Introducing Two Boars

[Beatriz]

I recently had to put down one of my guinea pigs because of a large stone that he had, and we got a new guinea pig to be friends with my guinea pig that was alone.
We put them together in a large pen and they would playfully chase each other around and sometimes make a chattering noise at each other from far away, but I never saw anything that looked very aggressive and then at the end they just sat next to each other for a good 15 minutes.
I have them in separate cages for now because I know I'm not supposed to leave them together alone for now but can anyone give me a few things I should look out for when they're together, such as things they should/shouldn't be doing? I want to supervise them in the pen everyday for about 30 minutes to see if they get along but I'm not sure about what some of the things they do mean? Or what I should do to slowly introduce them?
Thank you in advance! x

 

[Wiebke]

It is very important with boars that you do the whole introduction in one go; every time you separate, they have to start right back in square one with the bonding protocol, and that can become very frustrating for them - and even spoil the bonding if the frustration is spilling over into the interactions. You will need a few free hours in order to supervise. The most critical phase is usually after they wake up from their first nap together. If that goes well, you can consider putting them in the cleaned (including walls and furnishings), neutralised and ideally rearranged cage. Boars can be a bit territorial, so the more neutral their home, the less of a dominance flare up when you move them to a new territory. The dominance phase itself can take up to two weeks.

Here are our guides for introductions from the behaviour/bonding section:
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/faq-introducing-and-reintroducing-guinea-pigs.38562/
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/dominance-behaviours-in-guinea-pigs.28949/
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/boars-a-guide-to-successful-companionship.76162/