Help/advise with paring my two boars please

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Emma Lou

Emma Lou

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Could just do with a little advice....... I’m trying to pair my eldest boar Bertie up with my youngest boar Pinky so that they can live together now that Bertie has lost his housemate. Yesterday I put them together for the first time and Bertie was a total nuisance with Pinky, he was constantly trying to mount him from any direction he could get and when he tried to run away he just chased him and once caught continued with the mounting. Eventually I called it a day and put them both back into their cages because I felt Pinky had had enough.

I’ve had them both together again today and things seem to have settled down a bit. The mounting started again for the first couple of minutes but then they settled down to nibble on some carrot – although they kept arguing over the same piece – one would take it, have a nibble then the other would take it off of him and have a nibble himself, occasionally they’d stop for some more bottom sniffing and mounting attempts but then would go back to just pottering about. At some points it would be like they wasn’t interested in each other at all. I’ve never had to pair guinea pigs before so I was just wondering if it sounds like my pairing could ultimately be a success and if so at what point do I try them in a cage together?

I was planning on keeping them living separately and continuing floor time together for a few more days but I’m not sure how or when to move them to the next stage.

Also when Bertie did seem to be getting a bit of a handful, Pinky kept sort of pushing him out of the way with his bottom..... its hard to explain but does this sound familiar to anyone?
 
Sounds very similar to my boar pairing of Barney (apprrox 11 weeks old) with Dibble (approx 7-8 months old) recently. There was alot of mounting by Dibble at first and this has settled down pretty much. However, they still rumble at each other, and Barney is growing bigger by the day. He's starting to challenge Dibble so I'm keeping an eye on things.

I think that you've got to just try and leave them to sort things out if you can. I put my two together for about half an hour the first time, then left them together but monitored for most of the day the next time, and then kept them together ever since.

It looks really undignified and awful for the younger one being mounted but I don't think it's as traumatic as it looks to us humans. Good luck with it!
 
Sounds very similar to Ben and Dave! They've been together since May 08 with no real problems other than poor Dave still gets chased on occasion when Ben is feeling a bit, erm, randy...:red Dave is a squeeker too so I think it sounds worse than it is, although it does look distressing to us.

Their ages were closer together when I got Dave (was 2 months ish) to live with Ben (5 months ish), but all the behaviour sounds familiar.

One thing I will say is to scrub clean the cage so that it clears any scents from either piggy so that it is, in effect, neutral territory.

There's a vid of the two boys in the gallery which shows how they are together now...:)
 
Thanks for your advice :) , hopefully they'll settle down together without too many problems. I'm increasing the amount of time they spend together daily and i may have a go at putting them in the same cage in a couple of days, i just know i'll be scared of leaving them alone in there, worrying that they'll start bickering as soon as my backs turned but once they are in together its impossible to watch them 24/7.
 
This also sounds like when I first paired my boars.

Biscuit (who was only 8 weeks at the time) thought it would be suitable to mount Brownie, who was 2 and a half :o

Things settled down. Neutral territory helps, and also as they aren't drawing blood, I wouldn't be too worried. It looks harsh to us but it really is just the piggie way.

My piggies still have the odd argument and aren't the best of friends, but they have never hurt each other.

Hope things calm down for your two :)
 
There's a really useful sticky on here with advice about what is normal and what is not- it's in this section. Please don't worry about the mounting, it's completely normal. I got some fab advice from 'barmyforboars' when I bonded my two. There was rumbling, mounting, chasing but it does settle. It is important they do this so they can establish who is the dominant one. While it's not the most pleasant thing to watch for us, they won't be as worried about it! Let us know how you get on. x
 
Agree with all that has been said, sounds fairly normal to me, although often worrying for us to watch. Food is always a good distraction too, and even if you give them two carrots, they will still want each others! Boys eh! xx
 
Well we are a week into our daily introductions now and i'm still not 100% confident about putting them in the same cage.

I always put them in their pen with some fresh veggies and herbs, Bertie the eldest always has to try a bit of a mount when he gets in but then they normally settle down quite quickly to eat the food and can quite happily sit there munching on the same bit of parsley or broccoli. Theres still bum sniffing happening but the last couple of days Pinkie the youngest has done the teeth chattering and puffing/hissing, on the occasions that its happened i got ready to seperate them but left them to see if it sorted itself out and i have to admit that Bertie doesn't seem to interested in confrontation as he tends to turn away and carry on munching his veg, then Pinky follows suit. By the time i put them both back into their cages tonight they were sat side by side ignoring each other, had been for about 10 minutes......... so i'm not sure if they are getting on, hating each other or whats happening at the moment! lol

I was planning on trying to introduce them into the same cage this weekend but in light of the teeth chattering/hissing that has happened occasionally over the last few days i think i may give them a few more days of play time together.
They tend to be in their play pen with each other for about an hour/hour and half a day and have been for the last week......... if they were going to fight would they have done it by now?
 
We've got something new today, Pinkie keeps spraying at Bertie....... is this normal? He will do this then a minute later go back to eating veggies with him, i really really don't understand their behaviour at all, i've read all of the information on pairing piggies but one minute they look the best of friends and the next there seems to be some tension....... theres been no nips or anything so i'm still continuing to leave them to it - i just feel like i'm getting nowhere at the moment :(
 
I think you're expecting too much of them - they may never be the best of friends that you're hoping for. You could end up never putting them together permanently if you're waiting for that. Just to tolerate each other is enough. To me it's far better that they have each other's company than be on their own, even if they're not best chums.

My two are still arguing, but have not become aggressive with each other, so all I can do is leave them to sort it out. That might sound like I'm being a bit blase but I'm not! I just know that if I interfere without really good reason then I could push them away from each other and into each having a lonely life.

It sounds like you're really nervous to leave them to it but I think that you have to just take the plunge. It's scary, but may be what's best for them.
 
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