Aggressive or hierarchy behavior?
Hi guys! First time posting here. My boyfriend got me a 4th guinea pig to complete my muddle. All sows. The smaller white/tan/brown one is Pickles, the larger white/tan/brown is Parmesan, and the black one is Berry. I first got Pickles, a week later Parmesan and a week after that Berry. Then I got the all brown one- Whippy.
Pickles, Parmesan and Berry got along fine but Pickles and Parmesan are obviously bonded and Berry was kind of a third wheel. Pickles and Berry would hang out a bit but nothing like with Pickles and Parmesan. So we decided to try and get a friend for Berry. Berry and Whippy have done fine together so far, no scuffles or odd behavior- just existing together.
I’d like to preface that Parmesan is the queen and all other pigs that come in our home is her subjects. As expected- Parmesan was the first to try and assert dominance. Nothing unusual just normal behaviors of smelling, throwing head back and wiggling hips. This went on for a few minutes while Whippy was just minding her own business. She clearly just accepted she was bottom of the food chain.
Then things started escalating a little bit. A lot of chasing into corners and doing her dance again. Another few minutes passed and I fed them their veggies. I only set up my phone to get a video of them eating so I didn’t scare Whippy. Then this all started happening.
In the first video it is Parmesan that was the aggressor. I pulled her away for a “time out” to cool down. I had her in my hands for a little more than a minute the Pickles started doing the same thing. When you can not see them Whippy is tucked up in a corner while either pig was intimidating her.
I’ve tried to find videos online for actual guinea pig fights to compare but I can’t seem to find any- and rightly so. So I’m attaching my two videos below.
Currently I have Pickles and Parmesan on one side of the cage and Berry and Whippy on the other with a divider in the middle. I’m going to try again tomorrow in another neutral spot to see if I can get them to get along.
Videos are in comments.