New HELP 2 guinea pigs HELP 1 in Danger???

[eyinevin]

After you read this, if you have any suggestions please help. I will check back often as I urgently need help.

Hi new to the guinea pig world, as a parent. We had them growing up but now my son has one and got one today. Boy, am I having issues with 2. But, we were told at the pet store that guinea pigs are social and want to be with other guinea pigs. So we did that today, added to the family and it is not going good.
My son who is 4, named both guinea pigs Lynette, who is his aunt. Even though the guinea pigs are boys. We started out right, we got one at 4 weeks of age from the pet store that we trust, a mom and pa store. He was the runt of the litter. He was about 4-5 inches pig when we got him.I did not let the son play with him, I was the only one that hled him so that I could wait until he was bigger. I hold and play with him alot as to keep him, tame to speak and not biting or chasing it around the cage to get him.
He is 5 months now and about 6 inches long, still tiny.
We went and bought another one today another boy, which I researched before I did and it looked to be fine. The new one is 4 months old and about 9 inches long. He is a BULLY!
Today is the first day together and they seemed to be okay. At first, the new one was making a purring sort of noise. The small one, who has never made any noise, seems to want to be right next to the new one.
Well, after about 5 hours together, it is not going so well. The big one is picking on the little one as in always hoping on it and wanting to, well you know. The little one who has never made a noise in his life, keeps running and squealing. It is not working out. I have been holding the little one for hours to keep him away for the new one.
Do I have to get seperate cages, are 2 boys supose to be acting this way? What do I do. I suggested to my son we take back the new one, and he is crying saying how much he loves it already. My son had the idea to get guinea pigs and he was extra special to earn one and then a second one. I am not one to go back on commitment. So what do I do??

[PiggieMom]

Okay first, do you have a pet store cage? If so unfortunately it is too small to keep guinea pigs in. For information on making a C&C cage (which is inexpensive and easy) please visit these links:
http://www.cavycages.com/cubes.htm
http://www.cavycages.com/
http://www.cavycages.com/howto.htm

Second, mounting and rumblestrutting (the noise they make when they waggle their butts at each other or mount each other) are completely normal behaviors. They new guinea pig is just teaching your first pig that he is boss. As long as no blood is shed they will be fine. Read over this link for more info: http://cavyspirit.com/sociallife.htm

Third, the next time you look into getting a pig (or animal) please adopt. This forum is run by a rescue and is pro-rescue, pro-adoption, anti-breeding, anti-showing and anti-petstore. No one will give you a hard time about buying your first two pigs, many of us made this mistake. But in the future please adopt.
http://cavyspirit.com/breeding.htm
http://cavyspirit.com/petstores.htm
http://cavyspirit.com/hollister.htm
http://www.guinealynx.com/breeding.html

Fourth, you will want to sex the guinea pigs yourself. Pet store pigs are commonly missexed, and the last thing you want is baby pigs. http://cavyspirit.com/sexing.htm

Fifth, keep a close eyes on the pigs. Pigs that come from pet stores are commonly sick, have mites or are pregnant. If you see them scratching excessivly they most likely have mites. http://www.guinealynx.info/mites.html Which is easy to treat:http://www.guinealynx.info/ivermectin.html

Sixth, read over all the links in this thread:http://www.cavycages.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17032 This will tell you their proper diet and care.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

[Ly&Pigs]

That's normal behavior. The rumbling noise is called rumblestrutting and it's a sign of dominance. The mounting is also to establish dominance. They have to establish dominance in order to live together. As long as there is no bloodshed, you are ok to let them be.

Read this page: www.cavyspirit.com/sociallife.htm

The first thing you should have done was to quarantine the new pig for 3 weeks in a separate cage in a separate room.

Not sure how you did the introductions but if you just took the new pig and plopped him into your other pigs cage, well you're in for trouble. Introductions must be made on neutral territory.

What type of cage do you have? What are the measurements?

Do you know that most ma and pa type petstores breed their pigs themselves in a back room? If a sow dies, they don't care, they just breed another. In case you don't know this site is anti-petstore that sells animals. I won't berate you for buying your pigs, but I do want you to know that there is a huge overpopulation problem which is why we advocate adoption here.

[Buggie_00]

WOW PiggieMom I think that was the single best response to a post I have EVER seen!

[eyinevin]

Okay I just go the first post and I am reading all the links and then I will answer all the ?'s. Thank you soo much I am feeling better about this already. I am still here and will be for a bit, as this is my only priority.Thank you so much for helping me here. I am very appreciative. Mys on wanted a guinea pig and I am more then supportive as I had one as a child. But now, I gotta tell you, the first one got my heart. I love him to death, and I am very concerned. Let me read up so I can answer better.

[eyinevin]

Oh lord, i need help, I got to sexing and I think I have a girl and a boy.I am literally crying I am so upset. Okay, deep breath. I know the new one is a boy as well it is showing. But, the little guy looks like a girl. I am gently pressing and nothing is showing. It looks like a Y. The little guy went to the vet for his first check up, just in case anythign happens, our small town vet lieks to know the animal to get it in faster. The papers when I got there, asked the sex. I put M and nothing else was said about it. The vet looked down there and that was that. Okay before I get to upset. I have a digital camera, can I send a pic to someone who knows.

