Fighting Young guinea pig fighting with my older one

[fuzzywuzzy]

Hey, I recently just got a baby guinea pig (few weeks old) and she is often in a fight with my older piggy. I'm not sure if it's a dominance thing but whenever my younger piggy gets vegetables, my older one would steal if off her and scare her away. And often, when the younger piggy wants to go in the hidey with the older one in it, my older piggy will scare it away by nipping at it. What should I do?

 

[kourt1313]

Try separate bowls for feeding at opposite sides of the cage. Do you have more than one hidey? They need to have at least 2 (preferably 3, as I believe the general rule is you want one more hidey than you have pigs, so 3 hideys for 2 pigs, 4 hideys for 3 pigs, etc).

 

[fuzzywuzzy]

It's only when I'm hand feeding vegetable. They're fine eating pellets, but also when the little one judges he older one near its mouth, my older piggy also scares it away. Thy have 2 hideys but the younger one always goes into the older piggys hut.

 

[kourt1313]

The baby is probably just trying to be friends while your older one still isn't sure of her yet. I'm sure someone with more experience will come along but to me it sounds like normal displaying dominance behavior and as long as no major fights are occurring or blood is being drawn I'm sure it will work itself out.

 

[fuzzywuzzy]

Oh ok. I'm just scare that the young one will always be nervous and scared

 

[bpatters]

You should do three things. First, make sure all the hideys have a way to get in and out so one pig can't get trapped. For now, if you've got things like pigloos, take them out and replace them with cardboard boxes (cut holes in the ends and cut the bottoms out). Once they've settled down, you can put the pigloos back in.

Second, when you're hand feeding them, put something in each hand and make sure your hands are a couple of feet apart. Give the veggie to them at the same time, not one before the other.

Third, let them be. They're working out normal dominance issues. The baby wants company, the big pig doesn't want to be bothered. As long as one of them isn't being bitten or harassed to the point that it can't eat, they'll be fine.

 

[foggycreekcavy]

Ditto bpatters. Seems like the pigs are acting normally.

 

[fuzzywuzzy]

Alright, I've got holes in all their boxes now. Thanks