All About Female Dominance in Guinea Pigs! 

I've got a funny story about the head-raising. I keep my two guinea pigs in my "rodent-room" which is off-limits to my dog and my cat. In February, I began trying to introduce my small dog to my piggies. I started by bringing my dog into the room and up to the cage. She listens very well so I didn't need a leash. Anyway, my dog went up to the cage bars and started smelling. One of my guinea pigs then ran up to where my dog was and started raising her little chin in the air. My dog is about 4 times as big as my piggies so I was quite surprised when she went running the other way. Somehow, my dog lost the guinea pig dominance challenge! :D

I love the popcorn-rumbles it is like a new dance move for them! Haha yes sometimes mine chatter when waiting for their veggies I always think its a sign of impatience, their slave isn't being fast enough!

This made me feel so much better. I have one boar and 4 girls (mom and three daughters) and just put them all together in a large cage (2x7 with a 2x2 addition, soon to add a balcony). One of the babies was being what I thought was aggressive toward the boar and her mother, and now I just see she wants to be the boss. No harm, I can breathe a bit easier.

I was just wondering about rumble strutting and I learned way more about my girls!!! This helped so much thank you!!!

Great video! Thank you so much for filming and posting it (: You have really helped me better understand my piggies and their dominance behavior. Thank you (:

Thank you so much for this post. I was SUPER helpful! The mounting and weird behavior start this morning and this was so reassuring to know what was going on.

Thank you!!! I just introduced my piggies and I’m watching this as I’m watching them interact since I was a little confused about their behavior! They seem to get along so far!

Thank you so much! We just got our second male and I was worried to see so much dominance (teeth chattering, upset noises, head raising, chasing/bullying). But you have put my mind at ease. I really think once we set up our C&C cage this week all will resolve or improve. Thanks again. Love your channel I've learned so much to aid in helping my Daughters with their piggies!

This is really helpful! I'm new to guinea pigs, and I've had one of my girls for over a month, but the new girl Marcy just came home a few days ago, and I've never had any experience with their dominance behavior. A lot of it was making me worry they weren't going to get along, but this has pretty much assuaged my fears c: Thanks for making such a great video!

Hi there! I know this video is from a long time ago but it has totally reassured me about my piggies' behaviour. I'm new to owning piggies, I've had Bluebell and Sweetpea less than a fortnight and there's a bit of a change in dynamic going on. I was quite worried this evening but after watching this video I'm feeling a little easier. Making my way through your extensive collection of videos 👍🏻thank you for sharing your wisdom ☺️

Truly eased me on the behaviors. Thank you so much for this video! :)

This was super fun and helpful your piggies are so cute!! We just got two piggies for the first time both girls and this really helped understand them more now

Thank you! I just got my 1st 2 piggies and one started chasing the other. You video helped me so much!

Thank you for this video! I just got a new piggie friend for my current piggie Enzo and both are female so I wasn't expecting Enzo to start acting like a male piggie and acerting her dominance. This video really helped me out.

thank you so much for doing this video! i have a single female piggy at the moment (planing on get her some friends in the near future). This really helped me so now i know what to expect :) thank u

Exactly what I needed to know, thank you so much. X

This helped me so much, I have three piggies now I had s pair and just got a baby today. But knowing what's normal behavior and agreasive is very helpful.

Thanks a bunch! I've recently introduced my neutered male, Gizmo, to my new female, Belle, and this is the first time I've introduced two piggies. They're now sharing a pen, eating, grooming and sleeping together. There's also been quite a lot of squealing, thrumming, rumblestrutting, chattering, chasing and mounting, but no real attempts to bite and cause harm yet for the last two days. You've helped me understand this establishing dominance situation better, and how long it might take! Surprisingly, it's Belle that's doing all the mounting, and Gizmo is starting submit, so it looks like she'll be the one in charge. XD

This was very informative and helpful. Thanks a million! :)

Thank you for the great feedback on my video :D Hope Marcy settles in okay - I'm sure she will :)

That was very informative thanks. We have 3 young females and I was looking for a better understanding of their obviously dominance related behaviour, which you have now provided. We have a lot of rumble-strutting going on at the moment but thankfully no violence!!

