Little one submissive!

[Dodge]

I got a 3rd guinea pig today and my son decided to put it with the other ones while it was being quarantined so that was out of the question now, but anyways, the littlist (youngest) gp is trying to be the boss of the 3. He is only 3 months old, is it possible he is going through the teenage stage a little early? He over powers Charlie, who is 1.5yrs old and now he is mounting the new pig like crazy! The new pig is very skittish and shy, very submissive I can tell. But when the dogs come around, a sound which I neer heard before, was teeth chattering, my gosh that was LOUD! So far the 3 males are getting along, but there is a lot of chasing and mounting going on. Does anyone have any suggestions? Should I put him back in quarantine or is it sad to say its too late?

Thanks in advance

[pigsforlife]

Too late for quarantine now. The behaviours you speak of are normal dominance behaviours. After the 1st day it should settle down a bit, but it will take anywhere up to 3 weeks for everything to be "normal."

[clotho]

If the new piggie was just put into the cage with your existing piggies, they were not properly introduced. They will be territorial and may fight more than if they had been introduced properly. As you say, quarantine is kind of useless at this point - but you can do a proper intro. If it were me, I would do a buddy bath and then put them all into a totally neutral area with a big pile of hay or veggies. Clean the cage out completely - all toys, water bottles, food dishes - everything. Leave no scents at all in the cage. Then after a few hours of things going ok in the neutral area (ie no big fights that draw blood) put them into the cage together. Make sure to move things around in the cage so it seems new to everyone.

Are you absolutely positive they are all males? Guinea Lynx :: Sexing Guinea Pigs

Also, how big is your cage? For three males, the larger the cage, the less likely they are to fight. Also make sure you have more than one of everything - water bottles, food dishes, lots of hideys - so no one has to share. Also make sure any hideys have two exits so no one can get trapped in one. Cardboard boxes with doors cut into them work great.

Good luck!

[Dodge]

I think the intro that my son did accidently was an okay intro. I had my 2 boys out playing in a spot they havent played before so there was no scents. While I was in the washroom, my son took Pig out of his quarantine cage and put him with the others and said "Mommy, look, Friends!". So then they were all 3 in one neutral area, I decided to leave them like that for an hour and a half. There was alot of bum smelling but no mounting. My son then made 3 piles of hay and each of them went over to each pile and ate some. Things, I thought were pretty good. But then when I cleaned out the cage, which is a 2x4grids, which tomorrow is gonna be a 3x4grids, the little one who is 3 months started mounting the new one, in which we dont know how old he is. Charlie, the 1.5yr old and the new pig get along just great, and they are both adults but the little one chases BOTH of them now and mounts them like crazy. I don't know if I should separate one of them from the group. I have 2 of everything plus I put a tonne of hay (half the cage) full of it. I'm curious as to know if it is possible that the 3 month old is now in the teenage years of piggyhood?. Any suggestions as to help this introduction go more smoothly would help.

p.s. Cavyrescue.co.uk says on their site that you should never introduce 2 adult males together EVER. Only an adult and a baby works. Is this true? because the new one was introduced to the other adult today and I don't see any problems yet, I only see problems with the baby and the new one.

[pigsforlife]

Nope that is false. There are people with HUGGEE herds of boars, of a wide range of ages living quite happily together. Where did you get the new one from? One thing that I would check is the sexes of all of the pigs - just to be sure. Do you know how to do this? CavySpirit and Guinealynx have great pages, do you want me to find them?Otherwise, as I said before mounting is a perfectly normal dominance behaviour, and time plus the larger cage and multiples of everything should help them get along fine.

[Dodge]

I'm pretty sure I sexed them all correctly. All 3 of them have testicals.
I got the guinea pig from a girl who rescued it from a pot raided empty house. She brought it to good health and is doing great. Im planning on taking all of them to the vet at the end of the month to check for any illnesses.