Solution needed

[Tazmyne1]

Hi there, I am new and am seeking advice. We have 5 guinea pigs, two males ages 7yrs and 3 yrs and three females ages twin 8 month olds and one 7 month old. The girls live as a trio and the boys have recently experienced the lost of their 5yr old female cage mate only two weeks ago. Our 3yr old male Ralph is becoming a bit cranky with our other male Colonel and when we have one of the young girls out for lap time he just sits and stares at her and starts to wheek really loud. We are not sure what to do for him. Thank you in advance for your help.

[Lynx]

Are the males neutered or the females spayed? I do think you are in for a rocky time with the two males as everything has changed for them. It is unusual you had a female peacefully living with two males. They may have been a unique combination of personalities that is hard to replicate How large are their cages? What was life like when their female companion was with them?

[Tazmyne1]

Thank you for replying Lynx.
No they are all intact. Ralph is the Alpha male and Colonel has always been a Beta male so he doesn't really care about confrontation, he will usually just walk away.
Pig , our Alpha female that passed away had been with Colonel since she was about 2 months old along with Corporal (a Beta female who passed away in 2016). Ralph and Pig were together all the time, mostly cause Ralph wouldn't be without her.
They exsisted quite harmoniously only Ralph being a Alpha pushing them out of the road for food etc.
The boys enclosure is 6x4 grids x2 levels so there is enough space as Colonel does not go up and down the ramps anymore so Ralph has the whole bottom level to run around aswell away from Colonel.

[WICharlie]

How many litters did your females have while they lived "harmoniously" together?

[Tazmyne1]

While Pig, Ralph and Colonel have been together no litters were born at all.

[kailaeve1271]

That’s odd. Are you sure pig wasn’t a boy? Sometimes it can be tricky to tell

[Tazmyne1]

Ok I am sure she was female as before we adopted Ralph in 2016, she had 3 litters with Colonel but since 2014 she has not had babies.

[lisam]

And thank goodness for that.

However, it's not natural or normal that she never gave birth again. Either there was something wrong with her, or with them. Perhaps with her, which could be why she passed away at only 5 years of age.

At any rate, I'd say the boys are bound to get more and more dominant with each other, being around the young females.

[kailaeve1271]

I think getting them either more room Or neutered would help, but I feel after the passing they’ll be trying to figure out whose more dominant either way for a while, especially if your female was by a rare chance “alpha” over the males

[bpatters]

Actually, a female alpha in a cage with a male is very common, maybe even more so than the other way around.

[kailaeve1271]

Wow really? I haven't met anyone with a herd like that, but it's very interesting. Maybe I'm just not good at figuring out whose the dominant one though

[WICharlie]

What would probably help is to have the females live in a separate room. Then, if the males have a cage with the appropriate living space, they may very well settle down and do fine.