introducing 2 guinea pigs

Question
Hi,  Ok here's my story, I did a bunch of research on introducing 2 piggies and it seems that 2 males are ok, if not best, we already had a boy, about 6months old and he lived alone inside.  My son has asthma and we were worried about the affect of the guinea pig on him.  Soooo we bought a beautiful, huge hutch for outside and a roommate!!!! the new piggy is about 5 weeks and when we introduced them the baby went straight over to the older one, and tried to hide behind him.  The older one's hair rose and he started making these gutteral noises and climbing over the baby, he peed on him even!! then he was putting his nose in the babies but and following him around, the baby was chatting the whole time ( sort of squeaking but quiter) They settled down and the big one let the little one hang behind him, or was he dominating the little on by squashing him a little?  Now they spent the night outside together and I was spying on them, the big on is still following the little one around a bit and making that low gutteral type sound ( kind of a like a jackhammer way far away).  What does this mean, the little one seems to run away from the big one now, although they were in the nesting area together.   I put a couple of hiding boxes in the cage too, and a towel, I'm afraid they are cold, lots of food too.  I am worried that the big one won't let the little one eat.... ok what do I do? what does this sound mean? thanks so much I am ever so worried.

Zoe  

Answer
Hello Zoe,

The rumbling sound is not an aggressive sound. He's just telling the baby he's the boss. They sound like they are just establishing dominance and that everything is actually going very smoothly. Just keep an eye on them but it sounds like things are going very well and there's no cause for worry. As long as he isn't hurting the baby things should be just fine. Good luck.

-kkat
http://www.geocities.com/abyssinianguineapigs