Advice needed please on 2 fighting boars

[Paul_A]

Hello

I have read through a number of threads giving useful advice on keeping male guinea pigs.

I wonder though if anyone could give me some specfic advice on the problem we have.

We have 3 boars Batman, Robin and Scooby who we got as babies at around 12 weeks back in April this year.

For the first 3 weeks they all lived together but in the end we had to seperate Batman as he was being picked on by Robin. Robin would steal his food from his mouth and not let poor Batman in the bedding area of the hutch. Batman even started sleeping in the hay rack!

Through the summer Batman has been happy living in a separate hutch and run next to Robin and Scooby. Robin and Scooby on the whole, get on Ok, although sometimes Robin will chase Scooby around and drive him nuts! Also Robin does not let Scooby in the beeding area, so he sleeps in a guinea pig igloo in the main part of the hutch.

In the last couple of weeks as it has become to get colder at night we have been bringing them in. As in the hutch Robin goes in the bedding area and Scooby sleeps in the igloo.

On Friday Scooby ventured into Robin's bedding area whilst Robin was busy eating. Eventually Robin realised where Scooby was and ventured into the bedding area. After 30 seconds or so there Scooby came flying out the area followed by Robin who launched himself at him and there was a fight where the rolled around sqeaking very loudly. I managed to break it up and they went to the respective beds. Thankfully there was no blood or damage and no further problems during the night and for a few days after.

Now tonight (Tues) there has been another fight this time in the hutch but poor Scooby had his ear bitten and has some wounds to his back. So we have left Robin in the hutch outside with a heatpad and bought Scooby in tonight.

Now we are not really sure what to do next. Has this fighting happended due to them having a new night enviroment? Will Robin and Scooby ever be able to get on?

We thought perhaps we could reintroduce Scooby to Batman and they could live together, so we gave them 5 mins on our laps this evening. However for the first 2 mins they didn't seems to notcie each other until Scooby went sniffing around Batman which then started some chattering and heckles went up. So we separated them before another fight broke out. Is there any chance these two could get on?

If anyone can suggest what the best thing to do is, it would be much appreciated.

 

[Wiebke]

New surroundings can cause fallouts with boars, especially with yours who are in the hormonal phase.

You can either try to rebond Robin and Scooby or bond Batman and Scooby (which might be equally difficult, as they have obviously not been living next door to each other and in constant contact. Whatever you try - try it with lots of space and time (up to a day)! And prepare yourself for some fireworks as things won't go smoothly at first.

It would be good if you either kept you piggies outside all the time (with adequate protection) or indoors. The constant change in environment and temperatures is quite stressful for them and can lower their immune system.

 

[clairelove]

i own a guinea rescue and paired up 2 males as well around 8 wks of age these went to there new home together but around 4 months old these came back to me as they had started to fight very bad ....then the next day i had the same problem with 2 other boars i have one is 8 mths and the other 5 months they had been paired up for 2 mths were getting on great then i noticed the 5 mth old was picking on the older one he was jumping as his face humping etc i thought i would just watch what was going on before removing them and the 5 mth old bit the older one on his face and was constantly jumping up at his face and teeth chattering very loud so in the end they were separated ..one thing i have found same litters are easier to pair in same sex meaning boars i had not had any problems but i have around the 5 mth mark with different paired up litters ..in my opinion trying to reintroduce to boars who have already fallen out rarely works again..

 

[Paul_A]

i own a guinea rescue and paired up 2 males as well around 8 wks of age these went to there new home together but around 4 months old these came back to me as they had started to fight very bad ....then the next day i had the same problem with 2 other boars i have one is 8 mths and the other 5 months they had been paired up for 2 mths were getting on great then i noticed the 5 mth old was picking on the older one he was jumping as his face humping etc i thought i would just watch what was going on before removing them and the 5 mth old bit the older one on his face and was constantly jumping up at his face and teeth chattering very loud so in the end they were separated ..one thing i have found same litters are easier to pair in same sex meaning boars i had not had any problems but i have around the 5 mth mark with different paired up litters ..in my opinion trying to reintroduce to boars who have already fallen out rarely works again..

Thanks Clairelove. Yes the two fighting whilst a similar age are from different litters.

 

[Alicia]

2 of my boars did that so they now have to live alone because they fight with all the boars I have. You could try re-introducing them, but as was already said it doesn't work very often.