planetseasoning
New Born Pup
Hey there, I am having trouble with my 2 sows Lumi and Frosty. They are sisters and I adopted them as babies, when they became teens they decided that Frosty was the dominant sow and things were peaceful unless Frosty was in season and would bully Lumi a little (just chasing and nose punching and rumbling around) they just turned a year old and Lumi has grown to be larger than Frosty and aggressively challenged Frosty for dominance. I noticed more fighting than before and a few times they've pulled fur from eachother, but It didn't seem bad enough to separate them. I noticed last week when I was giving them a bath they both had wounds! Frosty had bite wounds on her, mouth, foot, and a few on her back. Lumi had one on her neck and one on her side. Frosty was more injured. I separated them to let them heal. and a couple days ago I attempted to reintroduce them. It seemed to go very well, they seemed calm and ate together and even lied down across from each other in the bonding pen. I let them stay there a few hours to make sure, and I was about to put them back into their shared cage, they aggressively fought. rolling around thrashing till Lumi Pinned Frosty and wouldn't let go. I threw a towel over them and separated them again.
I have heard that Guinea pigs need companionship, and for now have their cages side by side. They will look at each other sometimes, sometimes just sniffing each other, but usually teeth chattering till frosty runs and hides in her log.
I'm not sure where to go from here, I don't have experience with this sort of thing. Should I keep them apart permanently? Will they get lonely? Should I get a neutered boar to keep the peace and attempt a hopefully more peaceful herd? Is this something they will overcome in time, maybe I can keep them apart and try to reintroduce them when they are less on edge? Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome!
more information:
The piggies are fed veggies twice a day, let out to play nearly daily (sometimes in a playpen, sometimes in the backyard)
When they had a shared cage they had 16 square feet of cage to explore had several places to hide and beds. They did share a hay rack, water bottle and pellet bowl, but they used to eat happily side by side so it wasn't an issue till now.
The only thing I can think of is that I was pretty sick for a week before this happened and I wasn't quite as interactive with them while I recovered. But they still got daily cage cleanings and weekly deep cleanings and frequent pee pad changes and stayed up on their veggies. they just didn't get much time out of the cage. I feel like the disharmony has been escalating for weeks ahead of time though.
Thank you for your help,
Courtney
I have heard that Guinea pigs need companionship, and for now have their cages side by side. They will look at each other sometimes, sometimes just sniffing each other, but usually teeth chattering till frosty runs and hides in her log.
I'm not sure where to go from here, I don't have experience with this sort of thing. Should I keep them apart permanently? Will they get lonely? Should I get a neutered boar to keep the peace and attempt a hopefully more peaceful herd? Is this something they will overcome in time, maybe I can keep them apart and try to reintroduce them when they are less on edge? Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome!
more information:
The piggies are fed veggies twice a day, let out to play nearly daily (sometimes in a playpen, sometimes in the backyard)
When they had a shared cage they had 16 square feet of cage to explore had several places to hide and beds. They did share a hay rack, water bottle and pellet bowl, but they used to eat happily side by side so it wasn't an issue till now.
The only thing I can think of is that I was pretty sick for a week before this happened and I wasn't quite as interactive with them while I recovered. But they still got daily cage cleanings and weekly deep cleanings and frequent pee pad changes and stayed up on their veggies. they just didn't get much time out of the cage. I feel like the disharmony has been escalating for weeks ahead of time though.
Thank you for your help,
Courtney
