Hello! I have 3 guinea pigs. 2 are sisters just under a year old, Skye and Daisy and I got them about 5 months ago. Over a week ago I adopted another pig, Peggy.
Skye and Daisy are in 2 connected Midwest Guinea Habitat cages, so there is plenty of room for another pig. I found Peggy and she didn?t have a very good home. She was barely given any hay and was never given any veggies. Peggy now eats plenty of hay, but I am still working on getting her to eat veggies.
I have never introduced pigs together before, so I did a lot of research and today was the today I introduced them. Between Skye and Daisy, I never knew there was a dominant one because they were always good with each other, never did the chin raising thing and were never aggressive. I always just assumed Daisy was the more dominant one because she is a more outgoing and Skye is very timid and always hides when someone comes around.
So today I tried to introduce them. All of the pigs are in a brand new location with only some brand new bendy bridges and tube (so there?s a place to hide with 2 openings), lots of hay, and veggies.
Everything was going good at first, lots of butt sniffing, lots of chin raises (by Skye, which shocked me) and all seemed okay. Peggy had also been by herself for the past year, so after being put with my other 2 pigs she started getting excited and was popcorning everywhere. After about 45 minutes the Skye started to get very territorial and would run up for Peggy and start teeth chattering, and then walk away. One of the times Skye went back up for Peggy she raised the hair on the back of her neck, did the teeth chatter, and lunged and pulled a few hairs off Peggy?s back. We did throw a fleece in there to break it up and they stayed in their separate corners for a while. Skye has been coming up to Peggy every so often, but the teeth chattering is lessening every time.
Daisy and Peggy seem to be okay with each other for the most part. Peggy is a little scared of the other pigs now and Daisy keeps up to her and sniffing her and Peggy starts squeaking like she?s nervous.
As of this moment, they have been in their introduction cage for 4 hours, supervised the entire time. Does this seem like they could go into the same cage in a while? Or should I separate them and try the introduction another time? My mom very kindly sanitized the cage and all the items that would go back in it incase I did end up putting them together. I?m trying not to lose hope, but it seems like maybe they shouldn?t go together right now. I plan on watching them for a few more hours though to get a better read on it, but I?m just at a loss as to what to do.
Thank you for any advice!
Skye and Daisy are in 2 connected Midwest Guinea Habitat cages, so there is plenty of room for another pig. I found Peggy and she didn?t have a very good home. She was barely given any hay and was never given any veggies. Peggy now eats plenty of hay, but I am still working on getting her to eat veggies.
I have never introduced pigs together before, so I did a lot of research and today was the today I introduced them. Between Skye and Daisy, I never knew there was a dominant one because they were always good with each other, never did the chin raising thing and were never aggressive. I always just assumed Daisy was the more dominant one because she is a more outgoing and Skye is very timid and always hides when someone comes around.
So today I tried to introduce them. All of the pigs are in a brand new location with only some brand new bendy bridges and tube (so there?s a place to hide with 2 openings), lots of hay, and veggies.
Everything was going good at first, lots of butt sniffing, lots of chin raises (by Skye, which shocked me) and all seemed okay. Peggy had also been by herself for the past year, so after being put with my other 2 pigs she started getting excited and was popcorning everywhere. After about 45 minutes the Skye started to get very territorial and would run up for Peggy and start teeth chattering, and then walk away. One of the times Skye went back up for Peggy she raised the hair on the back of her neck, did the teeth chatter, and lunged and pulled a few hairs off Peggy?s back. We did throw a fleece in there to break it up and they stayed in their separate corners for a while. Skye has been coming up to Peggy every so often, but the teeth chattering is lessening every time.
Daisy and Peggy seem to be okay with each other for the most part. Peggy is a little scared of the other pigs now and Daisy keeps up to her and sniffing her and Peggy starts squeaking like she?s nervous.
As of this moment, they have been in their introduction cage for 4 hours, supervised the entire time. Does this seem like they could go into the same cage in a while? Or should I separate them and try the introduction another time? My mom very kindly sanitized the cage and all the items that would go back in it incase I did end up putting them together. I?m trying not to lose hope, but it seems like maybe they shouldn?t go together right now. I plan on watching them for a few more hours though to get a better read on it, but I?m just at a loss as to what to do.
Thank you for any advice!