guineas

Question
i recently purchased 2 guinea pigs from 2 different pet stores. they one is between 7-8 weeks old and the other is 6-7 weeks old. The oldest is suppose to be a female and the youngest a male. when i got them home and put them in the cage the older one kept nipping at the younger one, as time went on it seemed like the older one got more aggressive and would charge the younger and nip at him. I separated them because the smaller one was getting hurt . The younger one has bonded pretty good as to where we can hold him , he doesn't run when we pick him up, on the other hand the older one runs overtime we pick it up and it doesn't act like the smaller one when we hold it. the smaller one looks at us and will climb around on us as the older one will just put his nose in the crease of our arm as if he is hiding. i want to have them together but him afraid ......please help, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.......thank you

Answer
First let me apologize for not answering sooner. I sounds like you may have two males rather than one male and one female. If not raised together they can be very territorial and aggressive.

You understand of course that putting a boar and a sow together is going to make babies. Although it's fun to see newborn guinea pigs grow, it's also not a good idea to keep the mother in breeding all the time.

If they were truly only two months old they shouldn't be that aggressive yet. I wonder if maybe they're older than you were told.  If possible, take a picture a post it of their belly and genitalia.  Let's be sure that you don't have two boys who are determined not to get along.

Of course the other possiblity is that the larger one is a female and in heat, causing her to be really cranky and pick on the younger female. I find that most pet stores are not good at sexing pigs and more often than not their guess is wrong.

There are some females that simply refuse to be housed peacefully with others.  The main thing at this point is that you don't want the smaller pig injured by a serious bite. I would advise keeping them separated until you know for sure who is who.  Please try to send me a picture so I can see what you have.