Thank you! Oooh yes you should I would be very interested to learn about dominance in buns, I've already learnt lots about them from your videos that I never knew before! :)

My two guinea girls used have a lot of 'face offs' but now they are in a big C&C cage they hardly do this anymore. I built an upstairs hayloft and a chill out space (with squeak dreams guinea beds! Now they have enough room to escape each other and it seems to have eased the tension.

Good video, you explained things well and I enjoyed watching!

Hello thank you for watching! :) Introducing a new guinea pig should be relatively easy, as they should let the bigger one take charge - but I would still do it somewhere other than the cage, like a play pen with some hay in for them. The older one might chase the baby round and the baby might squeal but don't worry unless the older one is trying to bite/is being really aggressive. Hopefully they'll get on fine!

LOL the rumble-pop. I have a baby piggie who was adopted a few weeks ago and she being this tiny little thing wanders around the cage rumbling at EVERYONE there are 7 total in the cage the big pig seems to let her do it for a bit then gets irritated and nose punches her so she runs off popcorning like the crazy baby piggie she is

This is such a great video! Thankfully, my two female pigs haven't gone into a full blown fight with each other like I saw in your footage. But the teeth chattering definitely makes me nervous! I've noticed that my two pigs don't really like being next each other for more than 5 or 6 seconds. They always seem to be by themselves, and today is when I noticed the chattering and got worried. They both seemed to do it. I've introduced new small houses in my habitat and when they both were sniffing and perusing , that's when they started running away and teeth chattering. From the info from your video I'm sure it's nothing, but maybe some little things I should look out for?

Thank you so so much it really helped me figure out what they were doing!

Great video. Nice clips demonstrating piggy behaviors.

Thanks for making this vid! Very helpful. It explains a lot of my girls' behavior during their first couple of months with me, lol.

I am a bird person, so this was really interesting. In grammar school we, had piggies in our classroom. Your setup is AMAZING.

Great video, with some adorable pigs and excellent demonstrations!

That's exactly what my guinea pigs do! Thank you so much!

I am new to having Guinea Pigs. I got one that I call Beanie, then I read up on them and found they do better in pairs, so I tried the local shelter and though they rarely have any animals other than dogs or cats, they had 9 Guinea Pigs that day that had just been brought in. I brought one home, named Coco. She is totally the sweetest of the 2. I put them together right away, not knowing any better. So far, they are doing okay. I watched your video to learn more about dominance behavior. The other day when I had Coco out for some one on one time together, after a few minutes apart they started calling to each other, and I felt that was a good sign that they are getting at least used to being together if not quite friends yet. I should say here that I got Guinea Pigs so my dog would not be the only animal in the house, which seems to be getting my dog, Lindy, down, it was like her light and joy was flickering out. We've been waiting to move into a house with a yard for almost a year, living in an apartment. Beanie was the one pig at the pet store who was brave enough to sniff noses with Lindy, so I brought her home. She still sniffs noses with Lindy, and Lindy is just delighted by this, and she much happier not being the only animal in the home. She loves them. They have had to get used to Lindy, who is still a puppy at 1 year old and pretty active and rambunctious at times, but they all seem to be doing well in the same house. Lindy does not have, nor will she ever have direct contact or access to them, that would be too dangerous for the piggies - she could hurt them without even really meaning to. But with them in their cage and Lindy not able to get to them directly, it's working well. They have figured out that she can't get at them and kind of accept her as a larger version of themselves it seems. Your video is wonderful and has helped me to relax about behaviors that Beanie is doing with little Coco. Beanie is about a year old, and Coco is just a little girl at about 2 months old. I can see now that so far, they are settling in well, even if I didn't realize that I should have introduced them more slowly in the same cage. I have fallen in love with them a lot more than I expected to, and I find holding them and spending time with them is very relaxing for me. Thank you again for your wonderful video here. :)

thank you so much for making this comment! they're now happily living together, since I used you advice, of course. I love your videos and think your information is amazing and I would love it if you could make more videos anyways thanks again! :D

Hi, yes it did haha :) Your piggies behaviour sounds pretty normal to me, as long as they aren't hurting each other, the squeaking could be a sign of submission by one of them but also baby piggies seem to squeak a lot for no apparent reason too!

