Cavy Catostrophe

[Cspr]

Okay, so the title is a little more exciting than planned but I had to go for alliteration.

Anyway, I'm new to cavies. I got one pair late last year and my third this spring. I have two boars and a sow. I have them in proper-sized, solid-bottom cages. They get plenty of water, supplemented by vit C in winter, and I feed them greens; hay; and pellets (calf manna, rabbit feed, guinea pig with vit C feed, and sweet feed). They also have toys and get lots of cuddles. My first pair, Rikki and Usha, are Peruvians so they get groomed a lot also.

I was trying to breed Usha and Rikki, my third, for some pet quality, short-haired mutts because I can only really sell long hairs to breeders/showers. This is when I noticed the severity of some behavioral issues.

Rikki and Tesla like to knock their water bottle off. It is now duct-taped and clamped to the side of the cage. Tesla has always been skittish, but if he gets nervous when I try to hold him (he's scared of heights so those first few seconds often result in alarm calls before I have him pressed to my chest)? Rikki will start to chatter at me and glare. When I put Tesla back, Rikki circles him and purrs.

When I tried to put Tesla in with Usha, she reacted aggressively with chasing, chattering, nipping, etc. She even tried to bite my fingers when I tried to pet her. I figured she wasn't in the mood for a roommate, so I waited a week and tried again. Same result. Rikki even started chattering too. Tesla was so confused, let me tell you. I removed Tesla and then figured, well, I chose Rikki and Usha as a breeding pair, why don't I see how they'd go together even if their pups will be a bit harder to place? They're now very happy. Lots of purring. No behavioral issues, which only started since Tesla was introduced.

I'm admittedly a bit confused. I'm thinking maybe I'll put them in bigger cages or something, see if that helps at all. Maybe add more enrichment too. I'm just really stunned because Usha has never tried to bite me before today when I tried to introduce her to Tesla for the second time.

 

[akane]

Did you just put one in the other one's cage? If you don't mind some fur damage you can often throw sows or opposite genders together in a big cage or pen and you just get some "ouch" squeaks without any breaking of skin. Guinea pigs like to punish others by pulling or when frustrated ripping out chunks of fur without doing any actual harm. Some sows are not like that though. Some boars are just so annoying sows that aren't normally that aggressive will turn that aggressive before you notice any change in the boar. For those cases you need to start on neutral territory. Nothing that either have used or looks just like what they have used. The pet crowd suggests a hallway or couch they don't normally get loose on. Have a towel on hand in case things go south and release the pigs to run into each other. They may rumble, teeth chatter, mount, chase, and possibly attack each others fur. This is not dangerous but for show purposes you may want to avoid a pair that has a big tendency to nip longhaired fur. Mainly if they keep moving and one keeps turning away you are good. If they face off with teeth chattering straight at each other for extended periods of time, both biting the head/shoulder area without one backing up or turning away, showing their teeth with wide mouth movements, and of course the death ball then you have a problem. You don't want to give up too soon but you want to stop them before death ball fight. Aside from it being possible to do permanent injury they will likely never forgive each other. Trust me, if you see it you will know what I'm talking about but I have only ever run into boar with boar intros leading to that.

If you just have too much risky facing off and decide to separate there are more complicated ways to progress. Some find putting them in a carrier and going for a car ride works but it's rather difficult to do anything if they start fighting in the car. Washing the 2 together and drying them with the same towel can work. Make them sit together in the bath and while drying (and glaring at you) in a neutral location. Sometimes putting vanilla extract on their noses before attempting an intro method can help with rodents because it reduces unfamiliar scents. You can also go to a long introduction where they live in cages with wire touching or a cage with a divider and you swap them back and forth so they are both dealing with the same scents. Then intro on neutral territory. While these things are standard for rodents they are less suggested for guinea pigs than things like baths because guinea pigs rely on a lot more sound than other rodents who can mostly be tricked by scent. They lack most any body part they can move around for lots of expression so the group is kept together by sound and individuals are recognized by voice at least partially.

 

[Zass]

I'm willing to guess young ones are easier to introduce?

I literally just picked up two pairs, and swapped one member from each pair and put them in their new pens together. They kind of gave me an "at least we have each other...whomever you are" impression.

 

[akane]

Sometimes you get one that is just pissy from a young age but usually several year old sows are your biggest problem.