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Aggression Guinea Pig Won't Stop Growling At The Other!

rachel0016

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I tried for the second time yesterday to introduce my young cavy to my adult cavy. The first time they met, they displayed a lot of the typical behavior like mounting and chattering and butt dragging, then got along after an hour or so. I set up the cage and they got along for a while, but after 5 hours the older one was rumble strutting non stop!! He just kept growling at the younger. No other aggressive behavior aside from the vocalizations. But I separated them because the younger one seemed distressed.
Two weeks later I attempted it again. This time the typical displays of dominance lasted very shortly before they got along with each other. I left them for 2 hours together and then moved them to the cage. Here they stayed peacefully for 6 hours until the growling began again. They were running around and popcorning but the older one just would NOT stop growling and rumble strutting even for a second. This went on for a solid hour to two hours..

So I separated them before I fell asleep. I'm not sure what to do today. I can't find much information about the constant rumble strutting. Are they not getting along? Is that normal? There are no other aggressive or dominance related signs. I just want them to finally be able to stay together!
 

MrsGuineaPig

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As long as no fights happen or someone doesn't get bit, this is fine. Rumble strutting is a form of dominance and your older one is just showing the young one he is going to be the more dominant one. This is typical behavior after meeting each other. Dominance issues can last for a couple of days, so after 2 hours, I would expect some dominance issues. Is their cage adequate size?
 

bpatters

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You're just making it worse by introducing them and then separating them. They have to figure out the dominance ranking, and they can't do that if you keep removing one. You should only separate them if there's blood drawn, or if one is harassed to the point that it can't eat or sleep. Start over again with introductions in a neutral area, then put them in a clean cage that smells nothing like either pig, and you take a chill pill so the noise doesn't bother you. See https://guinea-pigs.livejournal.com/3002707.html for how to do it.
 

rachel0016

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Oh okay. The cage is also sized big enough for two so it should all be fine. I'll try again today. Even in the first hours of meeting they have never been aggressive to the point of really fighting.. so it's just me worrying too much then. Thank you for the help!
 
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