Constant Rumblestrut?

[SandyF]

Hi,
We have 3 guinea pigs -- Sebastian and Otis are our oldest and live next to each other with a divider, each at about 6 months old. They were not littermates; Sebastian was from a pet store, and Otis from a guinea pig rescue. Our third is a baby male who lives separately.

From the very beginning, Otis would "rumblestrut" whenever he came in contact with Sebastian. It started when we kept them in separate cages with a divider, and continued after we introduced them in the bathtub. This is a prolonged growling noise (I've heard it described as "motorboating", and that is what it sounds like), his body down low, and his back feet shifting back and forth. Sebastian has never done this, and generally ignores Otis when he does this or makes a high-pitched noise. Otis is very skittish, and he is not the dominant piggie. We thought maybe this growling and strutting was a way for Otis to show his submissiveness, but a couple of weeks ago it got worse and I finally had to separate the two w/ a divider after the behavior got a lot more aggressive (by Otis) and resulted in Sebastian hiding all the time. Now Otis does this strutting/growling on the other side of the divider (where he can still see Sebastian).

Can anybody tell me what Otis' behavior means? He has lived with us now for five months and has repeated that rumblestrut behavior over and over, and I can't find anything that mentions why this would continue for so long.

Thanks!

 

[tashagurl]

Your poor piggy is confused! He thinks his friend is a girl. The "rumblestrut" is a form of purring. The males do it to the females. Sometimes they get confused though. I had one who thought his son was a girl until Taz was almost a year old. Then Taz turned around and attact Butthead( he came with that name, dont blame me that it suited). The little lightbulb turned on inside of Buttheads little head. Just give them time. They might be alright after a while. Are you sure that they are both male?

 

[SpikenCal]

Rumble struts can be displayed in more than one situation. Males will do it around females, but it is also a 'dance' of dominance for any sex guinea pig. I have two females and one of them does this rumble strut for a couple of days each month. She's just trying to show who's boss. There has to be a pecking order, no matter how small the 'herd'. I, too, had mine separated for a time(we were worried one was male) and she would still do this. If the other is close enough to smell or see, they're gonna do it. If you're sure of the sexes of both of them and the divider doesn't change the behavior even a little, I would consider moving them further apart. Have you tried introducing them often in neutral territory? During floor time, etc. I have read that sometimes this works over time, aging may change it a bit. Maybe you can ask your vet? Wish I had some help for you, good luck!

 

[SandyF]

Yes, we're absolutely sure on the sex (male) of both. As I said, the strangest part of this is that it goes on all the time! Otis might do this 2, 3, 4 times a day or more. I thought the same thing -- that maybe he is confused and thinks Sebastian is a female. But he never tried to mount Bassy when they were in the same cage. Bassy usually just ignored it, but more recently it really seemed to aggravate him, which is why I separated them again.

Neutral territory doesn't work. We tried that initially in the bathtub, than again a week or so ago during "floor time." As soon as they were back in the cage, Otis was back to rumblestrutting and Sebastian was back to chasing him away. And as I mentioned before, Sebastian has never, ever exhibited this behavior. When they lived together, they shared food without too much problem, but Bassy would occasionally chase Otis away -- which is why I could never understand why Otis would be doing a "dominance" thing, since it was obvious that Sebastian was in charge.

Could it be that their ages are just too similar? And that they weren't littermates?

This is very strange, and I don't know what to do other than keep them separated. Otis seems bothered by the separation, but Sebastian seems much happier and more interaction with us (which is how he behaved BEFORE we adopted Otis).

Thanks!!

 

[Treen]

I've had very rumbly pigs - I had one male who barely wallked anywhere normally, he just purred and swayed his way around whether he lived with boys or girls (he was neutered).

Rumbling and chasing are perfectly normal - especially when pigs are being introduced. For the first few days new pigs are introduced, there may be a lot of rumbling and chasing, and then over a few weeks it usually dies down gradually. But for this to happen the pigs have to be together pretty much constantly. Daily sessions are fine for working out if two pigs are compatible, but it's only when they're with each other full time that they really work out the dominance structure and settle in it. Otherwise every session is like a new meeting to some degree, where they have to go through the motions all over again!

Have a look at this page https://www.cavyspirit.com/sociallife.htm for signs that things are moving from regular pig behaviour, to escalating to aggression.

 

[SandyF]

Treen,
I'm sorry if I didn't make this clear in my rambling post...LOL. The two lived together for over 4 months -- in the same, constantly together. This was after keeping them separated by a divider (they were both about 2 mos. old at the time) and then formally introducing them in the bathtub, and then putting them in the same cage when it seemed that things had settled down. But the rumblestrutting went on day after day after day, and escalated about two weeks ago when Otis seemed to attack Sebastian. That's why they were separated again.

Plus, the other issue is that Otis has always been so fearful of everything, and this seemed to "rub off" on Sebastian after a while. We just thought it best to go ahead and put them in separate cages again, but I would still like to know what all the rumblestrutting was really about.