Boys started fighting...

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CraigSGM

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Hi

Over the weekend a couple of my boys, Ari & Mac have started fighting. They've been together since October last year and never had any problems. Ari is about 2 and a half years old and Mac was bought at whatever age they are in pets at home in October.

We got some new, bigger cages for all of our guinea pigs this weekend, and we put all of Ari & Mac's things from their old cage into the new one, and it also had a ramp/shelf in it too. We've since removed the shelf as it just seemed like a platform for them to fight on. Ari nipped Mac's ear yesterday which bled quite a bit, but I had them both out on the sofa straight after that and they seemed fine together, they just don't seem to like the new cage.

When they start getting wound up the others in the other cages get wound up too, so could moving them out of the room help? I'm guessing a room full of chattering piggies won't help when two are getting mad at eachother?

Could giving them a bath help?

Thanks
 
If you’ve recently moved them into a new cage there will be new smells etc. The two pigs will have to sort out dominance rankings again, it’s a new territory to them and so they need to sort out who will top pig as such.

Theres a fine line between dominance and aggression though that you need to look out for, this link may help,
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?28949-Boars!-Simple-Dominance-Displays-or-Fighting

Although the rule is once blood is drawn they won’t go back together happily simple ear scratches are fairly easy to occur and could have just happened out of the heat of the moment. It’s just important you watch that it is just dominance and they aren’t trying to hurt each other. If they are trying to hurt each other it may be time to separate them, however i doubt this will be the case and I'm sure it will settle down once they’ve settled their differences :)

I wouldn’t move them into a different room personally as again this would all be new smells etc.

Bathing may help but it’s more useful for pairing new boys than trying to regroup old ones.

Hope that helps.
 
I agree with Twiams. An ear is delicate a slightly bousterous bit of dominance behaviour may have caused a bleed rather than a full blown viscious bite at their age they are beyond the normal hormonal phase so unless one of them is ill and the other bullying due to that its likely the cage move that has spooked them IMHO. My own boars all squabble (and scent mark ... lovely indoors) when moved around.
 
Males can be funny things (I have 19 boys and on the whole its quiet but they have bickers from time to time but there is a line between bickers and fall outs) and something as simple as moving into a new cage can set them off as it rearranges order and they have to re-establish who is in charge. As ones over the hormonal age I would suggest that since they have moved the younger ones using it as an excuse to try for dominance as he is of age now and Ari is standing his ground. Bathing may help as the general rule is it puts them both in the same position (usually nervy) and can help them rebond as they smell the same, I've tried this in the past and it does quieten things down but i'm not 100% sure it works long term. Personally I wouldn't move them out the room, it won't do anything and if you want to move them back in again it could cause problems later on. I would watch them closely assess how bad the fighting is for a few days if its not all the time then It probably will sort itself out if its constant then I would consider taking one out the situation :)
 
A new territory triggers a fresh hierarchy sort out. It should hopefully die down again soon. Scratches can happen quite easily in a tussle, but check both boys for bites on the back and rump to be on the safe side - if you find those, you need to separate permanently.

If there are no serious signs of fighting, it is often enough to just separate well bonded adult boars for the night or a day and re-introduce them on neutral ground after a bath to remove any testosterone stink that could spark new discussions. Also wipe the new cage and furnishings. the shared misery of the bath is often a good way of waking up the friendship again.
 
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shared misery of a bath ... sorry that made me chuckle :D My lot refuse to talk to me for a few days after a bath like!
 
I must admit it’s true about the shared misery of baths they do sometimes make pigs come together, i have a pair of boys and a single 80% of the time they’re together they rumble at each other and just be noisy boys, and yet if i bath them i can have them all lined up side by side in towels drying and all they care about is giving me evil eyes ! Then an hour or so later they’re back to being rumble bums again rolleyes
 
They had to be split up last night unfortunately.

The bath worked for about half an hour then it was worse than before. We're now nursing Mac's injuries and figuring out what to do next :-(​
 
I think we're going to try and introduce Mac into one of our other cages soon, he seems really sad on his own but even just holding him near the cage that Ari is in get's Ari really mad. The boys that we're going to try him with have ringworm at the minute though, so that's got to wait.

Mac has had a look at the others through the cage bars a couple of times last night and there didn't seem to be any teeth chattering unlike with Ari, so fingers crossed that they can get on.

As for Ari, we might have a friend willing to give him a nice home. He's always been really good with humans, just not other guinea pigs. When we first got him from Pets at Home he was in a pair that had to be split up pretty quickly, although I think a lot of that was down to Pets at Home saying "Yeah, this little cage will be fine for two guinea pigs" and us not really knowing much about them at the time.
 
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