Guinea Pig mood swings and constant chasing

[Alicevftroy]

We have three boars, Wedge, Jax and Chirrut (Chi). They've been together for over 2 years and have lived with us for 5 months.

Wedge is the dominant pig, when they first arrived he and Jax had some mini spats but it calmed down and most of the time the three of them get on really well, share food, chill out together, play etc. Chi is timid and likes to stay out of the way when the other two play and is very snuggly.

Every so often though Wedge gets in a mood and all hell breaks loose. He'll chase and hump and hound Jax for hours and if he can't get to Jax he'll do it to Chi. The first few times this happened we were able to remove Wedge for a while, let him tire himself out in the playpen we have for him and then when we put him back he'd settle and all would be fine. The last couple of times there has been nothing to stop him, if you remove him he'll play in the pen or cuddle in your arms but as soon as he's put back he'll hound the other two pigs, same if we remove the other two for a while. He'll go and go until the other pigs are exhausted and today has been really scary because Jax has been climbing on top of things and up the sides of things to get away and has been really scared and usually Chi can give Wedge a swift kick and he'll get the message but he seems to be ignoring it today. Wedge wouldn't let the other two eat or drink from the bottle.

There's never any fighting, no blood drawn or anything like that. But he'll get in this mood where he seems to need to hump everyone until he passes out. I'm terrified and I don't know what to do

 

[Siikibam]

How old are they again? Chasing, humping and mounting is all normal dominance behaviour. Although the hormone surges are more common during the teenage phase, they can still get the occasional spike that sends them a little crazy. I wouldn’t take any of them out. Leave them to it unless it gets to the point where they’re not allowed to eat at all etc. But yea, it can go on for hours. When my top pig had his first hormone spike, he was chasing, mounting and humping his cage mate for hours. He’s have a mini break in between but it was pretty incessant. It did eventually stop when (I think) underpig decided he’d had enough and took a swipe (not in an aggressive manner) and top pig.

Have a read of the levels of behaviours below and see where he sits. But I would say it’s normal.
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs

 

[Piggies&buns]

Are they all a good weight, not losing any weight, allowed to eat and rest when they want to? I see you say he wouldn’t let them drink. Or is it relentless, bullying, and everybody is getting quite upset by it.
if it has now turned into bullying, then it could mean they need to be permanently separated with the single piggy living alongside for through the bar interaction.
Its fine to give them some time out if things get too much but removing them does mean that when they are put back together, they feel the need to reassert dominance

how big is their cage. A boar trio needs a square metre of space per piggy, so a cage covering three square metres is needed to give them all enough space

Trios are the hardest combination to get right and generally boar trios don’t work for the long term.

This guide can help with further information

Bonds In Trouble

 

[Wiebke]

Hi!

These guides here may help you to work out whether there is some bullying going on or not. Trios are the most difficult constellation to get right as you are much more likely to end up with a 2+1 scenario than not; achieving the perfect personality balance between three piggies is not at all easy.

The methods described in the guides are the closest we can come to ask their piggies for their honest opinion whether they wat to be with each other or not. It is not quite easy to figure out what exactly is going on; so just going by your words, we can only give you the instrumentarium for making your own assessment.
Bonds In Trouble
Moody guinea pigs: Depression, Bullying, Aggression, Stress, Fear and Antisocial Behaviour