Aggression Time to separate?

[Gunghadiner]

Four months ago, we introduced a baby female to our bonded pair. The first two months were great! Everybody got along. Now the baby (Zelda) has hit puberty (I assume) and is showing dominate behavior towards our older female (Penny), and even though Penny is showing almost no resistance to Zelda, Zelda will not stop being aggressive--anytime Penny comes down from the loft (the only place where she can get some peace), Zelda rumbles and charges and chases Penny until eventually Penny gives up and goes back to her loft (there is food/water/igloo on both levels).
Penny's response is to run to a corner and cry, so she is not resisting. Sometimes the male (Teddy) will intervene, but Zelda has more energy than him, and she is relentless in chasing Penny.

But there is no actual fighting; no signs of biting; no rearing on hind quarters or showing of teeth--just relentless, endless dominance behavior.
We let it go for several weeks, but have started intervening because poor Penny is clearly stressed and miserable. We are on the verge of separating them (we have the supersized C&C cage with large loft that takes up the space of a large couch, so we have room to do it), but I fear that once we separate, there will be no reintroduction.

Any thoughts, ideas, advice would be most welcome.

 

[PiggieGuinea]

If Penny is stressed, I would seperate. Keep her with a buddy though! (if you have 4) and there might be reintroductions, after Zelda calms down a bit. My female was biting and attacking all the other girls which was stressing them out, so I seperated her and they got reintroduced after 7 weeks.

 

[Magewrite]

I would separate them, because of Penny's obvious stress and upset. Penny should feel loved and comfortable in her home, and I think Zelda is preventing her from that. I would put Zelda in a separate cage and let Penny and Teddy share one cage together, giving all three floor time together until Zelda has stopped torturing Penny; either because she's dominant or because she's finished with puberty and is willing to subside.
Just my advice- I'm sure there are more members on here who have more experience with this than I do! Best of luck!

 

[Lasinalia]

Is the male fixed? I hope so for your sake, no lil piggies to find homes for.

I would suggest waiting until lil one is thru puberty then try again. Separate off a part of the big cage and put her in there with only a grid wall separating. That way she can smell and see the others but be separated from them. This has helped a lot of members with puberty pigs.

 

[Beth Pearson]

Going through this problem ourselves. One of our girls we've had the longest is hitting puberty (I'm assuming, she's around 7-8 months) and is bullying my special needs girl. We introduced the seven of them last week and they've been in a large 3x7 for about 5 days now. She's been bullying her since they were all put into the cage. Poor girl stays in an igloo constantly and comes out for veggies and some hay before being bullied back in there I'm deciding if I want to take my special needs girl and the girl she bonds with most and put them in a separate cage in our bedroom for a while, or indefinitely (it second most popular room in the house lol)

 

[Gunghadiner]

Thanks, everyone!

We will separate with open grids so everyone can see and smell each other, then reintroduce after Zelda calms down. I feel better knowing that reintroduction is possible.