Chloe_s_mom
Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2014
- Posts
- 82
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2014
- Messages
- 82
Hi, we have a bonded pair of Abby sows, approximately 9 months old (possibly 10) and recently acquired another bonded pair of girls (I checked gender to make sure that if nothing else, all four 'looked' alike ha!), approximately 6 months old.
The first pair have been with us since they were babies and have been housed in a variety of homemade C&C cages. The new pair were in a small rabbit (or so the pet store says is suitable for a rabbit) cage.
After some quarantine, I split the cage in half, giving each pair 2 x 3 with an offset, low 1.5 x 2 patio/loft area. Gosh, 2 x 3 seems soooo small for our original girls, but my hopes were that all would be together in a 2 x 6 with two 1.5 x 2 patios.
I've tried some light introductions when holding the guineas, and it went very well between the lesser dominate ones of each pair. I slowly removed the tall coro barrier between the cages, keeping the grids only. Both sets were always quite interested in each other, with the most dominate of the bunch doing a bunch of bum wagging, rumbling etc. I put a second hay rack for each cage on either side of the barrier, and everyone eats near each other.
Tonight, after rearranging the cage, I decided to see about letting them all meet at once, and it was chaos (in my eyes, at least). Each puffed up to double their sizes, I saw a lot of nose battles, rumbling, chattering but finally decided to separate everyone when I saw massive yawning on the behalf of two of them, after some chasing.
My question is, should I be introducing both pairs at once? Or should I try to be introducing one new one to the other pair? Or one on one?
Interesting to note that each pig became so annoyed/wound up that they had spats with their own buddy, after they were separated
Reminded me of seeing a cat become so upset that when they accidentally bump into a wall, they hiss at it.
It took a few minutes, but eventually everyone settled back down, those the more dominate of the new pair was busy sticking her nose through the barrier, and the least dominate of the original pair was still pissed off at everyone and took her piece of cucumber to eat it alone in her hidey hut (she puffed up so big that I couldn't tell which end was which, as she has crazy rosettes on either end - looked like a porcupine).
Thank you in advance for any suggestions! Also, I'm running out of space re. making the cage much longer, as the offset lofts/patios make the cage 2 x 8 in length - my couch is getting in the way, wall blocking expansion in the other direction. My thoughts were to make a very low loft so that there are two entrances and exits from each loft (ramp and a step) so that a piggy can't become trapped.
The first pair have been with us since they were babies and have been housed in a variety of homemade C&C cages. The new pair were in a small rabbit (or so the pet store says is suitable for a rabbit) cage.
After some quarantine, I split the cage in half, giving each pair 2 x 3 with an offset, low 1.5 x 2 patio/loft area. Gosh, 2 x 3 seems soooo small for our original girls, but my hopes were that all would be together in a 2 x 6 with two 1.5 x 2 patios.
I've tried some light introductions when holding the guineas, and it went very well between the lesser dominate ones of each pair. I slowly removed the tall coro barrier between the cages, keeping the grids only. Both sets were always quite interested in each other, with the most dominate of the bunch doing a bunch of bum wagging, rumbling etc. I put a second hay rack for each cage on either side of the barrier, and everyone eats near each other.
Tonight, after rearranging the cage, I decided to see about letting them all meet at once, and it was chaos (in my eyes, at least). Each puffed up to double their sizes, I saw a lot of nose battles, rumbling, chattering but finally decided to separate everyone when I saw massive yawning on the behalf of two of them, after some chasing.
My question is, should I be introducing both pairs at once? Or should I try to be introducing one new one to the other pair? Or one on one?
Interesting to note that each pig became so annoyed/wound up that they had spats with their own buddy, after they were separated
It took a few minutes, but eventually everyone settled back down, those the more dominate of the new pair was busy sticking her nose through the barrier, and the least dominate of the original pair was still pissed off at everyone and took her piece of cucumber to eat it alone in her hidey hut (she puffed up so big that I couldn't tell which end was which, as she has crazy rosettes on either end - looked like a porcupine).
Thank you in advance for any suggestions! Also, I'm running out of space re. making the cage much longer, as the offset lofts/patios make the cage 2 x 8 in length - my couch is getting in the way, wall blocking expansion in the other direction. My thoughts were to make a very low loft so that there are two entrances and exits from each loft (ramp and a step) so that a piggy can't become trapped.