Maddykins
Junior Guinea Pig
Hello, I haven't been on here for ages since I've become a much more clued up guinea pig owner over the last few years but some of you may remember me still!
I have two boars, rescues, they are approx 4 yrs old and have been together since being babies, rescue assumed they are from the same litter. We've had them for about three and a half years. One of them has always been more confident and a bit bossy and dominant with the other, like picking more fights and rumble strutting more at the other, but it's not been entirely one sided and they do groom each other sometimes, sleep near each other a lot etc so not like one-sided bullying, they are very close. Very, very rarely does he try and mount the other one when they're having a proper tiff - I mean maybe a couple of times a year or something that I see and I do a big clap to make him snap out of it as I feel sorry for my other baby.
About a month ago I was at home the vast majority of the time, and there was a week where I noticed dominant pig was trying to mount his brother about once a day, which was very unusual and I was starting to worry about it. This mounting was always from sideways on or facing him on to his head, never from behind or anything, and always when having arguments. It basically disappeared again after that week or so, I figured he was just having a bad/grumpy week and forgot about it again.
Just before writing this, I was in another room with them, and witnessed dominant pig trying to mount his brother about 4 times in the space of about 5 minutes, always facing him and onto his head, and this was not in the context of an argument or anything, it was totally out of the blue, like one minute he was walking around the room the next minute just decided to go over and try and mount his head and then I clapped my hands and he got a shock and stopped. And this repeated a few times. I finished sorting their cage out let them both back in and they both had a run around pop corning and now have settled down for naps. But that behaviour is so unusual for him and I'm worried about them both. He had a health check from the vets about a month ago and everything was fine so I'm not sure it's worth taking him back to the vet again? Is there anything I should do at this stage or just continue to keep an eye on him and break it up when it happens? I just think it's so strange that he seems to be doing this more now that he's getting older, I thought this kind of behaviour was more common amongst teenage boars and he hardly ever did it then?
Sorry for the long post, just worried and I hate witnessing my poor shy boar being dominated like that!
I have two boars, rescues, they are approx 4 yrs old and have been together since being babies, rescue assumed they are from the same litter. We've had them for about three and a half years. One of them has always been more confident and a bit bossy and dominant with the other, like picking more fights and rumble strutting more at the other, but it's not been entirely one sided and they do groom each other sometimes, sleep near each other a lot etc so not like one-sided bullying, they are very close. Very, very rarely does he try and mount the other one when they're having a proper tiff - I mean maybe a couple of times a year or something that I see and I do a big clap to make him snap out of it as I feel sorry for my other baby.
About a month ago I was at home the vast majority of the time, and there was a week where I noticed dominant pig was trying to mount his brother about once a day, which was very unusual and I was starting to worry about it. This mounting was always from sideways on or facing him on to his head, never from behind or anything, and always when having arguments. It basically disappeared again after that week or so, I figured he was just having a bad/grumpy week and forgot about it again.
Just before writing this, I was in another room with them, and witnessed dominant pig trying to mount his brother about 4 times in the space of about 5 minutes, always facing him and onto his head, and this was not in the context of an argument or anything, it was totally out of the blue, like one minute he was walking around the room the next minute just decided to go over and try and mount his head and then I clapped my hands and he got a shock and stopped. And this repeated a few times. I finished sorting their cage out let them both back in and they both had a run around pop corning and now have settled down for naps. But that behaviour is so unusual for him and I'm worried about them both. He had a health check from the vets about a month ago and everything was fine so I'm not sure it's worth taking him back to the vet again? Is there anything I should do at this stage or just continue to keep an eye on him and break it up when it happens? I just think it's so strange that he seems to be doing this more now that he's getting older, I thought this kind of behaviour was more common amongst teenage boars and he hardly ever did it then?
Sorry for the long post, just worried and I hate witnessing my poor shy boar being dominated like that!
