Boars fallen out

[smudgetelescope]

Hi, posting as we need some help. We adopted our first piggies - two bonded boars from a good rescue back in January, Thomas (now 22 months) and Percy (now 6 months).

Backstory - Initially we had them in a cage indoors, but I started having severe asthma attacks in April, and came out in hives ever time I touched them - even wearing gloves. I'm gutted - I was loving cuddles and loved having them by my office and sitting them on my lap whilst I worked. With current situation with Covid-19 being high risk to asthmatics I was told by doctors to get them out of the house asap. So we bought them a big (160cm) outdoors hutch and run whilst we figure out what to do. I'm really hoping the allergy is a stress/cortisone reaction and it will go away once the current world situation has calmed down (I had it once before with sudden random allergy that went away after a few months). Fingers crossed as we love our boys! If not we will have to investigate builing an insulated shed or something for the winter

Everything seemed to be going well until last week when the younger one (6 months) turned on the older one (22ish months) and has badly injured him. We heard a massive squabble at night and Thomas had a huge bite in his lip. He seems to be healing well, but on closer inspection we found bit on the rump, and a big cut on his ear. He's also lost a bit of weight so we are keeping a very close eye on him. I know the younger one has hit teenage years, and worried they might have got stressed out last week by noise as we had Virgin digging up massive holes in all the roads around us.

We've seperated them - in hutches side by side (though one hutch is off a friend and I think too small, which Thomas is in at the moment as he is calmer), with a divided run we've made. I'm stumped as to what to do - Thomas is happy in the hutch, we are giving him lots of time out in the run, but as soon as he and Percy are both out in the run he is attacking the cage like he's trying to get through to Percy. Obviously I'm worried about Thomas hurting himself more attacking the cage. I also know the hutch he is in is probably too small but I can't really afford to buy another big hutch. We have put them together a couple time in neutral space and they chase after each other and natter teeth loads.

Is there any chance of reconciliation or am I going to have to face that we might have to try and rebond with other guinea pigs? Also any suggestions as to what to do regardings hutches and runs?

 

[Piggies&buns]

Unfortunately once piggies have had such a fight their relationship is over. It sounds as if they are not compatible. This can happen when one hits his teens and has his own ideas on dominance.
Please keep them separate from now on, no more physical contact, but their cages need to be next to each other to enable through the bar interaction to prevent loneliness
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?

If you wish to bond them with other piggies and have two separate pairs, then that is a decision for you to make. The key to a successful bond is character compatibility so if at all possible, please take your piggies to a rescue centre for dating as this enables them to choose their own character compatible friend which will result in a good bond. Do be aware that at 6 months old, your youngest is in a tricky stage for rebonding - it can be done, but it has to be done the the way. He will be in his teens until 14 months of age

 

[smudgetelescope]

@p

Unfortunately once piggies have had such a fight their relationship is over. It sounds as if they are not compatible. This can happen when one hits his teens and has his own ideas on dominance.
Please keep them separate from now on, no more physical contact, but their cages need to be next to each other to enable through the bar interaction to prevent loneliness

at the moment the hutches are 90 degrees to each other - is that ok? Also is there a way to stop the older one attacking the cage? I honestly think he is missing his buddy, whilst the younger one seems quite indifferent now

 

[piggieminder]

I had 2 boars fall out, the youngest was about 6 months old like yours. We separated the cage they were in with a barrier and like yours one of them kept attacking the barrier. We covered the grids of the barrier so he couldn't see his ex friend and gradually removed the cover for a longer time over about a 2 week period until he got used to living side by side and stopped attacking the bars. We did try a reintroduction twice but it didn't work out, we did eventually pair them up with new friends. They lived very happily side by side for about 8 months. I hope this makes sense, my next door neighbour is hammering and I can't hear myself think, I'm going outside to garden and hope he finishes soon!

 

[Deem90]

My boys live in a split cage after a falling out too. One of them was chewing at the bars a lot at first so I used panels from a guinea pig pen with very thin gaps and zip tied them to the c and c panels. I think the smaller gaps made them realise theres no chance of getting through so they stopped bothering to chew straight away. Good luck with your boys hope they settle down soon!