Odd Behaviour; guineapig biting my other guineapig’s fur

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GuineapigM

Post   » Sun Jul 07, 2019 10:38 am


Hello,

I have two female guineapigs that are 6 years old, Celia and June. Celia has been sick over the last year with a mass that has been slowly increasingly causing her to become incontinent. (I clean her daily). I recently added an additional pain management medication for her comfort and since then I have noticed that June has been nosing her body in the middle and around her ears a lot. She seems to be tugging at Celia’s fur but when I look nothing looks like it’s been pulled out. When I try to stop it, June starts again after a minute. Celia would normally make complaining sounds if she doesn’t like something, but she doesn’t seem bothered by it. June usually will stop after 2 minutes.

Has anyone else seen this behaviour? What does this mean and should I separate them? I feel that June knows that Celia is sick, I just want to make sure she’s not hurting her sister.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Sun Jul 07, 2019 12:45 pm


Guinea pigs can sense when another is sick, and will chase/lick/barber/annoy/whatever the sick one. If she stops after two minutes, and Celia doesn't seem disturbed by it, I wouldn't separate them. Separation may stress Celia out much more than having her fur tugged.

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Sun Jul 07, 2019 1:38 pm


I have seen it a few times. Ditto to avoid separation unless it appears that Celia is being bullied by June.

GuineapigM

Post   » Mon Jul 08, 2019 1:12 pm


Thank you both for the feedback.

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