Aggression Rescue Pigs with Aggression

[PaulaDC]

I have some piggies that don't like other piggies at all. Is there anything I can do?

I had a neighbor get evicted a while back. She had 13 guinea pigs. I took the final 2 that she didn't want to give away (they are very interesting looking pigs). It took me a few months to get them to stop biting at me, but I can't do anything about the agression they have toward each other/my other 2 guinea pigs. I have tried introducing them in neutral areas but they immediately start attacking (biting and chasing relentlessly). They will even try to get at each other through play fences/cardboard barriers. My other pigs are 5.5 years old, extremely laid back, and don't even try to snap back. All 4 piggies are female.

Is there anything I can do or is social time not worth it for these guys? I currently have them both housed alone in 20*39 inch cages with a constantly changing variety of toys (cardboard tubes, paper bags, chew sticks socks full of hay, origami boxes, various balls, ect). These guys are also a little pudgy and I am having a difficult time finding things they like to eat that aren't mostly sugar.
They also chirp a lot. Since their arrival my piggies started chirping a bunch as well. Is this an attempt to communicate?

Please advise. After I got them to stop biting at me they turned out to be sweethearts. I am pretty sure one was owned by a small child by the way she flinches/cowers at petting. What can I do about getting them to interact with other pigs? I want them to be as adjusted as possible.

Thanks a bunch,
Paula

 

[bpatters]

Some pigs are just loner pigs, and you may have two of them. However, here are some ideas.

Were they housed together before? If not, you might try just introducing the two of them to each other, and leave your other two out of the mix for a while. Read Guinea Pigs Social Life -- the introductions section is about halfway down. When you do introduce, make sure you've got at least two of everything so one pig can't guard the other. Do a buddy bath as well when you introduce them.

If each of them can get along with just one other pig, there might be hope for making a herd. But if you can't get them to behave with each other, I wouldn't try add either one of them to the two you've got.