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Magewrite

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I'm Mea, aka Magewrite. I'm new to the forum, but I'm a long-time guinea pig owner. I got my first one when I was 4, and I've cared for a total of 11 in the 10 years we've had guinea pigs! Currently, I'm loving on Beauty-Bells, whom I've had since she was 2weeks old and is now 3, and Sunshine, whom I've had for just a few months and is about a 1 and a half. The best picture I have of them together is currently my avatar :love:
I plan on posting a tutorial on how to handfeed guinea pigs later, since Beauty is currently needing to be hand fed ever 2 hours, and maybe even an introduction vid so you can meet my sweeties.
I found the forum when Mom and I decided to switch to fleece from Carefresh bedding, and found that getting a C&C cage with fleece flippers was the easiest way to do that. My girls have *just* moved in to their 2x4 C&C cage with a grid-divider at the half way point for the night time when we can't supervise them. Unfortunately, we have some trouble getting these two to play nice. Before this, they were in a slightly shorter but slightly wider set-up with a store-bought cage (a very large one) and an extended play-yard to make it all big enough. It was big enough for them, but I really like having them all in one cage now!
Anyway, I'm happy to answer questions about guinea pigs since I've had so much experience with them, and I'm excited to learn more from all you wonderful piggie owners!
-M
 

LovingACavy

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Welcome to the forum! :) Your guinea pigs sound adorable!
 

Little One

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Welcome to the forum!

Unless your girls are drawing blood there is no need to serparate them. Each time you do they have to restablish who is the dominant one, which really stresses pigs out, and will make things even worse. A little squabbling, rumblestrutting, and teeth chattering is normal. They will figure it out on their own.


Also, we love pigtures here! :)
 

RandomCavy

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Welcome! your pigs are cute :)
 

Magewrite

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Thanks to all of you welcoming pig owners!
@ Little One: I'm just afraid that they'll get into a to-the-death-fight while I'm asleep and one of them will get severely injured and I can't separate them, so I like to divide them up when I can't supervise them. The grids give them a good view of each other, and they love sniffing each other through the bars. In the meantime, when they start to really rearing up and snapping, I just put them at opposite ends of the cage for breather. Do you have any advice?
 

PiggyLove1

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Welcome! Your pigs are SO adorable!:) Have fun!
 

CavyMama

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@Magewrite - Little One is correct. There is no need to separate your pigs, even just overnight. Unless they are drawing blood, they need to be able to work out establishing dominance. Every time they are put together then separated, they have to start over with the dominance and it's stressful for them. What is it they are doing that makes you feel like they aren't getting along or playing nice? Many times what people think of as "not getting along" is just normal dominance behavior.
 

Khrisxtine

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Welcome! Your piggies look so adorable! Hope you enjoy your stay here!
 

Magewrite

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@CavyMama
They're okay for a while, but then Beauty picks on Sunshine and bullies her until Sunshine stands up for herself and they start rearing up at each other and snapping and lunging at each other.
 

CavyMama

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Okay, all of that is normal dominance behavior. No need to separate. Just let them work it out.
 

Magewrite

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Okay, thanks for your help!
The reason we're so nervous about this, is we accidentally got two boys a long time ago when we were still pretty new at all this and thought they were girls. They fought over the girl we already had, and one of them got bitten badly enough that it got infected and we had to put him down. We would really like to avoid that happening with our beloved girls!
 

CavyMama

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When in the presence of females, males are more likely to fight. Under normal circumstances, as long as they have enough room, males will usually get along with each other. Females will still go through some of the dominance behaviors but overall will have less problem with other females.
 

Magewrite

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You're advice is working pretty well- they've seemed to calm down. I'm thinking of sleeping in the room with them tonight, just to be paranoid-ly sure, but I really think they're over the hump. Thanks SO much!
 
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