[eyinevin]

As for our cage. The dimentions are 8' long by 3'4" wide. It is long and narrow. This is a new cage for both. In anticipation of a second guinea, we got a long cage that fits on our bar in the family room. After reading the 2nd link on the post from from piggy mom, I pulled the new guinea out of the cage. We bought a store cage for the first guinea. It is a super pet 2 ferret cage. It is on wheels and is good size.When we got the new guinea today, I put both of them in the new cage together. I have since pulled out the new guinea and put it in the ferret cage and the tiny guinea in the new cage. I will keep them away from each other as I know the old guinea has nothing as he or she has been to the vet. I am going to go and take the pic. Thank you for helping me through this. I for sure found the perfect site, for my ?'s and you guys are great in answering so quickly.

[PiggieMom]

Keep in mind that even if you start quarantine now, the new guinea pig may have spread any disease it has to your old one already. And a quarantine won't do much good unless they are kept in separate room. Make sure to always wash your hands before and after handling both pigs just to be safe.

They cage sounds like it is large enough. They should have at least two of everything, two hidey houses, two water bottles, two food dishes, ect. This way they won't fight over them. Good luck with your new pigs.

As for answering quickly, we try hard to. But keep in mind that we might not always be able to answer this quick. Sometimes it takes a couple hours or a day or two.

Another good site and forum to visit, especially for medical problems is www.guinealyx.com

[HowietheGreat]

Welcome. It's good to hear that your taking strides to care for them so well. I got my first cavy (Maisey) from a Ma and Pa store too before I found this site. She had to be treated for lice when I took her to her first vet appointment. I have found out personally that shelters take a hundred times better care of their animals that they are adopting out and you will know the correct sex. If you ever decide to add to your herd, shelter adoption is the way to go. Hang in there and get a vet appointment as soon as you can. I would bring both pigs.

[Ly&Pigs]

She didn't pull them apart because of quarantine purposes, she pulled them apart due to one may be a male and one may be a female.

Can you post a picture of your cage? The 8' long one.

[PiggieMom]

Geeze, I've got to stop posting late at night. I got confused when the vet was spoken about. I would like to see a picture of the cage as well.

Also what'st their diet like?

[Talishan]

To fix PiggieMom's otherwise excellent post: www.guinealynx.com

[PiggieMom]

Geeze. I'm getting bad. Thanks Talishan. I must reread my posts more thoroughly.

[Talishan]

Hey. You got the important stuff out right.

[jdomans]

From the description of the ferret cage, it is not suitable for pigs at all. If you just got it, I say to clean it up and return it! The pigs will never go to the various floors. The ramps are too steep and the floor of the cage is way too small. The floor of one cage is 32" x 32".
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2007+113918
The floor of the other is 20" x 32"
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2007+113918
Then there is this one which is even worse. can you imagine a poor ferret in this?
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2007+113918
which if any of these is your cage?

You can make a beautiful C&C cage for $40 or less.

[spoonyspork]

eyinevin, first off, welcome! I'm glad you're taking steps to make things right! Hindsight has 20/20 vision, eh?

Second off, it's not the end of the world if one is a boy and the other is a girl... you can get the boy altered! Hopefully you're lucky enough that the girl didn't get pregnant.

Third, I have a young child... my piggies are around the same age as my son - 3. He calls all of the pets 'his', and the guinea pigs stay in his room, but the pets are all *mine*. I'm totally responsible for all of their care, and don't expect or even let him do anything with them, except to 'help' me (going to get their afternoon salad from the fridge, refilling the hay, holding the dust pan while I sweep up around the cage, and very receintly, letting him snuggle the pigs on his lap while I check them over). There is also no way of him getting into the cage, and he's (oddly enough), never thrown anything into their cage, even when he was going through 'that phase'. I figure this way, he gets to experience the first bits of responsibility, but I never forget mine, and he also gets to tell the kids in preschool about all 'his' cool pets, while I get to have all of my cool 'children'. He also gets to see how much work is involved, and once he's finally old/mature enough to really have a pet of his own, he'll have an inkling of just what is involved.

And on the naming thing - Lol! My son has these names for the animals: The cat is... well... 'Cat' the kitten is 'The Nother Cat. The One We Saved. We Have Two Cats Now. One. Two!'. The gerbils are 'Eye.. sty... White One', 'Show-ding-ding', and 'War... Wer...We Have Three Germans!' (they are all named after German scientists. We got the idea because my son kept calling them Germans when I told him they were gerbils). The guinea pigs are 'Brown One' and 'Silly Fuzzy', or when he's referring to both, 'Weenie peeegies! They go *weenieweenieweenie*!'

Lastly... eer... yah. PiggieMom pretty much covered it all. Good luck!