Why is my guienea pig sow trying to mate her daughter?HELP!

[bossynbella]

So we have a 18 month old sow, this is her second litter of babies, the first litter we had people get right away (4weeks old) this litter we have A. had lots of interest but not sold a single baby, and B. Want to keep the only girl, and are going to give up our 2 year old boar and all three boy babies, (this way they can go in pairs, and we don't end up with more babies) we where told they where both girls when we got them, and they hate to live alone.

Anyway- The dad was separated at birth, and the boys where separated from the mom and girl at 2 weeks 5 days, when I caught one of the little ones trying to mount his mommy.

The mom and the daughter have lived happily together till tonight. Stella (the mom) keeps chasing her daughter (yet to be names) around the cage and trying to mount her whenever she stops. Is this normal, I took her out and had a talk to her, but when I put her back in she started doing it again. Shes not biting her or anything, but the little one doesn't like it at all and Stella is stressing her out chasing her around. I rechecked the baby, it is defiantly a girl. I know Stella is a girl obviously as she has had a total of seven babies.

Any advice? Their cage isn't huge but it isn't tiny either, I have two adult sows living in a sepearate cage just like it with no problems, they have a fresh carrot in their carrot holder, hay, pellets and a full water bottle. They have a chewy log thing to hide in and play in. and a little guinea pig shaped bell they like to play with.

Hoping she is just hormonal and will knock it off soon. She seems to have laid down now for a nap, the little one is chewing on the carrot, oops spoke to soon, now she is chasing her again. She is also purring (Like our boar would do when trying to mate.

 

[elevan]

I'd say Stella is in heat and feeling amorous.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

We have that issue with our three current boars sometimes. My daughter did extensive reading about this and found something that has worked on our guys....at least for a while.

She uses baby shampoo and bathes them all together in the same water at the same time (puts a couple of inches of water in the tub and uses a cup to bath them) and then dries them with the same towel. Somehow, it distributes not only the shampoo scent, but the scent of all the guinea pigs bathed onto each of the guys: In other words...each piggy smells exactly like the others. It seems to stop them from being "confused" for a couple of days: Usually long enough for them to get through the worst of the hormones.

I don't know if this will work on a sow in heat since we've never had a female guinea pig: Only 8 boars. It may be worth a try though.

 

[conny63malies]

my kids have a mother daughter guinea pig team too. Our momma tried to mount her daughter as well. could it be a dominance thing?

 

[punk-a-doodle]

I've heard this is a dominance thing, but just from what I've personally seen in rabbits and guinea pigs, females will mount other females/males when they are in heat (guinea pig) or get a ton of hormones surging through after reaching sexual maturity (rabbit; they don't have heat cycles, and are induced ovulators). I have never seen it happen outside of being in an obviously...receptive state, but if it does, then I'd assume it'd be social/dominance in nature.

 

[xchairity_casex]

yes iin rodents its very common show of dominace in rabbits,guinea pigs,rats,mice,hamsters,ect ive seen it often and used to answer people on yahoo answers when they would ask why it happend just let them go unless someone is being physically injured (wounds)
also i dont know if i rember this correctly or not but i think it was rodents who do not go thru a heat cycle like a dog or cat but are only receptive once around a male for a while? im not sure if that applies to guinea pigs however so dont quote me on that

 

[bossynbella]

They seem to have calmed down tonight. I am glad, Stella has always been my favorite, just because she is so calm, friendly and really nice to us and the other pigs.

I may be wrong but I believe guinea pigs are only fertile a few days every few weeks. Not sure of exacts, but they do kind of have a "cycle" unlike rabbits.