Thank you for your comment! Glad I could be of some help! I'm sure your piggies will settle down as the little one grows up :)

thanks this video has helped so much with my 3 females

Thank you! :)

Great video! Gizmo Popcorn-rumble struts all the time and it is sooo funny to watch :) My pigs have all learnt (from Snoopy) to teeth chatter when they smell their veggies and then they get they get positive reinforcement (veggies) so I think I'm stuck with that one haha they do such funny things :)

This video was so so useful! I’m currently trying to bond one pig with my other two girls. My one pig Oreo her sister died which left her on her own, so thought she needs to become a trio so she’s not on her own. Rosie and Ellie the other two, Rosie is dominant and Oreo is dominant and there was lots of chasing and occasional hair pulling from Oreo. Weirdly when they’re not in their cc cage and cuddled up in a fleece they all snuggle together but once they go back in the cc cage the dominance stuff starts again. They been together 9 days now so still early but some things are getting less. Ellie is the submissive piggy and wheeks when Oreo walks past or tries to wash her or even chases her. Very helpful video thank you 😊

Very helpful we have noticed those behaviors in our piggy's and was worried until your video thank so much.

This is a great video, thank you! I recently got three female guinea pigs and have had them for about 1 and a half months now. My biggest one shows a lot of dominance to the other two, and a lot of dominance is shown to my smallest piggy from both others. They live in an outdoor hutch which is quite big, but I also put them outdoors in their run so they have lots of space to run around in. Their run has three hidey houses, but their hutch just has one shielded area, so I'm going to add another one now. Often my biggest pig won't let Blaze, the smallest one in hidey houses and she'll chase her around. Blaze squeals sometimes too. And I've also noticed some mounting. I got really worried and was wondering if I should separate them, but this video reassured me a bit, still not entirely sure if it's just harmless dominance, or bullying. Of course I will be keeping an eye on them and hope that things don't escalate.

Thanks for your comment! :D Just shows how giving more space can definitely help piggies to get along better :)

That's great to hear! :) Thanks!!! Don't worry I haven't stopped making videos, I am just focusing on my university work right now, 3 weeks to go until I hand my project in and then I'll be making lots more videos - if you have any requests just let me know! :)

my god those fluffy things are cuuute 😍😍😍😍

Thank you for this video! I just recently got guinea pigs and one has been rumble strutting the other on and off for about 2 weeks! I read articles that said it might have to do with ovarian cysts. But after watching this video I think that it is just normal. Correct me if I am wrong though! thank you once again!

Also I did like you said in the video and go two of everything. Now it seems like there is a problem with the water bottle. I may just have to buy another one of those. Thank you again for the video. :)

Mine keep doing the mix of rumble-strutting and popcorning, too! It's quite entertaining to watch.

Thank you! :D

My two females started showing these dominance signs and at first was worried but then researched it. They do not seem to do it repeatedly so that is a relieving sign.

Haha! Awh I love Coco and Twinkle! Oh it could be an adult thing I'm not sure, you'll have to tell me if you ever catch them mounting lol!

Thanks Suzi! Pixie used to pull on Sprite's ears a lot, that could be another dominance thing! It never did her any harm though so I shouldn't worry about it :)

Thanks!! :D It is easy to tell with mine because Annie likes letting the others know she is in charge haha xD

Really helpful thank you so much

My two girls had an entire week of spraying urine at each other... I had to change the cage multiple times that week because of all the urine... sigh... My boss pig Guinea likes to nibble on Hazel's ear occasionally, she has never hurt her and usually Hazel just pulls away but it scares me a little due to the thinness of their ears. Thanks for taking the time to do this video it is really great information, it also makes me feel a lot better about my girls and their behavior toward each other.

