The herd after a death

piggymad28

piggymad28

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi everyone

So I recently my gorgeous boar Stuart passed over rainbow bridge.

So far the remaining piggies (all female, oldest Luna is 4.5 years and the youngest 2 are 11 weeks, none neutered) seem to have settled, but one of the babies, Rosie, has started to rumble strut a little at the eldest. She's also sniffing the Luna's bum.

Luna doesn't seem at all bothered by this 😂

I'm still fairly new to guinea pig ownership, and I've never had piggies so young before, so I'm just looking for advice and tips! Is this behaviour normal? Sorry if its a silly question.
 
I've had rumbling sows before so it's a normal thing. As long as you're sure she's a girl...?
 
piggymad28 said:
Hi everyone

So I recently my gorgeous boar Stuart passed over rainbow bridge.

So far the remaining piggies (all female, oldest Luna is 4.5 years and the youngest 2 are 11 weeks, none neutered) seem to have settled, but one of the babies, Rosie, has started to rumble strut a little at the eldest. She's also sniffing the Luna's bum.

Luna doesn't seem at all bothered by this 😂

I'm still fairly new to guinea pig ownership, and I've never had piggies so young before, so I'm just looking for advice and tips! Is this behaviour normal? Sorry if its a silly question.
Click to expand...

Hi

Rumble-strutting is dominance behaviour practised by both genders. It can have different functions/meanings depending on the context; but sows can generally rumble-strut when coming into season or in a situation where the hierarchy is not fully settled (any new group/hierarchy establishment generally takes two weeks and works from the top through all ranks down). It can be a combination of the two.
Even fully spayed sows will rumble-strut and mount in a dominance context; if needed with each other, as I have seen a few times after both Hafren and Iola were spayed and the lead switched between them a few times.

More information on rumble-strutting in sows or the meanings of rumble-strutting:
Sows: Behaviour and female health problems (including ovarian cysts)
A - Z of Guinea Pig Behaviours
 
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