Barbering
Though I have seen this kind of behaviour many times I am
not completely convinced that it is a dominance thing. That
is, one animal trying to prove it is the dominant in a more
acceptable way than in fighting. It usually is one guinea
pig doing it to another one or any number of them, if they
are penned that way, but as can be seen in the photograph
of brothers, Jack and Jimmya pair can do it to one another.
Note the neatness of the trimming and how nicely balanced
the hair length is either side. With these kind of skills
I'm sure the average 'barbering' guinea pig could land itself
a job with any top high street hair stylist!.
I had one amazing example of one of a litter of three, a
sow, barbering her sister brother and her mother. I first
noticed it when the 'barber' was about ten days old, and by
the time she had been weaned, about four weeks later, the
rest of her family were very well shorn!. The fact that such
a young animal can do this and suffer no ill effects, underlines
my belief that guinea pigs simply cannot get hair balls. This
is despite the fact that most of this hair is ingested, for
you will never find hair cuttings but if you open up the pellets
of the barberer you will find the hair there!. Though this
is mere speculation, could the barberer need more roughage,
so to speak, when it behaves like this!?
There are some guinea pigs who will calmly sit there and
allow themselves to be barbered while others will respond
P.D.Q. with a head butt or worse.
