Male Guinea Pigs - Fighting???

Question
We have two male guinea pigs aged approx 19 weeks, we bought them from a local pet shop aged 14 weeks and were originally looking for two girls but the lady in the store who was also an ex-vet nurse advised that they were out of the same litter and she had not had any problems with them and so they should be ok together.  They do seem to love being with each other and snuggle together even when we sit them apart on different peoples laps they still want to get together. A couple of weeks ago we noticed they were not eating their hard food the same; usually they devour carrot and especially cucumber eating all the dark green first. They started to graw at just the inside at the ends and leave the dark green outer.  We took them to the vet to get them checked out who confirmed that cookie had broken both his bottom teeth and Pip had one long bottom tooth and the other either broken off or he was born with one longer than the other.  She asked if there is anything in the hutch that they could have broken them on, but apart from a ceramic food bowl and a metal hay rack we couldn't think of anything and she suggested that maybe they could have been fighting.  She advised we chop their food small which seems to have solved the problem as we are certainly getting an empty bowl anyway.  However,  we hand fed them a piece of apple the other day and noticed a speck of blood on Pip's piece but didnt think anymore about it.  Tonight when my daugher got them out she noticed Pip now has no bottom teeth and could just see his pink gum and Cookie only one top tooth.  I did notice a few cross words between them the other day when they were in their hutch as they were both trying to hide in their igloo together and they do sometimes push eachother out of the way with their noses but thought it was as they are still a bit timid that they are trying to hide.

Do you have any suggestions?

Do you think we should take them back to the vets, although not sure they can do anything?

My daughter is worried that we may have to split them up?

We have never had pets before until our 12 year old daugher persuaded us after about a year of hounding us to get our piggies and we are really happy with them and have really suprised ourselves as we love them to bits but not sure what is usual behavior.

Hope you can help.

Thanks

Vicky Thornley

Answer
Only severe fighting can result in tooth loss. Did you have things in the cage for them to chew on? Shouly could be jewing on things that are bad for their teeth because they had nothing else to chew on. They sound like normal male piggies, and I see no need in seperation. Often times pet stores (without knowing have inbreed or badly bred babies) this is the most common reason for teeth problems like this. What does your piggy look like? There are two breeds of guinea pigs that are strongly not recomended to breed together because it can result in this exact  problem. The types of pig are called the dalmation and a roan. A dalmation, is obviously white with black spots or patches. A roan can be any color but exibits a fur that has white hairs mixed with the colors (hard to tell). It could aslo be a result of inbreeding like I said. To tell you the truth, these are the only reasons I have evr seen for teeth problems. You may need to take them to the vet in order to get information on a soft food to start feeding them. The pellets can result in gum damage if there are no teeth. I am sorry, and let me know if there is anything else I can do. Good luck.