Aggression My guinea pig had a baby and is biting her.

[Kmmb2018]

Me and my fiance bought a 6 month old female guinea pig, Persephone, from a small pet store about ago. We bought her right before the quarantine started. We were told that there was a possibility that she was pregnant, but we fell in love with her at first sight and bought her. This morning, she gave birth to 4 pups. The first two and the last one were stillbirths, but the third born, the runt, is alive and well. The only problem is that we had to separate the baby girl, which is named Nugget, from Persephone because Persephone is biting her. Nugget is missing one ear because Persephone chewed it off and anytime Persephone gets too close to Nugget, she goes after the other ear. We have been doing supervised feeding every 4 hours where we hold Persephone so that Nugget can safely eat. Nugget seems to be just fine. She is very active and crawls everywhere in her box and is very vocal. Is there anything we can do to help both mother and baby? Thanks everyone! <3

 

[bpatters]

How weird!

One thing I can think of is cage size. How large a cage are they in? Overcrowding is a major reason for aggression, and is often the cause of ears being chewed.

Do weigh Nugget a couple of times a day to make sure she's gaining weight. Newborns will lose a little the first day or so, but should be steadily gaining after a couple of days. You might also try putting them together somewhere out of the cage, with some hay and pellets so the pup learns to eat by watching her mom.

Keep us posted on how things are going.

 

[Kmmb2018]

The cage is about four feet my two feet. Persephone is kinda small and only about 7inches long. We have tried different environments but she still chews Nuggets ear everytime we let her get too close. They talk to eat other, but whenever they are together, Persephone gets aggressive. We are putt hay in with the baby and trying to get it to nibble on it a little. So far, no luck though.

 

[MaiaBex]

The cage size sounds okay. Maybe Persephone is stressed from the pregnancy/birth and taking it out on Nugget? I don't know.

Another possibility... you said that Nugget was the runt of the litter. Sometimes new moms take a dislike to the runts for one reason or another. I've seen it with cats, and I'm sure it can happen with other animals too. Again, I don't know, but it's a possibility.

Keep trying, and I hope everything works out in the end!