Fighting Guinea Pigs Want To Be With Eachother After Separating

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Hoskothemumma

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my 2 boys have been going through piggy puberty. I have a girlie at age 6 months and has been put away from the boys as I’ve been told to do so. My two boys will constantly chase, chutter and fight when in the cage together, but if I’ve separated the cage they desperately try to get to eachother. Need some help xx
 
It's not uncommon for this to happen. Were they fighting or was what you witnessed strong dominance behaviours? Let me go grab the link to our guide so you can read up and understand what was happening
 
Lady Kelly said:
It's not uncommon for this to happen. Were they fighting or was what you witnessed strong dominance behaviours? Let me go grab the link to our guide so you can read up and understand what was happening
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It was fighting full on brawl thier 12 months old
 
Hoskothemumma said:
my 2 boys have been going through piggy puberty. I have a girlie at age 6 months and has been put away from the boys as I’ve been told to do so. My two boys will constantly chase, chutter and fight when in the cage together, but if I’ve separated the cage they desperately try to get to eachother. Need some help xx
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Hi! Your experience is pretty typical for teenage boys! How large is their cage? At this age, boars need all the space they can get. They also need hideys with more than one exit and everything in twos - hideys, bowls and water bottles. Make sure that access to hay (which makes around 80% of the daily food intake) cannot be blocked by the more dominant boar.

This guide here talks you through the whole puberty: the typical phases; how you can remove potential flashpoints for fights, work out whether a bond is still working or not and what to do if it really comes to a fight with serious bites. You may find it very helpful as it is far more detailed than I can explain in one post.
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?
 
Will a bigger cage help? the cage i have now is 60 cm x 170 but I have a 70cm x 210 coming soon. I have two of everything and hideys all in the cage aswell as cuddle blankets.
 
Hoskothemumma said:
Will a bigger cage help? the cage i have now is 60 cm x 170 but I have a 70cm x 210 coming soon. I have two of everything and hideys all in the cage aswell as cuddle blankets.
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Moving dodgy bonds into a larger cage can be tricky - as discussed in more detail in the link I have given you, which covers all the questions around teenage spikes, how to avoid potential flashpoints, what you can do to stabilise the bond if possible etc. I would encourage you to really read it; you should find it very helpful!

If you decide to do a move, you will have to wipe down the new cage with some used bedding and move used bedding and hideys etc across to make the cage smell like their territory as much as possible, otherwise you trigger a re-establishment of the hierarchy, which can lead to a fight or fall-out.

What you need to have handy at all times is an extra space for the second boy is if you need to separate, whether that is short-term or long term and whether that is a divider ready to put in place at any time or a second cage. Also have some old oven gloves nearby, just in case if your boys come close to the line.

Ultimately, there is only so much you can do; the rest is down to character compatibility. It is key to any piggy bond but especially boars, but it is the one crucial thing that is not provided when you buy cute little same aged baby boars. :(
 
Ive read the link you gave me, but my situation doesn’t really fit in with any of it. With my new cage I’m using old fleece and put my boys in. They both instantly started chuttering their teeth and almost had a fight. My female and my oldest male are bonded and get along better but I’m not sure what to do. My boys look for eachother and rumble strut when they are separated when they see eachother but when their in the same cage they start to fight. I really need help, my two boys use to be so close and bonded really well.
 
Hoskothemumma said:
Ive read the link you gave me, but my situation doesn’t really fit in with any of it. With my new cage I’m using old fleece and put my boys in. They both instantly started chuttering their teeth and almost had a fight. My female and my oldest male are bonded and get along better but I’m not sure what to do. My boys look for eachother and rumble strut when they are separated when they see eachother but when their in the same cage they start to fight. I really need help, my two boys use to be so close and bonded really well.
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Rumblestrutting is dominance behaviour with which guinea pigs also mark their territory and work out a hierarchy between them; even though my neutered boars mostly live with one or several sows, they still have established a clear hierarchy between them through the bars. Even dominant sows do this if they don't want to share their patch with another piggy.
Another often misinterpreted signal is what I call the 'power lie-in' when two guinea pigs demonstratively sleep right on the edge of their cages against the other piggy. It is not necessarily the need for company; it can also be a gesture of territorial dominance. Many people are not aware of the dominance side of it. Lying next to each other across has to be interpreted accordingly to whether it comes in the context of dominance behaviour or in the context of social behaviours that signal friendship.

Here is a nice example of what I call a 'boar haka' territorial and strength measuring up behaviour. It happened between two similar sized and aged teenage neutered 'husboars', each of them living with sows. Please note that neutered boars show exactly the same behaviours as full boars.
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It is confusing for us humans because so much of guinea pig interaction is very situational and extremely nuanced. It is takes a lifetime to decode and figure out; I am still learning.
 
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