[Gpdd] BEHAVIOUR: Continuing drama

[Luita Dean Spangler]

Hello all,

The introduction process between Ritter (6 years old, blind in one eye)
and Tilly (2 1/2) remains difficult. I tried to get into Tilly's head to
see what was going on. I think she has had very little human contact, and
was fairly low in the hierarchy of her former herd. As a result, she is
very fearful, defensive, and tends to have panic attacks.

When I had the cage separated with a grid, eventually Ritter actually was
able to squish past one edge to be on the same side as Tilly! With this in
mind, I set up covers on opposite sides of the cage, leaving everything
open so she would have plenty of room to "escape" to the other side of the
cage if she was feeling threatened. Ritter is the picture of calm, often
falling deeply asleep smack in the middle of the cage. Tilly, on the other
hand, hangs out only on one far side of the cage or the other, under one
of the covers. This seemed to be working out well, for two weeks - until
yesterday, when there was an "incident", and Ritter ended up with a bloody
mouth. I can't tell if he bit himself, or if Tilly bit him, but it doesn't
seem like a serious bite, unlike the previous one near his eye. What I
suspect is that she panicked about something and ran into Ritter. Anyway,
I gave Ritter some of his leftover pain medicine and *sigh* put the grid
in the cage again, this time more securely, to separate them. I'll leave
the cage this way for several more days and then try again. Meanwhile I
spend part of each day holding Tilly to get her used to living with
humans, and this seems to be slowly working. I can pick her up from under
one of the covers now without her roaring about wildly to avoid me.

I tell you, I have had guinea pigs for years and years, and have NEVER had
such a difficult introduction! Wish me luck!

Luita, calm Ritter and dramatic Tilly