Fighting at cuddle time

[stephsunder]

Hello! We have 2 boars (Teddy and Dough) and after some time they have decided their hierarchy with Teddy being the boss. When we get them out for cuddles however, Teddy makes it his mission to assert his dominance over Dough, trying to hump him and by generally displaying unfavourable behaviour. Dough has been rather good by showing Teddy he’s still dominant - Dough will groom him and lick his ears etc but Teddy does not seem happy with this. To be honest, Teddy has been a bit of a grump all around recently. He’s gone from happy happy to miserable teenager! Any advice?

 

[Piggies&buns]

The fact you say teenager says it all! Boars can assert their dominance in each new territory so he is doing as boars do.
Are you taking them out together? It’s best to do so, and it is also best to pick up the dominant first.

How old are they? It may be coinciding with one of the main hormone spikes during the teens

A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars

 

[stephsunder]

Yes they come out together though I hadn’t considered taking the dominant one first. I’ll try that from here on. They are 5 months old so yeah, definitely in the terrible teens, though the dominant one definitely has some extra grump about him haha!