Fighting female guinea pigs

[palindromeam]

Hello,

Any advice gratefully received.

We have two female pigs. Sisters from the same litter so have always been together.

They're coming up for 3 and have always been fine together.

The last few weeks in the evening they have been really aggressive with each other - it that's when I notice it as I'm in the room with them. This manefests by them wheeking a lot at each other, going nose to nose, chasing each other, one gets on top of the other sideways so not like trying to mate snapping at each other and doing that aggressive chattering.

Does anyone have any thoughts about what the issue might be and anything to do to help. Should i be looking to separate them? I'm worried they'll hurt each other.

Thanks

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Sows can be right little gits , its always boars that get the bad press!

Could they be in season? You can tell by the change in temper and the change in their pee (whiffy)

My two original sows (unrelated) were fine together but my second pair (unrelated) got a bit narky with each other sometimes. GP7 used to chase GP8 when we were cleaning the cage . They can be grumpy if they don't have enough space , but this was in a completely empty cage ! .
GP7 did the same as your piggie , climbing over the back of GP8 or under her belly , hoiking her out of the way . (And she did the same to our boar when she bonded with him )


Are they drawing blood ? Is one of them the obvious dominent sow?

Try bathing them (if they're indoors ) with a really good strong piggie shampoo (we used Cedar+Lemongrass from Gorgeous Guineas for this )
Replace all the bedding , maybe move things about (it never hurts to baffle them )

It would be a shame to split them up if they are usually fine together

[fortifiedwithtea]

Check for lumps. Cancer can make guinea pigs and humans aggressive.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Could be a hormonal imbalance - there might be a tumour on the uterus or ovary as fortified said ,

Though they;d be tricky to feel, some guinea-pigs are lumpy but the lumps are fatty benign. You wouldn't know without further investigations.

Sows can be prone to cysts and swellings (one of our previous pigs was peeing blood , we took her to the vet for treatment . It's possible looking back she had a cyst that burst ? )
She was always always a delightful tempered piggie .

More recently my little piggie had a growth, (neck) but she was always a little ratbag with other pigs , lovely with humans .