Boys fighting

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wind1

wind1

Teenage Guinea Pig
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My 2 young boars have started fighting. Last week they had a fight which resulted in Doodle (5 months) being bitten on the face by Zebedee (4 months). This has cleared up and since then there have been no more bites, but Doodle is forever chasing Zebedee away. They live in a two tier hutch so I have put 2 of everything in, one lot upstairs and one lot down. Doodle seems to think that he owns the whole hutch so wherever he is Zebedee is not allowed to go. They have the occassional scuffle and I have found small clumps of their fur so they are obviously going for each other but not actually biting the skin. I feel so sorry for Zebedee because he is continually running away and hiding from Doodle. He has one advantage over him, he can jump on top of the two boxes they use as beds and Doodle hasn't worked out how to do that. So at least I know he can get out of his way but is it fair on him to let it go on. I really don't want to seperate them unless I absolutely have to and I was hoping they would just be able to sort it out. Doodle is obviously going to be the dominant one but I don't want him to bully Zebedee for evermore which is what he is doing at the moment. Do you think I should seperate now or see how it goes?
 
as long as they can get away from each other keep them together as it sounds like they ar sorting them selves out
But if it looks like its getting out of control seperate
i had two fosters i had to seperate as one was living under the hutch despite two of everything!
 
I agree with Ron, just monitor them for now. If it really turns ugly then maybe use a divider if their area in which they are living is big enough. I refuse to seperate unless really necessary because getting them to be friendly again may prove to be difficult.

Good luck with them.
 
I dont know..I have always seperated them if theres blood drawn...you need to be really careful and monitor their behavior...if the piggy has a poor quality of life because of this bullying, and uit continues this way, I would def take him out, as its just not fair...

Give them a bit more time, hopefully they will establish dominance soon, and zebedeeshould stop seeing his friend as too much of a threat :)
 
Agree with you PP, because blood has been drawn it may have only been a one off but if it does happen again then I would divide or remove. :) I noticed Eccles going for Pudsey yesterday in the run, it was something and nothing but I think he is fed up on Pudsey's constant rumbling!

Boys eh! :)
 
I'm having problems with two of mine atm. They are about 7 months now and they are starting to argue, never had any blood drawn though. If there is any blood drawn then I would separate. J
ust to warn you, if you spot them fighting quite badly, don't stick your hands in and try to break it up.
The result is painful! Stupid me tried to do this and got bitten badly. Instead through a blanket into the cage and it seems to shock them a bit. My boys seem to stop fighting if I whistle... ?
I did have a pair about a 2 months ago that wouldn't stop fighting, it got to the point where I was ready to separate them, but they seem to settle down a while after. 2 of everything did work!
They are now 1 yrs old and they get on quite well now. Sometimes they chatter at each other but it's not as bad as it used to be. :)
 
Mine are the same Sophie, if I whistle they stop getting narked with one another. :)
 
The fight they had where blood was drawn was last Friday (9 days ago) and it happened because I put them into a box which my older boars had been in. I now realise this was not a good idea although I have always used the same box when cleaning out, but I guess because they are now at the hormonal stage the smell of the others just set them off. I used a tea towel to seperate them and put them straight back in thier hutch to let them settle down. They did calm down to the point of just rumbling and a little bit of teeth chattering but now as I said Zebedee seems to be afraid of Doodle. I noticed they were worse yesterday when I was cleaning out. I have both boys and girls in the same area but don't really have anywhere else to move them to. Maybe when I am cleaning out it would be best to put these two in a run somewhere away from the smells.
 
Boys ::) ;D ;D ;D
Yep it's the tennage years and they'll try anything to be the BOSS >:D
You're doing everything right love, you'll just have to let them sort it out, but if they fur flies and there's blood then you'll have to make the decision about separating, hopefully they'll come to a mutual agreement and all will settle down O0
Could you get a new box for them to be in whilst you clean? Good luck we'll have our paws crossed for you, Doodle and Zebedee
 
Yes I definitely won't be putting them in that box again. My other two boys have never had a problem with the smell of other boys or even girls. They do sniff around and drag thier bums on the ground if they smell where the girls have been (charming behaviour I find!) but they don't get stroppy with each other, just go around doing it together!
 
I have a problem putting my two 7 month old boars in a new environment. They cannot go in the run because they argue who is more dominant but in the hutch they are ok. I have to clean the hutch with them in it! ;D
 
Hope I'm not speaking too soon and tempting fate but twice today when I have been out to the guineas these two have been sharing the same box. Also when I went out to give them thier tea Zebedee came straight out to the food bowl instead of hiding away until Doodle was well out of the way. Long may it last!
 
going by what Peter Guerney says (RIP) he says once blood is drawn you must seperate. O0
 
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