Introducing Boars.

[Jamie leigh]

I have just got 2 baby boars, i let my bigger ones have a sniff and they started 'grooming' them, and rumbling. I only wanted to see how they'd react but my older boys were just well dominant so put back in cages, then my older ones were proper arguing in the cage, boderline fighting, no blood drawn or any full blown attacking just agressive behaviour, they are fine now, was it just because i introduced the younger 2?

 

[ayemee]

Sorry I can't quite grasp it. (Brain isn't working today!)

Do you mean you already had two boars? and you've introduced two more? So all together you have four boars?

 

[Jamie leigh]

I'm sorry for not explaining properly here. I already had 2 boars, and today a local breeder dropped my 2 babies off. They are in seperate cages, but wanted to introduce them. I wanted to eventually put them in a C&C cage. I have 4 all together yes, sorry!

 

[Jamie leigh]

I was just concerned with the older boars when I put them back in their cage together, They were arguing like mad and headbutting each other etc, I was just wondering if this is because id just let them meet the babies

 

[Gizi]

Did you introduce them on a territory none of them have been on? Heres a helpful link http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/resources/

 

[ayemee]

No problem, I just wanted to make sure I'd got it right!

Usually any more than two boars living together will not work. You could house them separately in two pairs by all means.

With them seeing the babies, they may have got a little wound up and want to assert their dominance. They should settle down after a while if they don't come into contact with the babies again. I've had two pairs of boars and if they caught glimpses of the other two, my original two would be dominant with one another, to sort of display mutual dominance, if that makes sense? Your older two are sort of trying to show 'Hey we were here first and we are the bosses!' That's what I was told when asked about their behavior.

I wouldn't recommend housing all four together. But you could easily have the two pairs separate.

Hope this was helpful in some way.

 

[Wiebke]

Four boars together are about as unstable as boars can get. By letting your boys meet the youngsters, you have triggered dominance behaviour amongst your older pair, which may take a bit of time to settle down if tempers have been ruffled. Please keep your boy pairs separated from now on. Boars are best in pairs, as tempting as it is to mix them!