Thank you, everyone, for responding! Oreo is MUCH more reserved, less active, and does not make any noises unless he is being held - unlike Cookie. Oreo does not eat ANY TREATS AT ALL other than a raisin now and then. He sticks to his food and hay - no matter how many times we have tried. Oh, yeah. He will eat a raw almond once in a while too. Cookie on the other hand is your "typical" piggie. He squeaks, whistles, begs, loves attention, eats treats of every kind and is extremely active.
Oreo was bought from a pet store, Cookie was not. BIG difference! Now I know what I didn't know then. Who knows what kind of neglect Oreo suffered. He was about six months old when we bought him about a year ago.
We suspected Oreo was either retarded, or something because he would startle even when we made plenty of noise coming in the room. It seemed he could see us, yet he did not really realize we were there. He is not dumb, or blind, so I decided to experiment with his ability to hear. We would sneak up behind him and clap. Cookie(who lives above him) jumped and ran into his house - Oreo did not even flinch let alone startle. When I make high pitch noises with my mouth, Cookie's ears twitch and he turns his head - Oreo's ears do not even budge. So, my conclusion is that he is deaf and maybe that is why he is so much more reserved and less social.
We keep them separated because it "appears" they are fighting. Cookie is far more aggressive in mounting - relentless actually - he even attempts to mount our pet rabbit that loves to run around with the piggies! When the rabbit gets tired of it, he runs back to his cage and hides! Anyway, I feel bad for Oreo. He will hold his own against Cookie, but usually runs away and hides in a box after about 10 minutes. When Cookie comes after him, he seems to eventually get fed up with it and it appears Oreo is attacking Cookie. We only allow them together during play time on a 6' x 9' rug - plenty of room for the two of them. Their cages are not big enough for two of them so I have not even considered putting them together in the cage when they don't appear to get along on a 6X9 rug! I guess I have never allowed them together long enough to find out if they are going to draw blood. That makes me a bit nervous.
I like the bathing suggestion. We will try that next time. I just bathed them this past week, so I will have to wait a bit for that experiment. Thank you for the link. I will look at that before their next bath time!
I just found this site and learned about the C&C cages, so I plan to see what we can come up with. They really enjoy their play time out on the rug, but the rug is getting soiled. I like the idea of a "playpen" for them that they can stay out in for longer periods of time. My daughter's room is small and she prefers they sleep in her room. So the C&C cage would have to serve as a daytime playground.
How do I put a picture of the piggies on here? I tried, but I think I may have accidentally posted an ad or something! :crazy:
I look forward to hearing back - your suggestions are wonderful. Thanks for the input!
Daisy