Hi all,
I was wondering if I could have a bit of advice - some of what I have read conflicts slightly.
We have two 6 month old boars who we have had since August, and generally speaking they get on fine. There is a bit of purring and some bum wiggling but no teeth chattering and no fights.
We rescued two other boars who were roughly about the same age last week. It's quite clear they have rarely been handled and they are very very scatty - constantly running around the cage when you try and pick them up and Scruffy is quite dominant with Snoopy (possibly more so than the original two boars) - again, no teeth chattering or major fights, just a bit of mounting - Snoopy actually usually popcorns after Scruffy has chased him for a while.
Today we decided to see if we could possibly bond them. We know that boars are a bit more difficult to bond and are quite happy, if they don't get along, to separate the two pairs to the original pairing.
We laid out a massive space in the spare room, where they have never been before as the two original boars had run around the living room lots before.
We put Gilles and Banana down (original boars) and they had a little squeak and run around, and then we placed Scruffy down too. I don't know whether I should have just kept either Gilles or Banana out, and the other one in the cage - maybe the two of them against the new boar was too much.
Anyway, Gilles (who is the passive boar) went to Scruffy after a little while - no teeth chattering, had a sniff for about 30 seconds and then all hell broke lose. Massive, loud teeth chattering. Once Gilles set off, Banana followed suit, even though he was no where near Scruffy. Scruffy was actually completely unphased by the whole ordeal - just pottering around, no teeth chattering. Gilles would occasionally try and approach Scruffy but as soon as he was about 8cm away from him he would start this loud teeth chattering again and run away. Scruffy was quite inquisitive and went to follow Gilles and then they lunged at each other - both flew in the air and jumped off one another - the only person who was injured was my OH who was quite near (which may have made the ordeal harder for them - he wanted to be near in case they needed to be separated with a towel). No blood was shed and no fur lost.
After that Gilles and Banana were very agitated and would not stop chattering. At this point I didn't know whether to just let them get on with it, but I'm such a wuss (or sensible, I don't know) that I put Gilles and Banana in their cage and Scruffy in his.
Scruffy was fine - went to go and nibble on some food. Gilles and Banana on the other hand spent about ten minutes chattering at EACH OTHER (never happened before) and getting very forceful with one another. Little nips, and a LOT of bum wiggling with constant chattering. We put some veg in their cage and when this didn't stop it, we got them both out individually and held them separately to try and calm them down. This seemed to work and now they seem okay - although quite tired.
My OH is convinced we need to give it another go - he really wanted to have them all together. Again, no blood was shed and I've read conflicting reports that say once they have lunged at one another it's near impossible for them to bond, whereas another report said providing no blood was shed it should be fine to try again.
I have read that washing them ALL before bonding may help - which, if we try again, we will absolutely do. We didn't even try and put Snoopy in the mix - he is quite passive so maybe we should have tried him first.
I'm really upset by what happened, mainly because I feel I have let them all down and harmed them in some way (although not outwardly). It would break my heart if I had done something wrong and if I have I am truly sorry because my guinea pigs mean the world to me.
We won't be able to try bonding them again until after Christmas anyway as we are going away to my Mum's and my OH's Mum will be looking after them. But obviously, if the signs above suggest we shouldn't try and bond them at all, we won't.
Any advice would be very gratefully received.
Many thanks xox
I was wondering if I could have a bit of advice - some of what I have read conflicts slightly.
We have two 6 month old boars who we have had since August, and generally speaking they get on fine. There is a bit of purring and some bum wiggling but no teeth chattering and no fights.
We rescued two other boars who were roughly about the same age last week. It's quite clear they have rarely been handled and they are very very scatty - constantly running around the cage when you try and pick them up and Scruffy is quite dominant with Snoopy (possibly more so than the original two boars) - again, no teeth chattering or major fights, just a bit of mounting - Snoopy actually usually popcorns after Scruffy has chased him for a while.
Today we decided to see if we could possibly bond them. We know that boars are a bit more difficult to bond and are quite happy, if they don't get along, to separate the two pairs to the original pairing.
We laid out a massive space in the spare room, where they have never been before as the two original boars had run around the living room lots before.
We put Gilles and Banana down (original boars) and they had a little squeak and run around, and then we placed Scruffy down too. I don't know whether I should have just kept either Gilles or Banana out, and the other one in the cage - maybe the two of them against the new boar was too much.
Anyway, Gilles (who is the passive boar) went to Scruffy after a little while - no teeth chattering, had a sniff for about 30 seconds and then all hell broke lose. Massive, loud teeth chattering. Once Gilles set off, Banana followed suit, even though he was no where near Scruffy. Scruffy was actually completely unphased by the whole ordeal - just pottering around, no teeth chattering. Gilles would occasionally try and approach Scruffy but as soon as he was about 8cm away from him he would start this loud teeth chattering again and run away. Scruffy was quite inquisitive and went to follow Gilles and then they lunged at each other - both flew in the air and jumped off one another - the only person who was injured was my OH who was quite near (which may have made the ordeal harder for them - he wanted to be near in case they needed to be separated with a towel). No blood was shed and no fur lost.
After that Gilles and Banana were very agitated and would not stop chattering. At this point I didn't know whether to just let them get on with it, but I'm such a wuss (or sensible, I don't know) that I put Gilles and Banana in their cage and Scruffy in his.
Scruffy was fine - went to go and nibble on some food. Gilles and Banana on the other hand spent about ten minutes chattering at EACH OTHER (never happened before) and getting very forceful with one another. Little nips, and a LOT of bum wiggling with constant chattering. We put some veg in their cage and when this didn't stop it, we got them both out individually and held them separately to try and calm them down. This seemed to work and now they seem okay - although quite tired.
My OH is convinced we need to give it another go - he really wanted to have them all together. Again, no blood was shed and I've read conflicting reports that say once they have lunged at one another it's near impossible for them to bond, whereas another report said providing no blood was shed it should be fine to try again.
I have read that washing them ALL before bonding may help - which, if we try again, we will absolutely do. We didn't even try and put Snoopy in the mix - he is quite passive so maybe we should have tried him first.
I'm really upset by what happened, mainly because I feel I have let them all down and harmed them in some way (although not outwardly). It would break my heart if I had done something wrong and if I have I am truly sorry because my guinea pigs mean the world to me.
We won't be able to try bonding them again until after Christmas anyway as we are going away to my Mum's and my OH's Mum will be looking after them. But obviously, if the signs above suggest we shouldn't try and bond them at all, we won't.
Any advice would be very gratefully received.
Many thanks xox
