2 bonded females become aggressive after one is spayed

[Jennboone14]

I have 2 female guinea pigs who have been bonded and cohabitating the same space for more than 3 years. Ozzy is 3 and Reba will be 4 next month. I got ozzy as a baby and Reba was just under a year: A week ago ozzy was spayed because she had tumors on her reproductive organs and I was told I needed to separate them for a week so Reba didn’t chew on Ozzy’s stitches. They share 2 Midwest guinea pig cages (each 4ft x 2ft) and connected via ramp. These cages themselves are designed to be linked together. So I put them each in one of the of the Midwest guinea pig cages and removed the ramp so they could still see each other and smell one another but they just couldn’t have direct access to each other. However as I was doing some reintroductions with them, ozzy became really aggressive towards Reba (chasing, biting, and pinning her. No blood was seen though.) I’ve tried to do multiple intros and sometimes it’s alright (meaning ozzy just follows Reba) and then sometimes she corners Reba in one of the 3 houses and grabs a hold of Reba’s ear. I’m at a loss for what to do right now. Anyone have any advice or gone through something similar? I didn’t think just one week could throw off their entire bond but I’m at a total loss.

 

[bpatters]

You have to do full reintroductions in a neutral area and put them back in a thoroughly cleaned cage that smells nothing like either pig, just as if they'd never met. You'd think cage mates could readjust more quickly, but no.

I'd start all over -- read https://guinea-pigs.livejournal.com/3002707.html. And before you put them back in the cage, give them a buddy bath and put a tiny drop of vanilla on each nose. Take the hideys out of the cage and drape fleece in strategic places to break up the lines of sight so they're not always visible to each other.

Take the sides off the Midwest cage so there's no ramp to deal with -- they're just invitations to squabble. Guinea pigs need a large flat area to run around anyway.

Also, throw out any hideys that have only one door, or cut another hole in them. No hidey in a guinea pig cage should ever have only one door -- that's an invitation for one pig to trap another and get its face slashed for its efforts.

 

[Jennboone14]

Awesome! Thanks for the insight!