Musings on Guinea Pig Relations

Probably one of the biggest mistakes by novice GP owners is the projection of their relationship with their piggie onto a GP's relationships with others of its kind. The fact that guinea pigs are so docile, social and affectionate with their human companions makes it easy for a new owner to fooled into believing that guinea pigs are always like that, and hence can be very frightened when they see their normally sweet, gentle pet get into a viscous fight with the new arrival.

The problem, of course, is that the relationships between guinea pigs and humans (and between most animals and humans) are learned behaviors, almost exclusively based on trust. Particularly for animals as small as guinea pigs, a human being is a frightening animal, much larger than they are; and until that bond of trust comes about from constant attention, feed and proper care, the guinea pig is frightened to death that this animal is out to kill them...especially when it sees your arms reach down into the cage to swoop it up off its feet.

With other guinea pigs, however, relations become a combinaton of instinct and personality, and the pre-programming inside their heads leads to a whole new behavior. These instincts provide the guinea pig with the reactions and behaviors necessary to guarantee the survival of the herd over time, as well as establish their individual roles or places in the community. As with many herd animals, there are dominant males and dominant females, each of whom battle over the right to mate, take priority at feeding and find the prime spots to sleep. Dominance is establshed through aggressive behavior, and the pecking order among females is reinfored by the dominant female, who will occasionally snap at the lower ranks to remind them who is in charge.

The initial fighting can be terrifying, even to experienced owners, as the females settle out their differences. Even after the pecking order has been established, the occasional snaps and squeals that occur afterwards can still be nerve-wracking. But as long as you can see that the agressiveness is limited to specific events (like a lower rank female trying to interrupt the dominant female at the water bottle), and that no one is being continually driven from food, water or sleeping spots, it's normal and natural, even if it is a little scary. With males, the story is different, as once the dominance battles start, more times than not the alpha male will relentlessly work to drive the other from the cage (ie, "herd"), and they will need to be spearated unless given ample room to stake out their territory.

Of course, the instincts to achieve rank in the herd are only half the battle of introductions. Personality of the two animals is a big concern, and is one that we had to watch out for when selecting our fourth pig for our home. Some pairs of animals will never get along, and some females are so aggressive that they will relentlessly chase and harrass more docile animals.

In our case, Ebony and Ivory are mother and daughter, respectively. Together with our male, Panda, they have been an established family for months. We have never had any problems introducing females to Panda; to him, a new pig is an exciting adventure, not to mention another animal he can mount. ;) But Ebony and Ivory are both very agressive; a lot more so than we had even imagined. Ebony, in particular, has a very strong personality, and she is very dominant. Ivory learned some of this behavior from her.

The first time we tried to introduce a fourth to their family was a total failure, despite the fact that we followed all the rules for neutral introductions. The little girl in questions was actually another of Ebony's daughters, Chocolate, who was from the same litter as Ivory and had been enjoying a new home for the preceding week. When Chocolate came over for a weekend, we spent the two days re-introducing Chocolate to Ebony and Ivory, and when the big moment came to let them run around together, what we discovered was that Ebony and Ivory actually ganged up on Chocolate, and would go out of their way to chase her...away from food, water, the PVC pipes and sleeping spots.

If you have never seen two guinea pigs gang up on a third, believe me when I say it's frightening. Once they started "working together", within seconds they had driven her into a corner, trapped her and bitten her on her back. We separated them immediately after that, realizing that they were not going to settle down, and Chocolate might really get hurt if we kept them together. The problem was that Chocolate was too docile, and too timid; she would run away at the hint of trouble, and Ebony and Ivory were too eager to pursue. Once they "leanred" that they could bully her around, the situation fell apart.

When we went to visit Margaret and her caviary, we explained our basic problem, and that's mostly how we ended up with Georgianne. Georgianne is a huge, silky TSW with a very dominant personality. She refused to be pushed around; on her first introduction with Ebony, on somewhat neutral territory (our car), they got into a viscious fight...to the point where I was afraid they weren't going to get along. When Panda came over to break it up, Georgianne immediately attacked him, too, and they went at it for a little bit before finally settling down. Poor Ivory was so terrified of what happened, that she buried herself under the hay, wouldn't go near Georgianne or Ebony for several hours afterwards.

But, the fighting was just the dominance battle, and once it was over, it was over for good. What we learned was this: Georgie refuses to be bullied. Although Ebony is still the dominant female, and Ivory ended up in second place, they don't chase her or threaten her. Georgie gets snapped at occasionally, but instead of bolting, she defers; and as a result, is neither harrassed nor terrified. Everyone lives peacefully together now, and they share food and living space without major incident. The "proper" new cagemate for Ebony and Ivory needed to have this extra "edge" in her personality. I can't say that I understand all of it, but it works, and everyone is happy...especially Panda, who spends most of his time trying to mount Georgianne. :)

I have to admit that I find the social relationships between all animals, not just guinea pigs, to be fascinating, but the fact that we have guinea pigs as pets makes me that much more excitied about their interactions, as to those of other pets. And, there is a certain drive in me to want to understand and be able to interpret the behavior I see in the cage on a day-to-day basis. There are so many questions that I have now, and the list keeps growing and growing.

One of the things that you learn very early on is that even small mammals like guinea pigs are infinitely more complex and dynamic than they appear to be on the surface. The social setting of herd life adds so many new dimensions to a cavy's personality, behavior and attitude that I honestly can't imagine how we ever survived with just Panda for four months. Seeing them as I do now, I have an appreciation for the guinea pig that was heretofore unknown, as well as a respect for how much individuality can be packed into such a small package.