Advice please 😊

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Dewhywer

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Hi Guys,

I posted the other day about my 2 boys who have the last couple of days had a few arguements, teeth chattering, rumblestrutting, bit of chasing & the odd lunge.

I finally thought they were settling down again today but I’ve just noticed my one pig has obviously been nipped on his lip.

would you suggest I separate them for a day or 2 before reintroducing on neutral territory?

thanks guys, worried first time boar mummy
 
Have they actually settled down today? My concern is that if the nip occurred a couple of days ago, and they’ve calmed down today then have they sorted themselves out and therefore you separating them will do more harm than good. If there was a fight today and they haven’t calmed down at all, then that is different.

Your boys are teenagers (I’ve looked back on your previous post) so rumbling, chasing etc is all normal and is just a mild dominance behaviour and in itself is no reason to separate. However, If there has been a fight and blood drawn, then they need separating - where fights and blood have occurred, you can’t reintroduce them.
 
Thanks for replying,
The nip must have happened this evening. They keep having little stand off moments, and then 2 minutes later they are fine, laying down close to each other or sharing a hay pile despite there being plenty of others.
Sat watching them now & they are up close to each other, quite happily eating & the pig that got nipped has even just gone up to the other pig.
 
It sounds like there could be tensions but they’ve not yet completely boiled over.
You are obviously best placed to judge their behaviour and how tense things really are between them. If you are concerned that things arent good between them and could well escalate, then popping a divider between them may be wise.

How big is their cage?

I can’t remember whether I added guides into your thread yesterday so I’ll add them here. Give them a read and see where your boys are in terms of their relationship

Bonds In Trouble
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?
 
I’ve been reading those threads, so was just after a little guidance, I thought they were doing better, but this nip has thrown me.
One minute they are fine, then we have a minute of tension & then they settle again.
They are in a 2x5, I do have a spare cage so if I need to would I be better dividing or completely separating?
Sorry for all the questions, just trying to work our what’s best for them, I don’t want to upset the bond if I don’t have to.
 
Don’t apologise for asking questions!

Yes, it’s tricky seeing they are calming down and getting on well in between times, A full on fight is much easier to deal with in that respect - a fight is a complete relationship failure warranting immediate separation. If this is just dominance but they are sorting it out, then all is not necessarily lost.

Is there anything else which you can tell us about the situation - are both piggies allowed to eat, are they both otherwise happy and gaining weight?
Have you made any changes to their cage etc changes of environment can set off dominance disputes
Have you found any other scratches or scabs on either one of the boys?

Dividing a 2x5 as an absolute emergency measure is fine but it leaves either side too small really. But even if you do need to separate, they still need to remain next to each other to enable through the bar interaction.
 
Thank you 😊

Nothing has changed, although they did have their first time outside at the beginning of the week.
Have found no other marks/scabs on either pig.
Both are eating, drinking, sleeping as they want. The pig that seems to be starting the arguments, has been the much quieter/timid pig for the 3 months I’ve had them. He lets my other pig be, they can be quite happily near each other & then if they come face to face he’ll start, but if the other pig walks away he generally just lets him & goes back to what he was doing.
 
Going purely on what you have said above, then I would leave them together but continue to monitor them.
If one is walking away, then that can be a sign of submission and they are otherwise getting on with things happily, then I’m leaning towards it being dominance rather than an issue at present.

Just another thing just so I can confirm my own thoughts on this - if you said in your other post, then forgive me for asking again, but long have they been together? And how long have you had them?

Spring time can do strange things to boars and set them off, I’m noticing it with my own two boars!
 
I’ve had them 3 months, but adopted them as a pair that had been together from young. They had been given up as apparently they were bought for a child who turned out to be allergic to them.

I've just cleaned the nip & noticed what looks like another little nip to the side of his mouth.
 

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Not sure about the side of his mouth but it does look like it could be a little nip at the top. I’m just not sure that, given they are completely settling down and are otherwise happy, a temporary separation is quite needed at this point. If the behaviour was relentless and you’d witnessed a proper fight then I’d be saying separate but they don’t seem to be completely unhappy with each other going by what you have said. It is of course tricky for us as we can only interpret the written word rather than actually seeing what is going on!
 
Thank you for all your help, I’ve put an extra water bottle in & will make sure there are plenty of piles of hay & just keep an eye on them.
At least I feel a bit more prepared if I do need to make the decision to split their cage 😊
 
This is them currently, they share a bowl even when they don’t need to 🙈
 

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Good idea.
They are gorgeous!
They are happily sharing and that doesn’t scream dysfunctional relationship to me!

The best thing with boars is to always have multiple of every item, it just means that they aren’t forced to argue over the same thing. Plenty of two exit hides, hay piles/racks, water bottles etc. What you can do to keep them occupied and give them something else to think about is to scatter their pellets and veg rather than feeding in bowls, hiding pellets and veg in amongst hay will also help keep them busy and encourage a natural foraging behaviour.
 
Thanks for your message.

They seem to be able to get on ok for a while but given you’ve now found cuts on your other piggy, I think I’d separate them for a day or so to calm down.

My own two boars have been together for almost two years, have never had any problems in their relationship but suddenly my more timid piggy has turned into a nuisance. I’m sure it’s spring time that has caused it and I’m crossing my fingers that he has a word with himself and calms down so I totally feel your stress when they are bickering!
 
Thank you for all your help, I’ve now split them & extended the cage so they have a 2x3 section each. As soon as they were both back in they got their hair up & starting teeth chattering at each other 🙁

I shall give them a couple of days before a reintroduction in neutral ground & see how we get on.

thanks again for all your help x
 
Good luck for the reintroduction. Keep me posted
If things fail at reintroduction and have to live separately, then do note that a 2x3 each isn’t really big enough for a permanent living arrangement
 
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