Guinea were good friends, now fallen out one being bullied any advice?

[starpatch]

Hi, I am a bit at a loss with our pair of sows Wiggles and Womble. They are 2.5 years old have been together since very young and always got on very well. Womble was always the dominant one despite Wiggles growing to be slightly bigger. Since Friday Womble started to chase Wiggles round the cage, loud squeeking heard, Wiggles had a small nip in her ear etc This stopped but they didn't really settle down, Wiggles was acting like a sick guinea pig, positioning herself as far from Womble as possible, we made Wiggles a second shelter to sleep in which she used, but I found that Womble came and slept against her, blocking her in, it seemed to be a dominant gesture rather than friendly, they didn't previously sleep lying against each other. I decided to seperate them yesterday evening to give Wiggles time to recover ie at least she can feed properly, sleep properly she behaves like she is fine provided Womble is not there. Any tips greatly appreciated.

Have you taken Wiggles to the vets? That sort of behaviour often starts when one gets ill. The first thing I thought was that maybe Wiggles was unwell in some way, before I got to the bit where you said she was acting ill.

thanks I will think about taking her to the vets. She acts completely fine when Womble is not there, the dejected behaviour is just when Womble is there.

It's very frustrating and sad when a piggie pairing goes sour .
There was another post on Small Pets about sparring sows (which seem to have settled) I suggested it might be "season" time .
Sows go into season for 24-48 hours (even without the presence of boars) .

I had two with a neutered boar and two that lived beside them and they were evil in season. (I got the second pair at 2yo , never been bred from, my first pair were ex-breeders) so they'd have been about the same age .

First thing I'd do:

If you can, if the guinea-pigs are physically up for it and you can keep them indoors and dry them well- bath them. Good scented guinea-pig shampoo .Makes them smell the same as each other , but diferent to how they were and they sulk after a bath but sulk at you so they can bond in their rage .

Clean their house thoroughly , get rid of all the bedding, scrub with white vinegar (neutral smell).
Change things round , give them new boxes , a tunnel , big pile of hay

Maybe play a radio in the area so they have some background noises .

Any boxes need 2 doors so you cannot get one pig trapped . (When I bonded our last sow with our boar -they hadn't lived together but had been side-by-side ) we gave them a towel over the C&C to give them an open screened off area and a box with one long side cut out . She laid as long as she could stretch herself he did manage to get out the feet end. Maybe she was protecting him ?

And yes . bear in mind it can be something like mammary tumours in sows (more common in non breeding sows which pet piggies should be anyway)

Good luck.
Bribe them.

Thanks 70 I really appreciate the advice. I seperated them for 30 hours, then reintroduced them in a neutral area. They seem a lot better at the moment. Wiggles is holding her own and doing a bit of strutting around bum wiggling and making that dominant noise of her own. And they are now sharing space together. That is interesting about them going into heat. They don't have much space unfortunately so I am looking at buying larger enclosures for them.