Great video, very informative :-)

I think that could work because boars should naturally take charge, so hopefully when he's fully grown this is what he'll do :) You can help too by giving them more space so there are less confrontations - a group of four piggies should have at least a 2x6, but they would get along better with more space, especially if you have some strong personalities! :)

Oooh Sprite you floozy hahaha This was such a great video! I did a lot of research about guinea pig behaviour when I got my boys as I know introductions can be more difficult with them and I wish I had something like this to watch at the time! Perhaps I should do something like this but about bunnies.....hmmmmm :)

Hello Squeak Dreams, thank u so much for this video. I am a new guinea pig owner and was very worried about one of my piggies appearing to bully the other, after watching ur clip I realise it is very normal behaviour and quite mild. Lots more fun new behaviours to learn about I am sure. Xx :)

thanks this helped me a lot as I have the same prob but now I know what to do

Yes will do :)

this was so helpful i was so worried i would have to separate them

My guinea pig raises her head when the other shows dominance though

Really great interesting video. i find it so interesting watching their little dominance behaviors, Coco used to be the boss but now twinkles getting bigger she wants to be the boss they keep swapping. i suppose its because they are still young. ive never seen them try to mount each other is that an adult piggie thing? my piggies always do popcorn rumbles in their beds! looks like they are having a lil crazy fit haha! thanks for a great video good to see female dominance most videos are males x

Nice video :) I have a different problem, I have three girls and one boy. One of my girls is the boss, she walks like a boss and acts like a boss, the other two girls dont mind, they just run away when she is in the mood.. But, ofcourse, my boy cant stand that the girl is the dominant one, and they teeth clother all the time..once they had a fight that escaleted in bloody noses and ears.. So, i had to separate the boy.. Now, he is alone, chewing the wires all the time, it so sad

Very informative video! I have got a new piggie and i introduced it to my older piggie (they are both females), and the older one kept chasing the new one and i was really worried, but from this video now i know that they will soon get used to it and try to become mates. But the problem is that I had a pet shop cage for the two of them, and i know it isnt enough space and i was asking my parents for a c and c cage, but they think that a pet shop cage is fine, so hopefully i will ask them again on my birthday or christmas!

This helped alot, my new piggie Bella keeps squeaking when her cagemate goes near her, didn't have a clue why! Now I know haha x

I loved your video. I found it very helpful. I just got a new female GP and trying to introduce them. The first time scared me when one began to yawn and show teeth, so I separated them. Also they would get into the same hidey and this seemed to made things worse. Do you recommend arranging the cage differently ? Thank you so much.

Annie is sooo cute!!!!

I have 2 sows that have been in a 32 sq ft cage for a year now. They are both 3 years old and have always gotten along, until recently. Little Possum has always been the dominant of the two, Stella, is a bit smaller but until recently they have always gotten along. For about a week now, Possum has become much more aggressive in her behavior and I have found clumps of hair that has obviously been nipped out of Stella. They are now separate but in ajoining cages. I really hate this because I can tell Stella doesn't like being in another cage, but I can't risk her being injured.

Wow an hour of searching finally a video that shows what It looks like I was so worried

I have two female piggies (piglet and momma) piglet used to live with Shelly who was also a female but she unfortunately passed away and I then came across momma and introduced them and they have lived together for about a year and have never had a problem but all of the sudden tonight piglet keeps trying to mount momma and I got scared cause it did not happen with Shelly and piglet nor momma and piglet before so I’m glad I could watch this to realize this is some mating season and piglet is just doing her thing, but was genuinely scary to see for the first time because she is doing it so often tonight

The piggie whisperer

Sprite was on the bottom when she went upstairs, she was fed up of being harassed! She's in the middle now :) xxxx

Hello - I'm not too sure, but I know that changing a group means new pecking orders need to be set up, so for example if you take the two subordinate pigs, one of them will have to be the boss, so you will probably see dominance where you didn't see it before. However if they are sisters and they have been brought up together, chances are whichever ones you take home they will get along well :)

Just a tip never make the mistake I did I've seen my 2 guinea pigs mount each other twice and I was like is she pregnant but I checked there genders and they were defiantly both females so I googled it and it said it could be a sign of illness and I was like oh god no bit this video helped so I'm not paranoid

OK thanks...I can hardly sit still, I'm finely getting a guinea pig(s) !!

the water thing happened with my guineas as she started talking about it and the chasing thing happened when she started talking about it... 😂

ok then thank you so much! :)

