Aggression At our wits' end trying to introduce new baby girl to two older sows

[leemarlee]

Hi, all. My girlfriend and I have had two female guinea pigs (Marnie and Peanut) for about seven months. They're both a little over a year old. Recently, we took home a younger female pig (Cleo), who was only a couple of months old at the time. We introduced the three pigs together in a neutral space, and they seemed to do fine, so we put them together into a brand-new cage (completely clean, nothing that would smell like Marnie and Peanut) that would theoretically be more than large enough for three or even four+ pigs (a little over 20 square feet). We put in multiple hay mangers, food bowls, water bottles, and chew balls in different parts of the cage so that there would be no fighting over food and water.


Over the six weeks or so since we got Cleo, Marnie and Peanut have just been relentlessly aggressive towards her. From reading advice here, it seems that dominance behavior is pretty normal between newly introduced pigs, so we decided to keep an eye on it, but basically played hands-off. Cleo hasn't been fighting back or anything, but between Marnie and Peanut, one of them constantly seems to be chasing her into a corner or biting at her hindquarters. Whenever we examine her, she has a half-dozen or more scabs on her butt from the older pigs nipping at her. Tonight, we heard squeaks coming from the cage and saw that Cleo had blood on her rump. It seems like it came from a scab that had been ripped off after a nip from one of the other girls. It's frankly distressing how hostile they both are towards Cleo, and I guess I'm just wondering how long we should try to let them integrate before we just separate them permanently. Thanks for your advice!

 

[Smileandnod]

I have found that peace can be made by removing hideys with only one entrance/exit, putting up fleece forests that allow less dominant guinea pigs to get out of sight from territorial cagemates, and having a large second level with 2 ramps for easy exits has done wonders in creating a peaceful living with all my guinea pigs.

How is your cage configured? Sometimes making it L shaped or 3 wide rather than 2 in a C&C cage makes a huge difference as well...less likely for one pig to have to pass close by another and get nipped in the process. I have found a wide cage is also more fun for my guinea pigs to run around in as well. Also, I have found some guinea pigs demand more room in order to be happy with cage mates.

Make sure you are weighing little Cleo to make sure she is gaining weight and the older girls aren't blocking her from getting her share of food as well.

And make sure those sores on Cleo don't get infected!

 

[leemarlee]

Thanks for the advice! Currently, the cage is configured as 2 sections, each 2 grids x 4 grids, as we decided to separate the pigs until Cleo was fully healed. There are no pigloos in the cage; we found out the hard way that Peanut and Marnie would box Cleo into them then lash out with her unable to get away. She's definitely gaining weight, though: she was about 530 grams when we got her, and she's steadily gone up to 650 grams now. If anything, she was a bit bony and underfed when we first brought her home.