Help me please - teenage boar trio problems

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Piggies42

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Hi,

I really need help. First I’ll explain the background of my piggies. I got twoin January this year and they are both brothers a couple months later in March I bought another guinea pig from pets at home. The two albino guinea pigs don’t fight each other at all but the guinea pig from pets at home suddenly switches and goes on a rampage to fight the others. Does anyone know what I can do?
Thank you
 
Hi!

Unfortunately teenage boar trios have VERY high fall out rate. There simply is no magic wand measure that makes guinea pigs live happily together for ever after. In the end, it always comes down to mutual liking and character compatibility.

Please take the time to read the guides below. They contain all the necessary information what you can do, shouldn't do and what next if you end up with a full-on fight. The guides will help you to make any informed decisions. Unfortunately, pets@home don't care whether they sell singles or trios, or whether any piggies of theirs are personality matched. :(
A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?

Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
 
rewritten... sorry

Hi,

I really need help with my guinea pigs. First I’ll explain the background of my piggies. I got two albino guinea pigs in January for my birthday and they are both brothers. I’ve never seen them fight over anything apart from very rarely snatching food from each other. A couple months later in March my mum bought another guinea pig from pets at home (I think he’s a silky haired). The two albino guinea pigs don’t fight each other at all but the guinea pig from pets at home suddenly switches and goes on a rampage to fight the others. Even after I’ve separated him from the others he constantly bites and pulls the bars of the C&C cage to get to the others. The next day he would be perfectly fine until he starts again. I am very worried of his behaviour as in the summer I am moving them into a hutch outside and will not be able to monitor his behaviour constantly.
Does anyone know why or how I can stop this from happening.
Thank you for reading.
 
Piggies42 said:
rewritten... sorry

Hi,

I really need help with my guinea pigs. First I’ll explain the background of my piggies. I got two albino guinea pigs in January for my birthday and they are both brothers. I’ve never seen them fight over anything apart from very rarely snatching food from each other. A couple months later in March my mum bought another guinea pig from pets at home (I think he’s a silky haired). The two albino guinea pigs don’t fight each other at all but the guinea pig from pets at home suddenly switches and goes on a rampage to fight the others. Even after I’ve separated him from the others he constantly bites and pulls the bars of the C&C cage to get to the others. The next day he would be perfectly fine until he starts again. I am very worried of his behaviour as in the summer I am moving them into a hutch outside and will not be able to monitor his behaviour constantly.
Does anyone know why or how I can stop this from happening.
Thank you for reading.
Click to expand...

Please see my post above.
 
Piggies42 said:
Okay, thank you, I’ll read it now
Click to expand...

It is too much information to repeat every time, but it allows you to judge how serious the issue is (the second batch of threads deals with interactive behaviours) and takes you through your options step by step, so any decisions are as informed as possible.
 
What would you recommend I do, as I know guinea pigs aren’t supposed to be kept alone and I really don’t want to seperate him from the others, but he’s stressing me and the others out.

thank you, the information really helped me understand why he’s acting like this.
 
I think you need to separate him and find him his own companion. If he is under 18 months the best thing to do would be to have him neutered and after 6 weeks find him a sow companion. If he’s older than 18 months then perhaps take him boar dating so he can find a companion of his choice.
 
Sorry to be annoying, but is there nothing else I can do?
If not I’ll get him neutered and find him a companion.
 
Piggies42 said:
Sorry to be annoying, but is there nothing else I can do?
If not I’ll get him neutered and find him a companion.
Click to expand...

No there is nothing you can do. Boar trios very rarely work out for the long term and fights do occur. You can’t make piggies like each other.

It would be safest to find him a male companion (he therefore would not need to be neutered) if you have to keep them all in the same room. If you intend to find him a female companion, then he and the female would ideally be kept in a separate room so as to not risk the relationship of your other boar pair. There would be a risk that If your other two boars smell a female, then they may well start to fight and fall out over simply smelling her.

If you do go ahead and get him a female friend (after he has been neutered and had his six week wait post op), then you would have to make sure that the you always handle the boar pair first so that you never risk transferring the smell of a sow to the boar pair and to ideally have a stacked cage with the sow/boar pair at the bottom so her smell cannot flow downwards and risk the boar pair.
 
Thank you for all the help.
I have one more question. If I get him a boar companion what’s stopping him from fighting with him?
 
Piggies42 said:
Thank you for all the help.
I have one more question. If I get him a boar companion what’s stopping him from fighting with him?
Click to expand...

