can someone shed some light on this please

[chrissy88]

Hello. I'm trying to work out why my 2 boars do this. Atm they are separated have been for a good while now. I tried them together in a new unexplored place and they got on fine just the usual I'm boss routine by one of them but no bloody fights. I do this play time everyday so they get use to eachother more again.

So after a while i thought id try them in the same cage... Well that didn't last. The more hormonal pig started to nip and chase the other pig. I don't understand why he acts like that in cage and not during play time.

Why is he doing this?

 

[Glynis]

He's saying to the other...........my area and i'm the boss in here! rolleyes

Our brothers were the same, loved each other to absolute bits, but couldn't live together, had to separate......with a divider and had playtime everynight and for awhile in the afternoons when i could supervise........

 

[Guinea pig slave]

Yep, it sounds like territorial issues. In an open space, they have too much to do to be bothering what the other piggy is up to but in 'their space', become a bit more possessive

 

[hellsbells82]

mine recently had a similar fall out, and were totally fine when out anywhere neutral but just wouldn't get along in the cage, Roy wasn't eating as he was sat scared in a corner etc, it was horrible, however I kept them out in the run (on my kitchen floor) for a few days and kept rearranging my cage, scrubbing everything with vinegar, moving the mezzanine's around, moving the tray round to change smells, putting all new beds etc in, and after the 3rd time of me trying them they just clicked and haven't fallen out since, so whether all that time in the run helped or it was the constant moving around of the cage I don't know.

Are they in a big enough cage to let them each have enough room?

 

[Sodapops]

Ive got two pairs of boys and the general advice when i was trying to bond them was put them together - supervise for 30mins - if no fights put them together and leave them together.

Every time you separate boars then re-introduce, each time is like the first time all over again and so they have to re-establish 'top-dog' status all over again.

It can be difficult enough getting a stable set of boys that never fight and to give them the absolute best chance of having that type of relationship you either need to commit or stop the 'small' meetings!

By all means have their cages together for a period of time so they can see/smell/touch one another - but once you make the decision to put them together in neutral territory to must wait it out...

Have you cleaned the cage out thoroughly? when i bonded both my boy pairings i bought new cage accessories so that it smelt of neither pig.

good luck

 

[Wiebke]

Did you clean out the cage completely (including wiping all the sides, bars etc)? How big is their shared cage and who lives in it?

You will inevitably get some dominance display when you move piggies. Top pig will chuck underpig out of the hideys, secure prime access to his favourite bowl etc. Piggies always re-establish dominance in a new territory; that goes for both genders. Rumblestrutting, mounting, nipping, some chasing etc. are all normal dominance behaviours.
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=28949

We advise to completely rearrange and neutralise any cage they go in to together as much as possible in order to avoid territorial disputes.

Make sure that you have two of everything in their shared cage, hideys, bowls, water bottles, hay racks, each item placed as far the other same item as possible; sometimes you may even need three bowls... mallethead

 

[chrissy88]

Its an 2 by 4 c&c cage set up is that too small for boars?

yeah when they are in playtime at the time i decided to try them together everything got a good cleaning before putting them back in together. Yeah they got 2 of everything water bottles,food bowls, beds,hay beds etc.

Is it a normal sign if the bossy pig to try his hardest to get the other pigs cage? he will literally run back and forth, jump up on the separating wall grids and whine?

 

[Wiebke]

More territory for him to take over... He sounds a bit extreme though!

2x4 ft is OK; boys can do with whatever space you can afford! Would it be possible to connect both cages space wise? In most indoors cages you can take out the side bars, so the can get from one cage to the other if you build them a little ramp or something. That way, they can also get away from each other better.

 

[chrissy88]

Yeah he does do it to the extreme but he tires himself out quite quickly and falls asleep lol.

Do you think i should wait until the bossy one hormones have cooled off? he's 10/11 months old and the lesser dominant pig is 12/13months old. Until then just let them meet at playtime only?

 

[Freela]

I have sows, but we still had some issues with the cage while introducing a new pig. What helped for us was to completely break down and scrub out the cage to make it seem new. Linney was set to defend 'her' cage from the new pig, but she liked the new pig on neutral territory, and was willing to share a 'new' cage with her without making an issue of it.