Aggression New guinea pigs fighting.

Prolak · Feb 22, 2016

Hey guys!
I'm new to this forum and a new guinea pig owner. I know this topic is all over the forums but none of them seem to match my situation.
After month of my girlfriend begging me to get a guinea pig I finally gave in. I saw these two guinea pigs at Petco one day and just had to get them. My plan was only to get one but they seemed to be inseparable. They ate together, and ran around the cage together, and looked like bestfriends. I decided to get both of them (both males).
The pet store worker told me they were from the same batch and they were about 2 months old. They seemed to be fine the first few days. I would try to take them out at least once again to run around and pet them a little.
But yesterday when I took them out they were acting very strange. One was chasing the other, and the one being chased turned around and nipped him in the behind. They squared off and started grinding their teeth, so I split them up.
After they calmed down I put them back in their cage and now I keep seeing them fight. What should I do?

mjalred · Feb 22, 2016

This is more than likely a dominance issue. However it could be a territorial issue, how big is your cage?

mjalred · Feb 22, 2016

If you have 2 males you should have at LEAST a 2x4 cage no matter the pigs' size. It also helps to have two of everything, for example two food bowls, two water bottles, two pigloos ect.

bpatters · Feb 22, 2016

You've got two males, and there are going to be dominance issues for many months to come. Give them the largest cage you possibly can, make sure there are no hideys with only door, put multiple water bottles and pellet dishes in the cage, and make sure there are no places in the cage where one pig can trap another.

If your cage isn't large enough, none of that will work. Other than the personalities of the pigs, the size of the cage is the most important factor in whether or not pigs get along.

Icarus_Hermes · Feb 23, 2016

I would recommend upgrading to a 2x5 C&C cage if they are currently in a smaller cage; it made an immediate positive impact for my original pair of boys when I upgraded them to a C&C.

Even with a large cage, chasing, squaring off, and teeth chattering are normal behaviors. Mine are always alternating between happily sharing a hay pile to rumblestrutting to taking a nap together to teeth chattering and repeat. The joy of boars [emoji13]

tzarius78 · Feb 23, 2016

You can also try the give them a bath together method. This is literally give them both a bath at same time. Just make sure to dry them off very well and keep a dust pan available to split them apart. Also get a larger cage. When people are talking about grids on here 2x5 and so forth. These are 14 inch squares so I would recommend something that is at least 70 inches by 28 inches.

Where People & Piggies Thrive

Newbie or Guinea Guru? Popcorn in!

Aggression New guinea pigs fighting.

Prolak

New Member

mjalred

Well-known Member

mjalred

Well-known Member

bpatters

Moderator

Icarus_Hermes

Well-known Member

tzarius78

Member

Similar threads

Share this Page

Newest members

Online statistics

Key Resources

Members online