Dominance Too much female rumble strutting/dominance behavior? So worried!

[mochaoreos]

I have two guinea pigs as of the moment, Mocha and Oreo. I have had them for about a year now after 'rescuing' them from my friend who had no idea how to care for them (tiny pet store cage, harmful wood shavings, never picked them up or clipped nails, etc) and wanted to give them away. I recently moved them into a different cage after deciding to get them a bigger c&c cage. It is bigger by their previous c&c by about 3 square feet and they have been in it for about 2 1/2 weeks. They have been 'bonded' since they were young. As you can imagine, they were very scared when I first got them. Oreo is less shy than Mocha and is much better at letting me pat her or clip her nails, and popcorns occasionally when she sees me. Mocha on the other hand is still quite timid around humans, but we have still made quite a lot of progress from where she started. Now on to the problem: Oreo has started rumble strutting/'dominating' extremely often. I'd say twice an hour, but I'm not really sure exactly how much. I never noticed it before, but maybe it is because I have moved their new cage into an area where I see/hear them much more often. Either ways, it is starting to concern me. Is this normal when changing their environment, or could there be an underlying problem? I am not extremely experienced, but I have never seen this in my other piggies! Please help - I need to know if I should separate them or what!

 

[bpatters]

Rumblestrutting is totally normal most of the time. Sows come into heat every 14-16 days for a day or so, and you often see it around that time. So if Oreo is doing this on a two-week cycle, it's nothing to worry about. And it's nothing to worry about if she does it occasionally.

Do you know how old Oreo is? It's possible that she has an ovarian cyst that's causing some hormonal behavior. That usually doesn't happen until a pig is about three or older, although it can happen in a younger pig. If you're seeing more than occasional rumblestrutting, it would be a good idea to take her in for an ultrasound to see if she's got a cyst.

 

[mochaoreos]

Thank you so much for your quick response! Though I have had other piggies I didn't notice this behavior in them, or they didn't do it as often. I did consider a cyst, but I'll wait a little longer until taking her into the vet as she is not three years old yet. Thanks again! I was getting very nervous.