This is what i see thanks

I want to say thank you for posting this video. I got two female guinea pigs about 4 months ago from a pet store and I was starting to get worried about the youngest one because she was squealing and running around just like you said in the video. Also the youngest would still want to sleep with the older piggy even though she would get annoyed with her and nip at her like you said in the video. This video you posted has helped relieved a lot of my stress about the pair of them.

could you do a daily routine? or maybe how much veggies you feed them and what type every day? and how much pellets?? Thanks

Have you introduced them? If they are fighting when you do then keep them separate because they'll hurt each other. If introductions go okay then keep an eye on them, if one doesn't give in and let the other take charge then they won't be able to live together happily.

thankyou:)

I saw what you mean about female dominance in piggies. I had two female Abyssinians together for 6 1/2 years. Iris (the one in my thumbnail picture) made it clear that she was the boss, but she and Daisy got along quite well. When Iris died, I got two babies for Daisy's new companions. They are Buddy, a male Coronet, and Cookie, a female American Crested. No amount of rumble-strutting or other attempts on Buddy's part to be dominant impressed Daisy in the least....... She would just figuratively "spank" Buddy, and send him back to his house. Two months ago, I adopted a female American, Dexie. Everything seemed fine until Daisy died 6 weeks ago. Now, Buddy has become so aggressive that I had to literally separate him from the others, and I can't even let him out for floor time with them. With the girls, even though Dexie is older, Cookie is dominant. But, fortunately, there's no real trouble between them. The ironic thing about Buddy is that he became more aggressive AFTER I had him neutered. That seems more than a little odd.

I have two female Guinea pigs and plan on adopting two more

This video is really great! I learnt something about why my pig sprays her pee lol

How interesting they should reference instinct to achieve the goals of self interest among one another. We use rationale to achieve these same ends. Instinct or language, both lead to behavior. Do we act like pigs, or do they act like us? The effect of language is to not only tell others, but ourselves. The difference with language, is we use it to tell lies with. Pigs have no such guile. Usually. When they spot a bit of food, they may sit on it to pretend it is not there, but usually can't resist trying to eat it too. Their terrible table manners give them away.

I have two male guinea pigs for about seven weeks now, and their going through male dominance/territory issues. But, sense it's the holidays, I'm going to expand my cage. -give me good luck!

Hello, sorry to hear that you had to separate your piggies, maybe the boar could live with one of the less bossy girls?

Nice...

Treating the site with cinnamon? I have never heard of this - what type of injury is it and how bad? How much blood was there? If they are fighting constantly and one has been hurt I would definitely keep them separate from now on.

Two of my guinea pigs started fighting awhile ago and it got pretty intense so I had to separate them. Ive tried to reintroduce them but they won't stop fighting. I have two other piggies as well.

Hi, good video. My 2 girls who are sisters have been together for 3 years but suddenly last week they started behaving like the serious fight you showed. Did you manage to pair them back up after this squabble and do you think my girls will ever be able to go back together ? I gave floor time and all seemed fine but then Cocoa made a charge for Ollie..so they are still split at the moment.

I'm still confused at which of my pigs is the dominate one, they have been together for over a year and one of my pigs will rumble strut down the cage but when they so the head raising thing she runs away and hides under their hay tray, the other pig I have never seen rumble strut but she always wins the head raising thing, they also fight over food about equally neither give in more than the other

sprite used to be the dominant piggie i remember when she ruled the upstairs area an no one else was allowed up there an then annie became the big bully an poor sprite is on the bottom rung now shes well looked after though :) xxxx

This has helped so much. I got my two piggies about 4 days ago and there sisters. They tend to raise their heads and knock each other with their heads then start squeaking really loudly. Should I worry about this? Thanks. This video must have taken ages to film!

This video was kind of useful to my current sitatuion. I have two young female guinea pigs when i first got them they would play day and night with each other and now one of them is showing dominance and the other one who would normally be very active is more quiet which makes me really sad i dont know what to do im thinking of getting another one to even out the hierarchy but the cage i have would be to small and i keep them in my room but i dont know if anyone could help that would be nice! Its so sad to see my poor lil guinea pig sad :(

Where did you get your fleece from? We are thinking of making the cage bigger and we want to try using fleece for our 3 seven week old guinea pigs. =D