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My teeny buns are becoming little pigs!

Mervinius

Mama Doe
Hello,

Archie and Pip appear to be turning into teeny little piglets. When we go to feed them their pellets there's a lot of grunting (sounds like oinking to me) and will sometimes end in a scuffle between them. Which I break up. I'm worried it might escalate into a big fight.

They have always chased each other in excitement at pellet time, but this is definitely different.

They only did it a couple of times just before we left our old house. But it's becoming daily in our new house.

They do get more freedom here, but other than that the feeding regime has stayed the same.

Which is 10g pellets 3 times a day.

They don't do this with treats or hay only their pellets

Any ideas??

They are perfectly happy together the rest of the time. Pip is the top bun and the scuffling seems to start if Archie gets into the food first. So we've been trying to give it to Pip first. Which is hard when they are zooming around your feet in excitement.
 
I had something similar when we first got Tui. Everything was fine between her and Tethra apart from pellet time and every time for a few weeks, Tethra would give her a nip as she tried to eat, but it never developed into anything. Out of nowhere it suddenly stopped and he certinly doesn't do it now, but then she is at least 50% larger than him :lol:

If it continues and you are concerned that it could get worse, then I would certainly scatter feed the pellets widely. They will then be more interested in finding the pellets than getting upset with each other.
 
Hello,

Archie and Pip appear to be turning into teeny little piglets. When we go to feed them their pellets there's a lot of grunting (sounds like oinking to me) and will sometimes end in a scuffle between them. Which I break up. I'm worried it might escalate into a big fight.

They have always chased each other in excitement at pellet time, but this is definitely different.

They only did it a couple of times just before we left our old house. But it's becoming daily in our new house.

They do get more freedom here, but other than that the feeding regime has stayed the same.

Which is 10g pellets 3 times a day.

They don't do this with treats or hay only their pellets

Any ideas??

They are perfectly happy together the rest of the time. Pip is the top bun and the scuffling seems to start if Archie gets into the food first. So we've been trying to give it to Pip first. Which is hard when they are zooming around your feet in excitement.


I use a very big bowl, or you could try scattering the pellets around.

If you don't think there's enough to scatter around at each sitting, add them together and do less sittings - less occasions for them to get wound up and grunty. I only feed my lot pellets once a day, but they are definitely manically excited about it!
 
Thanks to both of you. We currently just put them straight in the floor, so no bowl to fight over.

We started feeding in small amounts because we found that if they ate their whole amount of pellets in one go, their teeny tummies couldn't cope and they kept getting gas and stasis. Especially combined with Pips fur pulling which she's doing alot at the moment. Grrr

I will try scattering and see if that works. I do that with treats sometimes and they are so busy zooming around at full speed that they don't notice the treats all around them ... Hahaha.
 
I will try scattering and see if that works. I do that with treats sometimes and they are so busy zooming around at full speed that they don't notice the treats all around them ... Hahaha.
That was totally my experience! If Lopsy finds something first at this point, Aboleth sometimes is too overexcited and starts humping him :S I make sure mine are fed pellets in a small space, that stops it for them :) Aboleth might have a bit of a grunty grumble but she's too eager to get to her side of the cat bowl to really care :lol:
 
So I tried spreading them out slowly rather than scattering them last night. It worked quite well. However I think they somehow had realised it was pellet time. Haha

This morning OH gave them breakfast before I got downstairs. I noticed Pip got fed first and there was no grunting. We'll try a few different things till we can stop the piggy noises, although I must admit the noises are cute.
 
Update. Buns had been better. However last night at their 6pm feed they were really bad and OH had to separate them. They were fine afterwards though.

Today fine in the morning. I gave them hay at 6 to fill them up a bit and then pellets at 6.30pm. Both chasing each other and lunging and grunting. Tried separate piles of food but both want to eat the other ones piles. Ended up separating them to eat either side of the pen!!!!

It's so weird because theyve been fine for 3 years so I don't understand why it's now happening.
 
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