Trisha Nichols
Member
Cavy Slave
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2016
- Posts
- 3
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2016
- Messages
- 3
Hi!
I am a new guinea pig owner. My first was Abigail and she is pretty amazing. I love her so much and then i started to feel bad that she didn't have a friend in the cage with her. I play with her frequently, but I also have a 40 hr / wk job that keeps me away from the house. So, I went to find her a female friend.
I found one and she is adorable. I don't have a name for her yet, but let's call her Snowflake. After the quarantine phase, I introduced them on neutral territory. There was some dominance behaviours, but they seemed to be working themselves out. I was afraid of putting them together in the same cage though because the person that I bought Snowflake from said that she does well during playtime but doesn't do very well sharing a living space. I have a C&C cage, so I just put a divider in it so they could talk, see, and smell each other without being able to get to each other.
They were like that for 2 days and I wasn't seeing any problems. I took them out to let them see each other on neutral ground and their dominance behaviours got worse again. I realized that keeping them separate was just making them restart their dominance behaviours every time I pulled them out. So, I let them see each other. I cleaned the whole cage and put brand new fleece down. I moved the stuff around so things weren't in the same place. Then, I put them together in the cage. Their was some chasing, teeth gnashing, and mounting but never any blood. I was told to let them go at it as long as they weren't causing major injuries. They finally calmed down and were cuddling and playing follow the leader. They had gone probably 5-6 hours before I decided to go to bed and let them stay together. They have been together 2 days now with seemingly no incident. I don't see any bullying. They each have their own food dishes and they cuddle with each other. But, when I was holding Snowflake yesterday, I noticed that she has a wound on her underside.
It looks like a scratch that is in her "chest" between her center and her front left leg. She seems to be able to move normally and she is not actively bleeding. The wound also wasn't scabbed over yet when I looked at it this morning. I have 2 major questions: 1. Is this a necessary vet visit or am I being overly worried? 2. Should I separate them now even though they have been being good to each other?
I am a new guinea pig owner. My first was Abigail and she is pretty amazing. I love her so much and then i started to feel bad that she didn't have a friend in the cage with her. I play with her frequently, but I also have a 40 hr / wk job that keeps me away from the house. So, I went to find her a female friend.
I found one and she is adorable. I don't have a name for her yet, but let's call her Snowflake. After the quarantine phase, I introduced them on neutral territory. There was some dominance behaviours, but they seemed to be working themselves out. I was afraid of putting them together in the same cage though because the person that I bought Snowflake from said that she does well during playtime but doesn't do very well sharing a living space. I have a C&C cage, so I just put a divider in it so they could talk, see, and smell each other without being able to get to each other.
They were like that for 2 days and I wasn't seeing any problems. I took them out to let them see each other on neutral ground and their dominance behaviours got worse again. I realized that keeping them separate was just making them restart their dominance behaviours every time I pulled them out. So, I let them see each other. I cleaned the whole cage and put brand new fleece down. I moved the stuff around so things weren't in the same place. Then, I put them together in the cage. Their was some chasing, teeth gnashing, and mounting but never any blood. I was told to let them go at it as long as they weren't causing major injuries. They finally calmed down and were cuddling and playing follow the leader. They had gone probably 5-6 hours before I decided to go to bed and let them stay together. They have been together 2 days now with seemingly no incident. I don't see any bullying. They each have their own food dishes and they cuddle with each other. But, when I was holding Snowflake yesterday, I noticed that she has a wound on her underside.
It looks like a scratch that is in her "chest" between her center and her front left leg. She seems to be able to move normally and she is not actively bleeding. The wound also wasn't scabbed over yet when I looked at it this morning. I have 2 major questions: 1. Is this a necessary vet visit or am I being overly worried? 2. Should I separate them now even though they have been being good to each other?