You have to get the right companion. The success of a bond comes entirely down to character compatibility. Compatible boars do not fight.
If you take him dating at a rescue centre then he can choose his own friend which will result in a good bond. If you go out and buy a piggy, from a pet shop for example, then you have no idea if they will be compatible and you then run the risk of another fall out
 
Back again...
After doing some more research, I think that Coco (pets at home guinea pig) is trying to be dominant over the other two (Sherlock and Watson). I think I misunderstood his actions and immediately thought they were fighting. The thing that Coco does is stand on top of Sherlock and Watson. I have now noticed that Watson has also started standing over Sherlock too.
 
Piggies42 said:
Back again...
After doing some more research, I think that Coco (pets at home guinea pig) is trying to be dominant over the other two (Sherlock and Watson). I think I misunderstood his actions and immediately thought they were fighting. The thing that Coco does is stand on top of Sherlock and Watson. I have now noticed that Watson has also started standing over Sherlock too.
Click to expand...

Mounting is a normal dominance behaviour but this is the problem with a boar trio - If you get two who want to be dominant, then there will be constant falls outs if they can’t sort out the hierarchy between them.
 
Is the mounting-chasing also apart of the dominance behaviour?
 
Piggies42 said:
Is the mounting-chasing also apart of the dominance behaviour?
Click to expand...

Yes mounting and chasing is dominance. But the problem here is that a boar trio has a very high chance of fights and fall outs, it is very difficult to get the right match of characters in a boar trio. Only one of them can be dominant and if two want to be dominant then the relationship as a trio will not work.

The other consideration is that a trio of teenage boars need a lot of room - how big is their cage? a standard cage will not be big enough. But, as said, character compatibility comes first, even with a large cage, it’s no guarantee of it working out.
 
Their current cage is 2 x 4 with a 2x 1 loft but their hutch (which is arriving today) is 150cm x 60cm.
 
Piggies42 said:
Their current cage is 2 x 4 with a 2x 1 loft but their hutch (which is arriving today) is 150cm x 60cm.
Click to expand...

Sadly that won’t be big enough for a trio. 150cm x 60cm is the minimum size for just two boars. We recommend 180cm x 60cm for two boars so for three it needs to be much larger
Lack of space can contribute to problems
 
A 2x4 c&c measures 150cm x 77cm, so the hutch isn’t actually bigger. Upper levels don’t count as ground roaming creatures their need their space on the single level (so the loft is a bonus space only and cannot be counted towards their available cage space)
 
Oh, okay. I’ll sort out the space problem somehow. I do let them outside for an hour or two in their run, this should help, right?
 
Piggies42 said:
Oh, okay. I’ll sort out the space problem somehow. I do let them outside for an hour or two in their run, this should help, right?
Click to expand...

No sadly, it won’t help as their cage is where they live and it has to be big enough.

As I’ve said though, having a large space won’t help them if they are not compatible
 
You will also have to be careful to take bedding from their current cage and use it in the hutch so that it smells of them still . A change in environment can set off territory and dominance disputes again so moving them over to a hutch needs to be a careful affair!
 
I will definitely take all of this into consideration. I think I’m going to monitor his behaviour and if they still don’t get along I’ll separate Coco and let him choose a companion.
 
I know you haven’t heard what you’d like to hear from us but our vast experience has led us to the stage where we can quite confidently recommend splitting a boar trio before someone gets injured.

Coco’s age is very important. How old is he? Boars can’t help it. They have testosterone surges until they are fully grown (about 18 months) and end up fighting. That’s why in our rescue we would usually neuter any juvenile boar and find him a sow rather than try dating him with another boar. So if he’s about 2 then boar dating is an option. But if he’s under 18 months we’d still recommend neutering him and finding him a sow partner.
 
Piggies42 said:
I will definitely take all of this into consideration. I think I’m going to monitor his behaviour and if they still don’t get along I’ll separate Coco and let him choose a companion.
Click to expand...

Definitely monitor them. You need to keep an eye on them and work out which two piggies which get on best together.
 
Thank you all for being kind and honest with you replies.
VickiA said:
I know you haven’t heard what you’d like to hear from us but our vast experience has led us to the stage where we can quite confidently recommend splitting a boar trio before someone gets injured.

Coco’s age is very important. How old is he? Boars can’t help,it. They have testosterone surges Until they are fully grown (about 18 months) and end up fighting. That’s why in our rescue we would usually neuter any juvenile boar and find him a sow rather than try dating him with another boar. So if he’s about 2 then boar dating is an option. But if he’s under 18 months we’d still recommend neutering him and finding him a sow partner.
Click to expand...
I can’t remember how old the pet store said he was just that he is a bit older than Sherlock and Watson. They are around 4/5 months old.
 
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