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Conditions Schizophrenia Pig!?

Arwyn

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My oldest pig Cole has some weird behaviors that I can't seem to pin point and I think he might be Schizo maybe? We have had to remove him from the cage with the other pigs and put him on his own but he has play time every day. He stresses the other pigs out because he won't let them do certain things, and won't let Chewie go near his brother. He very aggressive to Chewie and Salem is afraid of him. Chewie has to stay at the opposite side of the cage when they are together otherwise Cole will chase him away and bite him. He will also prevent Salem from eating, drinking, playing etc. It's Like Cole thinks everything is evil and he has to protect all the pigs from it, especially Salem. It's like he's being told everything is bad for him except his food and water. Anything new i put in the cage he keeps everyone away from, even himself. Salem is small for his size because of it. Once we moved Cole out of the cage the other two jumped for joy, literally, and Salem has show massive growth towards venturing out into the open and not being afraid of us anymore. He still runs every now and then but He is finally calming down and being a sweetie.

When we do play time together it's very stressful, should I continue to do playtime together? Cole isn't sick and showed his own improvement health wise by being on his own. He's not as stressed and relaxes. He doesn't seem to like me at the moment and will bite at me, but not my Hubby so he deals with Cole most of the time. We have him set up so he can look down from his cage into the little pigs cage and he loves to sit on his bed/loft and watch the little ones.

The little ones, since the separation have begun to play more, and are way happier than before. They aren't hiding any more.

Any thoughts on this? Are there any mental conditions that Pigs can get? It doesn't fit just a standard behavior issue, that's why I ask.
 

bpatters

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How large is your cage? Lack of space is a major reason for guinea pig aggression.

Three boars is a hard gig, and is not recommended. How long have they been together/

And just FYI, there's no such thing as a schizophrenic guinea pig. What you're describing is normal behavior, possibly caused by living conditions.
 

Arwyn

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They have a huge Cage, it's not the cage. They have been together for 5 months now and were fine up and till the last couple weeks. then it got rough and they were all getting stressed. It's not Normal aggression, it's hard to explain but if you saw it for your own eyes you would under stand. they went through the Normal Aggression in the beginning, this is way different. Cole acts like he's some kind of super pig who has to protect the little pigs from everything, but then turns on them ans scares them and attacks them, then he will be fine for a big.. He flips around without any notice. It's not normal for piggies.
 

Arwyn

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Online i found a couple sights about Guinea Pigs with Schizophrenia but they were short and not very descriptive. so useless to me.
 

pigmommy89

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I don't think guinea pigs can be schizophrenic. Everything you described sounds like a guinea pig being a guinea pig.
 

CavyMama

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They have a huge Cage, it's not the cage.
Define "huge". What are the cage dimensions? A lot of people think they have a huge cage until they find out what the appropriate dimensions for male guinea pigs are. @bpatters is correct, 3 boars is difficult to do in one cage as males tend to be quite territorial.

They have been together for 5 months now and were fine up and till the last couple weeks. then it got rough and they were all getting stressed.
How old are they?

It's not Normal aggression, it's hard to explain but if you saw it for your own eyes you would under stand. they went through the Normal Aggression in the beginning, this is way different. Cole acts like he's some kind of super pig who has to protect the little pigs from everything, but then turns on them ans scares them and attacks them, then he will be fine for a big.. He flips around without any notice. It's not normal for piggies.
You'd be surprised what counts as "normal" aggression. You might also be surprised to find what adding some space could do to ease that aggression.
 

Arwyn

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I have had guinea pigs for over 25 years, I'm no newbie to this hole thing. The cage takes up a large portion of my living room. about 4 feet x 4 feet with a additional 3 x2 foot second level. It's Huge! I am fully aware of the sizes they need to be for 3 male pigs. I even made it bigger to see if that would make a difference. Nothing changed. I know what Normal Aggression is, after being around and breeding them for 25 years I know what aggression looks like. I think he has some sort of mental thing going on, what ever it might be. Since they have been apart there have been all kinds of positive changes.
 
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