Aggressive young boars - any advice?

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pigwig

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Hello! I posted this last night and someone very helpful guided me to here as I'd posted in wrong place. I'm having some problems with my male guinea pigs, and am struggling to get advice from vet etc. and wondered if experienced people out there might have some solutions?

I had 2 male guinea pigs for several years (brothers) but a few months ago one of them sadly died. I had read it is unfair to keep them alone, so I got Gordon 2 new "friends" - both a few weeks old. I was unable to find litter mates locally, so I think this may be part of the problem. They all seemed to settle quite nicely, with Chicco being dominant and Pedro less so. However, I have 2 problems. Firstly, Pedro is almost impossible to handle - he is extremely friendly in his hutch or run, but can't bear to be picked up and cuddled, despite daily attempts. The vet thought he may not have been handled as a baby, and I had hoped it would settle, but 2 months on he is still unhappy being touched or held.

Second problem is the dominance seems to have shifted and now Pedro is more dominant. The other day he attacked Chicco, and I have had to remove Chicco from the hutch while his wounds recovered (his eye was injured, so we're talking proper fighting). Pedro and Gordon seem OK together, but I have tried to reintroduce Chicco with each of them on their own and also together. Pedro became aggressive with him again, and Chicco became aggressive with poor old Gordon. Both Pedro and Chicco also do a lot of "scenting" and actually both have strong odours when they do. I now have 3 guinea pigs who don't live happily together, and I was just trying to make things right for Gordon. I can seperate Chicco permanently, but then I'm back to square one - a lone guinea pig which I thought was unkind. I have kept several male guinea pigs before and never had this problem.

The vet adviced neutering, but I have since read it doesn't make a difference - any advice from experienced boar keepers out there?! Thank you so much!
 
I'm not a huge amount of help. But i would have thought getting 2 babies was the problem. As they already know one another they may not have worked well. Where did you introduce your three? Sometimes 3 boars just simply do not work at all. I would advise putting the babies back in together to live together and finding a local rescue to do some boar dating with your older lad.

x.
 
Hi again!

Your two young boys have obviously hit the stroppy months when the hormones run wild with a vengeance and have had a serious fall out. Please do not try to re-introduce if there are have been serious bites; it almost never works. Sadly, boar trios rarely make it past the hormonal months, unless you happen to have at least two laid back characters in the mix.

Some piggies will never really enjoy being cuddled. You can help the experience by picking up Pedro in a cosy, a folded towel, a padded shoe box with one end cut off or a padded upturned pigloo (the latter with a little treat placed at the far end). That will cut down on the stress of being picked; guinea pigs also like confined spaced - they calm them down.

Try to cuddle Pedro under a towel and find out where he tolerates being touched the most. Don't cuddle him for too long; rather listen to him and what he tells you; he will trust you more if you heed what he is trying to tell you. With patience, you can get him to tolerate being cuddled for a short while. Praise him lots and give him a little veg treat afterwards.

You can either keep Chico next door to the other two boys, try to bond him with another youngster (with the same risk of a potential fall out once the youngster hit the hormones) or consider having him neutered and living with a girl. However, that means, he will have to live well away from the two other boars and you have to face the not inconsiderable risk of post op complications, but a cross gender bond (provided the boar has been accepted by the sow) is the most stable and I have yet to hear of a fall out after the initial acceptance has happened.
http://www.susieandpigs.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/optionsmenu.htm
 
Thanks to you both - Chicco is currently spending time near the others, and although they do lots of aggressive chattering, they are also squeaking to each other which makes me think at least he's happier with some company rather than none! I have thought about a female for him... I never guessed it would be so complicated! At least Gordon (the original guinea pig) seems settled and happy in his old age - obviously his hormones have settled a bit!

I will try those tips with Pedro - he's clearly very fond of human company, and I've noticed he's happier being stroked in his run, as long as he's left there, so I'll try the towel and see what happens.
 
I've put a long post on a thread entitled "baring teeth" about boar behaviour. We've been through this so please have a look.

Neutering, regardless of what your vet says, will do absolutely nothing. It will not change your piggies' behaviour. It will mean that you can put them with a sow or two each without fear of unwanted pregnancy but that's it :)

Best of luck
 
Thanks for the reply - despite having no problems with boars in the past, I am increasingly coming to realise that perhaps it's not so unusual to have squabbles. I have kept mine apart - they still squeak to each other, but if I put them in adjoining runs they still do all the chattering of teeth, so I really don't want to risk a re-introduction. My biggest worry is that the one on his own will get lonely (the dominant one is in with my old boar, and they seem fine together). But I am very cautious about getting another friend for him, and I'm undecided about getting him neutered so he could live with a female.

Thanks to everyone for their advice - seems like there is no magic solution!
 
pigwig said:
Thanks for the reply - despite having no problems with boars in the past, I am increasingly coming to realise that perhaps it's not so unusual to have squabbles. I have kept mine apart - they still squeak to each other, but if I put them in adjoining runs they still do all the chattering of teeth, so I really don't want to risk a re-introduction. My biggest worry is that the one on his own will get lonely (the dominant one is in with my old boar, and they seem fine together). But I am very cautious about getting another friend for him, and I'm undecided about getting him neutered so he could live with a female.

Thanks to everyone for their advice - seems like there is no magic solution!
Click to expand...

I know how you feel. After we had to separate our two boars, we ummed and arrred about getting them neutered and bringing in two sows but in the end we couldn;t do it to them. After speaking to soooo many people on the subject, we came to the conclusion that having their cages next to each other was enough for them. They're not lonely and know each other are there - they miss each other if one has to go to the vet or is away from the room for too long. They just can't stand to be together physically and that's just the way it is.

I'm sure your single pig will be fine as long as he can communicate with the other two.
 
Sadly we no longer have the problem :( The single pig had to be put down on Tuesday after developing neurological signs that got worse over a few days. The vet was hopeful at first, and kept him in, but he just got worse and worse. It's not thought to be related to his attack a few weeks ago, but just an unhappy coincidence. The only consolation is that because he was living on his own and he was super cuddly, he had a lot of extra attention. So, we now have 2 pigs - an old friendly one and a difficult to handle one - but they seem content together which is the main thing.
 
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