Just introduce a baby to my herd... strange behavior from the older pigs

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lifewith4boars

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Hi all! This is my first post here, I've been lurking for a while. :) I adopted a baby Guinea Pig a couple of weeks ago, and after a quarantine period he was introduced to my other three pigs yesterday. They seem to be getting along with him fine. Besides a little bit of butt nudging and rumblestrutting, they have taken to him well. The problem is, I am seeing a little bit of aggression between the three older pigs. Their has been no blood drawn or anything, but I have found a few patches of hair on the floor of their cage, so I think they are nipping a little bit. They are in a 3x5 C&C cage with plenty of hidys, water bottles, food bowls, and hay racks. How long do you think that this will go on? I'm planning on expanding to a 3x6 next week, so maybe that will help. I don't understand why they are bickering with each other rather than the new baby?
 
generally more than 2males *** get aloud that well i would suggest if it gets worse split the cage in halves and have 2pairs for that would be the safest and would still mean they will have a friend each :)
 
putting a new pig in with the excisiting ones will greatly upset the dominace issue, they would have a pecking order in place and by putting a new one in with them this has been thrown into the wind, and having 4 boars living together is brave of you, really is 2 together max or the chances of fighting greatly increases
 
If yuo had a stable trio of boars befoe introducing baby you are very lucky! It's unusual to manage to keep more than two boars amicbly together as they need masses of space and ofen will fight.

Introducing another will probably have upset their current pecking order and now they have to re think things which can lead to big rumbles and fights.

I have four boars but would never consider housing them together. They socialise together at floor time amicably but are housed in two pairs.

There is a very real chance that your boys won't live peacefully in their new arrangment however if there are no open fights my advice would be just to watch how things go at the moment....

Bear in mind that when baby hits his hormones and starts humping everyone and pushing his luck a few months down the line things will get difficult even if they are fine just now.
 
The cage will become a 3x7 this week, so that will give them more space and hopefully cut down on any arguments. Things seem to have settled down today. Other than a little bit of rumbling a couple of time they have been quiet. If, after the cage is increased, they do not settle down, I'll split the cage into two, 3 x 3 1/2 sides, but I am pretty confident that they will eventually get along.
 
Hi and welcome to you and your boars to the forum :)
Hope you can pop some pigtures on soon of your boys, whee adore pigtures....whee have a stories/photo section for them.
Enjoy looking around the forum and please feel free to ask questions and join in the chatter.
You are lucky to have a trio of boars that works so well......good luck with bonding another little one to your herd x)

Glynis, Velvet and Onyx x
 
Patrick is going back today. :( My three older boars are clearly not happy, and after a week of trying to make things work... I don't think they will. I found several scratches on each of the older boars... so, I'm calling it quits. I don't think an expansion of the cage is going to help at this point and I want my piggies to go back to their happy selves. I'm going to miss the little guy... but it's for the best. :(:(:(
 
lifewith4boars said:
Patrick is going back today. :( My three older boars are clearly not happy, and after a week of trying to make things work... I don't think they will. I found several scratches on each of the older boars... so, I'm calling it quits. I don't think an expansion of the cage is going to help at this point and I want my piggies to go back to their happy selves. I'm going to miss the little guy... but it's for the best. :(:(:(
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It's hard but my boys bicker with the whole living room to run in so I can see why a cage of any size might be a problem.

Where did you have Patrick from?
 
I got him from a lady on Craigslist who rescues piggies and adopted a female who was pregnant. She said that she would take him back if things didn't work out. I'm sad about it, but she will find him another home.
 
Just a quick update. Baby piggy went back to his original home today. It was sad seeing him go, but I am relieved that my boys seem much happier now. They still seem to be a bit irritated with one another, however; I am cleaning their cage out tomorrow and I believe that this will help. They haven't rumbled or chattered since the baby left. I took each one out and checked them over, and all three of them have scratches on their bottoms and backs. Nothing too serious, but I feel absolutely awful about it. I didn't realize that they were drawing blood, as I didn't actually SEE anything... I was trying to let them settle things on their own. All of the wounds seem to be healing nicely, no open gashes or anything. It's funny, I checked the baby over before I left with him and he did not have a scratch on him... could they have been fighting over him? I am going to go ahead and expand the cage a bit this weekend so this should cheer them up a little. I may even do a fleece forest for them. I seriously feel terrible about the entire situation.
 
lifewith4boars said:
Just a quick update. Baby piggy went back to his original home today. It was sad seeing him go, but I am relieved that my boys seem much happier now. They still seem to be a bit irritated with one another, however; I am cleaning their cage out tomorrow and I believe that this will help. They haven't rumbled or chattered since the baby left. I took each one out and checked them over, and all three of them have scratches on their bottoms and backs. Nothing too serious, but I feel absolutely awful about it. I didn't realize that they were drawing blood, as I didn't actually SEE anything... I was trying to let them settle things on their own. All of the wounds seem to be healing nicely, no open gashes or anything. It's funny, I checked the baby over before I left with him and he did not have a scratch on him... could they have been fighting over him? I am going to go ahead and expand the cage a bit this weekend so this should cheer them up a little. I may even do a fleece forest for them. I seriously feel terrible about the entire situation.
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I know it's awful but hopefully they should settle now the source of their arguments has gone.

Cleaning them out and giving them all a bath will help them go back to neutral ground where they can re-establish their dominance.

Well done for making a hard decision.
 
lifewith4boars said:
Just a quick update. Baby piggy went back to his original home today. It was sad seeing him go, but I am relieved that my boys seem much happier now. They still seem to be a bit irritated with one another, however; I am cleaning their cage out tomorrow and I believe that this will help. They haven't rumbled or chattered since the baby left. I took each one out and checked them over, and all three of them have scratches on their bottoms and backs. Nothing too serious, but I feel absolutely awful about it. I didn't realize that they were drawing blood, as I didn't actually SEE anything... I was trying to let them settle things on their own. All of the wounds seem to be healing nicely, no open gashes or anything. It's funny, I checked the baby over before I left with him and he did not have a scratch on him... could they have been fighting over him? I am going to go ahead and expand the cage a bit this weekend so this should cheer them up a little. I may even do a fleece forest for them. I seriously feel terrible about the entire situation.
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They may be a bit funny with one another for a month or so just while the establish whose who again. I tried bonding a third male to my two boars, and it went well at first but then the new boar became attached to my shy boy Artie, and wouldn't let Harvey near him, and this upset Artie. So they were all going at one another.

In the end I seperated Artie and Harvey, and reintroduced them after a day apart. It was a bit touch and go for the first month, a lot of rumbling teeth chattering and bum wiggling but we got there eventually and the boys are both back to being best friends.

you will also feel a bit shaken up, its awful seeing your loved piggies though their weight around and start arguing with one another.

Hope everything goes okay with the bonding tomorrow :)
 
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