seeing? Those dominance behaviours? If so, then you need to put the piggies back together but on neutral territory. Leave them in neutral territory for several hours and then is all goes well (you are going to continue to see those dominance behaviours) you can clean out the cage they live in together and move them back to it. They will then have to go through the two week reestablishing period again but their bond should be ok.

You must never reintroduce them by just putting them back in the cage belonging to either one of them though. Reintroduction always has to be somewhere totally neutral, somewhere that is not their own territories - a secure bathroom or kitchen floor for example. If you just put them back into one is the cages they now both live in. Then it will be seen as a territory invasion and will cause a fight.
If you put them back in neutral territory and they fight (and I mean an actual rolling around fight, not just dominance chasing) then they do not want to be together and they do need to remain separated permanently.

Please read these guides below

Reacting to group or territorial changes: Dominance and group establishment/re-establishment
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars

In a pair who have underlying hierarchy issues, then moving them can cause those issues to come to the fore. It will cause more than just dominance and will cause actual fights. These fights can be because they just aren’t combative. Or it can be because dominant has taken things too far and the submissive piggy is now being bullied. With bullying you will see the normal dominance behaviours (chasing, mounting, rumbling) but it will go behind that and the submissive piggy will want to hide all the time, will be withdrawn and depressed, won’t be allowed to sleep or eat and will start to lose weight.
At that point you do need to separate them permanently. That means their bond is totally broken.

You will then find the dominant piggy does start chewing bars, would look to be keen to go back but that is where people misinterpret behaviours. The dominant will start chewing bars and laying next to bars is a gesture of territory marking and never a sign of anything more.
You will find in that case that the submissive piggy completely cheers up, and looks so much happier to be away from the dominant. It is always the reaction of the submissive piggy you go by, never the dominant.

With separated piggies the two cages need to be side by side. The bar chewing etc calms down once they get used to the new arrangement.

So, if you did not see any actual fights and injuries being caused and if the submissive piggy is still wanting to be with the dominant between the bars, then it is possible you did overreact and separated unnecessarily. You should go through neutral territory rebonding and see what happens.

Please do read all the green links as they explain everything more fully

Bonds In Trouble
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?