Guinea pig advice needed please

[helensburgh]

Wonder if anyone can help.

We have had out two girls almost a year, we got them from our local guinea pig rescue place.

All has been fine, occasionally one or other of them has a day or two of making an odd purring / squeaking noise at the other, then it stops and ALS fine.

The issue now is that one of them has for about three weeks been making this noise and looks at times like she's making advances on her sister!

Her sister gets cross with it and has sometimes given her what looks like a nip.

The purring one also tends to be biting little bits out of the other ones ears.

What to do? Vet check? Separate them?

Any ideas what could be wrong and why they were fine for so long.

Thanks

Are you sure they're sisters? one of my guinea pigs used to do this to the other 2 then I found out she was a he.
males are also typically more vocal than females.

100% sure they are both girls.

Can't be sure they are defintly sisters .

It sounds like they are just communicating to me, if it's just the occasional squabble and nip I wouldn't worry.

Could be in season (it can happen random times, I think my two sows are, they have a waxy secretion round their nethers the other day , were very vocal and my neutered boar was being very purr-ey and rumbly)

Season can last a good few days but there's only a short window that they are receptive. Some animals are worst in the last season of the year (I used to ride a horse who did wildly overblown peeing / watering in the road if she caught a hint of a male)

Sows can be narky just like boars (one of my Rescue girls has a chunk out of her ear, probably hacked something off in her travels)

Shake things up a bit for them. Empty their cage, make it neutral smelling. Move their furniture round.
Can you give them a bath> Don't know if your piggies are indoor or outdoor. You'd need to make sure they were bone dry and warm enough .

Don't seperate them unless they really come to blows. But maybe some cuddle type apart, they do benefit from being in another room for a while (my DD will take one to her bedroom, DH has one, I have the third)

Before we had our boar+ two sows, we had two brothers. Then brother + our present boar. The brothers didn't bonk each other (that I saw anyway) but were a bit scrapping sometimes.
The present boar did bonk his cagemate (male) . Now it seems he's turned his unwanted and infertile attention to the ladeez.

Thanks everyone.

How long would they be in season for at a time?

Have had them out a lot separately for cuddles the last few days.

Will bathe them tomorrow, they are indoor so no worries there.

Will change the cage around and see.

How are your pigs behaving helens

I have had a boar only household until we got the girls so I've had to re-aquaint myself with the finer points of sows (like how much they pee).

They are only properly 'in' season for 12 hours or so but the whole thing lasts 12-16 days.
Maybe mine are cheekier because they've had piglets before they came to live with me. And they don't know (or indeed care) that GP3 is neutered, he's a boar

I did notice that GP5 had a mark on her and some boar glue on GP3, so they've been getting along .

Hi,

Calm is restored!

I put in an extra soft tunnel and hey prefer to have on each rather than snuggling together!

They can be quite territorial little swine, can't they?

Good to see they've calmed, it's a worthwhile thing to try if they do get narky, change things round.
My boars used to wander round "Hey, that was there ,and where's my haytrug, and Oooh New HideyBox"

Not the sharpest tools in the shed as DD used to call them