My Male Guinea Pigs

P

Pootle and Paulo the g pigs

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Hello, I was just a bit worried about my guinea pigs (Pootle and Paulo) that I got three days ago. They are both males so I think that they are just trying to find out who is the dominant guinea pig but I just wanted to be sure. Paulo makes a low rumbling sound whenever pootle goes through the tunnel and sometimes they both run around after each other in circles sniffing each others bums but apart from that they get on quite well so I'm not sure what to do. If someone knows, can they help me with the problem though its probably not a problem at all- if its not please tell me.
Thankyou.
 
Hello and welcome to the forum
This sounds typically normal behaviour for a pair of boars to me, they are probably sorting out who is going to be boss and enjoying the fun and bravado with it. You will find all boars like to rumble and strut their stuff 😄 Chasing about is normal activity too. here is a useful link about boars you will find helpful A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars
Did they come together and how old are they?
 
:wel:

Definitely normal boar behaviour!

How old are they and where did you get them from?

Pet shop piggies will be highly unlikely to be properly bonded - they are simply put together in an enclosure for sale. If that is where you got yours from, then they will be in a period for around the next two weeks of establishing a relationship and hierarchy. More boars make it together than not but you do also need to keep in mind that there is always a risk with pet shop piggies that they may in fact not be compatible once teenage hormones hit at around 16 weeks of age and this is why a plan b for living arrangements should always be prepared.

Otherwise, chasing, mounting and rumbling are all mild dominance behaviours and something they will do throughout their lives.

Ensure they have plenty of space - boars are more territorial and need a large space measuring 180x60cm (6ft x 2ft) to give them enough territory each.

A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs
 
Bill & Ted said:
Hello and welcome to the forum
This sounds typically normal behaviour for a pair of boars to me, they are probably sorting out who is going to be boss and enjoying the fun and bravado with it. You will find all boars like to rumble and strut their stuff 😄 Chasing about is normal activity too. here is a useful link about boars you will find helpful A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars
Did they come together and how old are they?
Click to expand...
hey, thanks for helping me out, at the end of this week they will be nine weeks old and they are brothers so they came together
 
Piggies&buns said:
:wel:

Definitely normal boar behaviour!

How old are they and where did you get them from?

Pet shop piggies will be highly unlikely to be properly bonded - they are simply put together in an enclosure for sale. If that is where you got yours from, then they will be in a period for around the next two weeks of establishing a relationship and hierarchy. More boars make it together than not but you do also need to keep in mind that there is always a risk with pet shop piggies that they may in fact not be compatible once teenage hormones hit at around 16 weeks of age and this is why a plan b for living arrangements should always be prepared.

Otherwise, chasing, mounting and rumbling are all mild dominance behaviours and something they will do throughout their lives.

Ensure they have plenty of space - boars are more territorial and need a large space measuring 180x60cm (6ft x 2ft) to give them enough territory each.

A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs
Click to expand...
hello, they came from A rescue centre and there cage is a metre by 90 centimetres- is this enough space. Also at the end of the week, once they have gotten used to their surroundings we are going to give them loads of time outside and let them free roam.
 
Hi and welcome

Your boys are currently settling in and are setting up their hierarchical group in their new territory. The behaviour is perfectly normal and within the mild range.

I would however strongly recommend that you double-check the gender; mis-sexing is unfortunately very common. Our sexing guide contains lots of reference pictures of piggies of both genders and of different ages and developments. It also shows you where exactly to look and feel for the hands-on part of every sexing procedure to make doubly sure. The much more gender divisive areas are not the most obvious, but learning where exactly to look and feel to sex a piggy is not the worst life skill to acquire! If you struggle, you are always welcome to post pictures (including slit pictures) but we would like you to give it a try yourself first. ;)
Here is the link to our sexing guide: Illustrated Sexing Guide

New pet ownership is always quite a steep learning curve at the start. You should find our practical and informative New Owners Guide collection very helpful. We have got a chapter dedicated to settling in piggies, understand prey animal instincts and making friends with them with the help of a little course of piggy whispering as well as understanding their behaviour in addition to all the usual practical and detailed diet, care and health monitoring, housing, enrichment and extreme weather care to practical emergency and vet care information.
It is well worth bookmarking, browsing, reading and re-reading at need. Getting Started - New Owners' Most Helpful Guides

Please take the time to read all the in-depth information guides in this link; they really help and give you a much better understanding and help you learn what is normal and what not; which is the challenge that every new owner faces. We can often only touch upon points in a post; for more in-depth details and background information we use our guide links. They also give you information that can really help to promote your piggies' health and boost the natural life span as well as make the most of the amazing adventure into the world of guinea pigs. They are so much more than living cuddly toys!
 
I think your cage is rather small for two boars, the minimum would really be 140 x 60 cm and even that is rather small for boars. You can buy C&C type cages which you can make up to any size or shape at very low cost. I purchased these from eBay a few months ago to use as a bonding pen, when I was adding a neutered boar to two females. These make great cages. They are modular so fit together whatever shape you need for indoor use. You would have to add a lid if you have dogs or cats but that can be done by tie wrapping the squares together. You would need to buy a waterproof shower curtain PVC type about £4 for the base and lay down newspaper or old towels covered in a piece of fleece.(I’m assuming they are inside) if they are outside I would look out for a clean second hand hutch/new hutch with a minimum of 150 cm x 60 cm


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You cage covers just over 9 square feet, the minimum size boars really need is 10 square feet with 12 square feet being the recommended size - boars can have problems if they don’t have enough territory so The more permanent living space you can give them the better - free roaming indoors is fine but any space they are ever going to be locked into (whenever you aren’t there for example) really needs to be big enough.

If you are putting them on grass and they haven’t been on grass before, then you need to be careful and building up. Too much grass on an unprepared tummy can give them a tummy upset. A secure run meeeting the size requirements I’ve mentioned is needed for outside time

Feeding Grass And Preparing Your Piggies For Lawn Time
 
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