Bonding Guinea Pig Left Out...

[guineapiggiepie]

My herd of four are all approximately a year old and all related. There's Mama Alfonzo, Ziggy (sister), Squiggy (baby), and Lorenzo (baby). The dynamic has had a shift in the cage recently from Alfonzo being HBIC to now Ziggy overtaking her thrown and Ziggy is dominant. Lorenzo used to try for dominance up until maybe a month ago, but the roles have been pretty established (as far as I've noticed, but it's probably been longer).

From what I've been seeing Lorenzo is being completely iced out. Ziggy never lets her eat hay with the rest of them when they're at the rack. Mama even chased her off an hour ago. I feel so badly for her. She's always alone doing her own thing or being bullied by Ziggy...or bullying Squiggy. I also almost feel that she's getting bullied so harshly because she's always bullying her passive sister, Squiggy. I would love to have the gang be a functioning herd with no sad piggies. Any insight is appreciated...

 

[bpatters]

How large is the cage?

 

[guineapiggiepie]

How large is the cage?

Their lower level is a 2x6.

 

[guineapiggiepie]

Does anyone else have any idea what to do with my lonely Lo?

 

[bpatters]

Why not have two hay areas? And two pellet dishes, if necessary. If all they're doing is chasing her away from the hay rack, that's easily solved.

Describe their bullying behavior, please. It may just be normal guinea pig interaction.

 

[guineapiggiepie]

Why not have two hay areas? And two pellet dishes, if necessary. If all they're doing is chasing her away from the hay rack, that's easily solved.

Describe their bullying behavior, please. It may just be normal guinea pig interaction.

I do have two hay areas and two pellet dishes. It happens when Lorenzo's at any pellet dish or hay rack. It's almost like Ziggy stalks Lorenzo. She's always watching Lorenzo and ready to show her who's boss by running up on her. Even when she's asleep! It's doubly sad because Lo is nearly 7oz smaller than Ziggy, so she ends up sprinting down the stairs or running into a wall. I haven't seen much humping between them. Just Ziggy chasing Lo and them dragging their vags on things.

BTW Ziggy is in heat right now, so I might be noticing this dominant behavior more so as of late.

Lorenzo bullies Squiggy because she can. It's pretty normal. Sometimes she makes a little "woof" sound at Squiggy when they're both at a dish. I swear sometimes Ziggy protects Squiggy and she's on Ziggy's bad side because of this. I'm probably reading into it too much.

 

[guineapiggiepie]

Am I worrying too much? Ziggy is still rumbling.

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

Am I worrying too much? Ziggy is still rumbling.

My boys are 2 1/2 years old. They rumble constantly, all day long, every day. Rumbling piggies is normal.

 

[ItsaZoo]

Do you have anything in the cage to block their view of each other, like a fleece forest or other divider across the middle of the cage? It might help to have something blocking their line of sight so they start to concentrate on something else besides what the other pig is up to.