Female Guinea Pigs Fighting

[Impess82]

I have had my two female guinea pigs for about six months now and all has been fine until the past couple of days. Occassionally in the past there has been a bit of purring and jumping at each other but it has always calmed down pretty quickly.

The other night I had to separate them for a few hours on the advice of the vet due to a medical problem and since they have been back together they have not got along at all. One of them has become incredibly dominant and has taken over most of the cage, leaving the other only one box that she can go in. If the less aggressive one comes out of the box she is soon chased back in. The dominant one chatters her teeth constantly when she walks past the box the other is in.

I found big tufts of hair from the less dominant one today which I suspect the other one has pulled out.

I'm unsure what to do to enable them to get on again, or whether the relationship will sort itself out. Has anyone else experienced this with female guinea pigs?

[bamby71994]

No I have two males! How old are they? What medical problem? You might be able to seprate them and when they are older putting them back together.

[rabbitsncavyluv]

How big is their cage?

If they were separated, you need to do a full intro when putting them back together http://www.cavyspirit.com/sociallife.htm#Introductions

[Impess82]

My cage is just under 2m sq so i think it is big enough. The medical problem was that I found a puddle of urine that was a reddy brown colour. I wasn't sure which guinea pig it was so the vet suggested that I separate them for the night to see which one it was. However the problem has not arisen again.

Tonight I have put them both in the bath (they needed one anyway) and then put them on neutral territory for about 30 minutes whilst I gave the cage a good clean out with hot water and vinegar. So far since they've been back in there's been no problem, so fingers crossed I have two happy piggies again!