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Hello from Riley and Beau's mom

rainie

New Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Apr 19, 2008
Messages
2
My husband and I are first-time guinea-pig owners. We adopted Beau from the Humane Society in February after our dog died. After we found this forum and the whole Cavy Spirit web site, we built him a 2x4 C&C cage. We kept checking with the Humane Society until they had another male piggy, and we got Riley in April. We decided that 2x4 wasn't big enough, so we enlarged the cage to 3x4.

Riley is the newer and younger pig, but he's the dominant one. He's so determined to demonstrate his dominance, in fact, that poor Beau wasn't getting a moment's rest. So we divided their cage.

The piggies take more time and attention than we had thought, but they're so adorable they're worth it. We're all slowly getting used to each other. We really appreciate all the info on this web site. Thanks for helping us and the cavies out with all your knowledge and effort.

Here are pics of Beau, Riley, and the present configuration of their cage.
 
Very cute piggies. Riley is probably in his Puberty stage. If you are more comfortable, I would just maybe leave them divided for a few months, then maybe try introducing them again. Good luck and your piggies are adorable. Also, great cage!
 
Welcome to the forums! Your boys are adorable. I would actually try introducing them again in a nuetral area now. Mounting/chasing/nipping/rumble strutting etc are all normal dominance behaviours, and one shouldn't separate unless blood is drawn.
 
Welcome!
For the dominance thing, I was advised to wait until the young ones are over their puberty to re-introduce again. That could work for you too.
 
Thanks for the kind welcomes and comments.

After I posted this introduction, I did some searching on this forum. We learned that Riley's behavior is normal and could last his whole life, and that maybe we humans were more upset about it than need be. So we opened up the divider and let them both have full run of the whole cage. Maybe we should have waited until I got your comments, although not everyone agrees about what to do.

When is puberty for a guinea pig? They told us Riley is a year old.
 
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