Bullying Anubis pushing Sebby around - Guinea Pig Cages, Care, Store, Photos of Guinea Pigs and More Forum!

Yoshi&Sebastian · #1 10-31-09, 03:16 am

The smallest and youngest pig, Anubis, has been bullying Sebby. Last night my girlfriend and I woke up to a Sebby screaming and running around the cage. He's a big boy at 3lbs, so he was knocking stuff over and pushing the pigloos across the cage trying to run away from Anubis. Upon closer inspection we noticed he had a pinky-fingernail sized gash in his left ear, which I assumed to be from Anubis. We scooped him out of the cage, treated it with Hydrogen Peroxide and ran him over to an emergency vet clinic (this is at 2AM) to get him patched him. $160 and one SMZ-TMP prescription later, Sebby's fine, Yoshi is acting like a schizophrenic, and Anubis is still being a bully.

Earlier I observed Anubis run out of the pigloo (there are 3 hideys in the cage - one for each pig) and chase Sebby away from the water bottle. Sebby ran over to 'his' wooden-house and chattered loudly at Anubis from inside it, while Anubis chattered back from the water bottle.

We've pulled Anubis out of the 2x5 C&C cage and placed him into the hexagonal cage we used before we built the C&C ... it's about 4 feet away from the C&C but Anubis has not stopped crying out at Yoshi and Sebby for more than 5 minutes. It's heartbreaking but I don't want them to fight.

Yoshi is now acting like he's emotionally scarred. Or depressed. Or schizophrenic. He's taken it upon himself to freeze with no provocation and dart into a corner scared by himself. I can approach him just fine, he doesn't run from me. Maybe Yoshi has imaginary friends? We placed Anubis back in the cage for a few minutes to observe their behavior and Yoshi froze when Anubis came near. Anubis went forward to sniff him and Yoshi darted back several inches and cowered. This is all new. Up until today Yoshi has been the most happy-go-lucky carefree pig. Scared of nothing, he usually walks over to the part of the cage I'm sitting by willingly, lets me reach in the cage and pet him, and will often not even bother sleeping in a hidey. He enjoys just plopping down wherever and sleeping on the fleece. Well, as I said before, this changed after Sebby was bitten by Anubis.

It seems like Anubis is becoming the 'big boy' of the cage now, at the expense of Yoshi & Sebby's happiness. Instead of being the guide from earth to the underworld he's acting more like the Grim Reaper.

Any suggestions on getting them to stop fighting? Should I let Anubis and Sebby work out their differences?

My main concern is that Sebby is an older pig, he's about 4 years old, and spent most of his life (until about a month and a half ago) alone, so he may not know how to deal with dominance, although he did and is still doing fine with Yoshi around him.

I've added second food and water areas, I'm about to observe them for a bit longer in the same cage and see how it goes.

**NicholsS10** · #2 10-31-09, 03:45 am

How old is Anubis?

Yoshi&Sebastian · #3 10-31-09, 03:56 am

We picked him up off of a 'free to good home' craigslist ad one month ago, so we can only guess. He's very small. The previous owners told us he was about 8 weeks old, so that would make him about 12 weeks now. He's out of his quarantine period and has been very submissive until yesterday (no dominance behavior at all, not even rumblestrutting or nose-competitions) when he bit Sebby.

After I posted this topic I re-introduced him into the 2x5 cage and they're all peaceful. Yoshi's still acting odd, but he's slowly returning to normal behavior.

**NicholsS10** · #4 10-31-09, 10:24 am

Well, since you really don't know what age he is, he could be starting to go through puberty. I know that when my pigs did, for a few months they act like Anubis.

If it gets bad again like that (mine NEVER drew blood), would you be able to expand the cage or put the hexagon cage next to your C&C and place Anubis in the smaller one and leave the older 2 in the larger one? That way they can be next to each other but no one gets hurt. I only recommend this if Anubis is frequently acting the way he was last night. Then after he goes through puberty (if that is what is going on), reintroduce them all on neutral ground and go through proper introductions again.

**akstrohm** · #5 10-31-09, 12:14 pm

I would expand your cage to at least a 2x6 and use at least four hideys. It's good to have an extra neutral one. Also make sure your hideys have multiple entrances/exits so no one gets trapped.

Yoshi&Sebastian · #6 10-31-09, 01:42 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by NicholsS10

Well, since you really don't know what age he is, he could be starting to go through puberty. I know that when my pigs did, for a few months they act like Anubis.

If it gets bad again like that (mine NEVER drew blood), would you be able to expand the cage or put the hexagon cage next to your C&C and place Anubis in the smaller one and leave the older 2 in the larger one? That way they can be next to each other but no one gets hurt. I only recommend this if Anubis is frequently acting the way he was last night. Then after he goes through puberty (if that is what is going on), reintroduce them all on neutral ground and go through proper introductions again.

If they needed to be totally separated I could easily move the hexagon cage over next to the C&C. I'll keep that in mind.

I remember at first Yoshi and Sebby fought quite a bit, but they got over it eventually. After several weeks.

I'd like to also add that they have been perfectly fine since I put Anubis back in the big cage last night. I re-arranged it so the hidey Sebby likes and the hidey Anubis likes are on opposite sides with a food dish and water bottle next to them. The hay is in the center of the cage, nobody's fought over that yet.

Yoshi's still acting off. He's been sitting in one spot in the cage (NOT in a hidey). He won't move. He'll move to go eat and drink, then he'll immediately return, often just lying down. If something changes, he'll stretch and sniff with his booty firmly planted in that spot, but won't actually move. Considering how much of an explorer he was before, this is weird. He's acting like he did when we first got him, before he warmed up to the Monkey Gods With Food (tm).

**Toadies** · #7 10-31-09, 02:26 pm

Multiples of everything (water bottles, food dishes, etc) at opposite ends of the cage might help. Anubis (SG-1, anyone?) can only guard 1 thing at a time and it will give the others opportunity to eat, drink and such. The order that you do things in might affect them to a degree. I take my "master pigg" out first, return him to the cage first, offer him his food first and so on. It seems to cut down on the challenges from "2nd pigg" even though "2nd pigg" outweighs him by 50 grams. Hopefully your youngest will outgrow it and soon.

Yoshi&Sebastian · #8 11-01-09, 07:26 pm

Anubis has been getting better about it. Him and Sebby still chatter at eachother every once in a while, but they haven't even nipped eachother. One always backs down, usually Anubis.

I removed the pigloo and replaced it with a hidey made out of a cardboard soda case with two exits cut into it. I added a tunnel using a bent grid covered in a cardboard Coca-Cola 12-pack. Now they have a bunch of hideys with two entrances/exits so they won't get trapped like with their pigloo.

The cage layout is:

Tunnel, water bottle, Hay-box, Hidey, Food dish (huge, anubis can sit in it. They eat together peacefully now), hidey, hay-box, water bottle.

I'll keep you guys updated if anything else goes down.