Guinea pig age and dominance?

Question

i have 2 guinea pigs one is about 3 or 4 years old and the other just turned 1 year old. recently i have noticed that my older guinea pig is very skinny and the other one has gained weight. could my young guinea pig be bullying the older one now that she herself is getting older and more dominant, and this be the reason for the other losing so much weight?

Answer 1

That happened to me to. I have a sow (female) guinea pig, and she is younger then my boar (male.)

She bosses him around a lot too, and steals his food. It sounds like they just aren't getting along as well as you thought, even if they came together from the petstore or wherever.

Answer 2

maybe put a treat in the cage and watch to see what happens

Answer 3

Usually, the very first sign of illness in a guinea pig is weight loss. If I were you, I would not shrug it off to being bullied out of food. That could turn out to be a very tragic assumption.

Because of her age and dramatic weight loss, you should take her to a competent exotics vet for examination as soon as possible. She may have malocclusion, which can make eating painful.

Guinea pigs are very good at hiding illness until they are too sick to hide it any longer. By the time YOU notice, its usually much worse than you think. Take her in tomorrow.

Answer 4

Are they the same s*x?  If they are one of each could be the "fatter" one is pregnant!  Also depends on how long you've had them, I would say it may be a dominance thing but the dominance usually would come from the older one, the older pig may be poorly or could even be getting near to the end.  They can live to about 3-6 years, to be on the safe side I would go and have them both checked out.  

Answer 5

i cant imagine why a younger guinea pig would be bullying an older guinea pig. usually the older guinea pig would be bullying the younger one, so there is no bullying going on. i think there is something wrong with the older one. take it to a vet