My piggie hates me and my other pig!

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On the 31st December last year I bought a lovely tri coloured boar from my local P@H store. I chose him for his lovely colour and because he seemed terrified in with the other pigs in the pen. I am starting to think it was a mistake. I thought I was doing well bonding him with my other guinea pig, Reggie, but for some reason it's all starting to go wrong. The other night I had both of them sitting on my knee and then with no warning Gus went for poor Reggie. Much teeth chattering followed and so lap time was ended. Tonight I let them out for floor time and all was well until Gus started chattering at poor Reggie and fluffing himself up. Yet again he tried to take a bite out of him. I put Reggie in his cage and went to calm Gus who proceeded to chatter loudly at me and back away with his hackles up (this is not a first he's always been like this). I left him a while then tried again and got the same response at which point I gave up and put him back in his cage. When he's in his cage he won't stay out when I approach his cage but runs into his bed. If I pat him he goes really tense. I thought the fear of humans would be easing by now but it (and the aggression towards Reggie) seems to be getting worse. I had hoped to get them into the same cage but by the way things are going I don't think that's ever going to happen. I'm starting to think he may be better rehomed to a family with no other pigs. Does anyone have any suggestions?
 
Hi Piggy, we're having similar problems with our two bonded boars (father and son). We've had them 6 months and they've been living together quite happily for most of this time (they did have the odd squabble) until last weekend when Scampy's (the youngest) personality totally changed. To cut a long story short the culmination of this was him taking a bite out of Blaze's (the eldest) shoulder, for which we are going to have to take him to the vet's today.

I know a lot of people will disagree, and I'm only going on our experience so don't go by my advice alone, especially as we've only been piggie slaves for 6 months, but I'm beginning to think that it's not possible to have two males living together for any prelonged period of time.

With regards to your situation, are Reggie's and Gus's cages next to each other? Have they been able to communicate with each other whilst in their cages or is their only contact at lap time? Our other two single boars, Dylan & Pepe have been settling in quite nicely and we have located each of their cages within shouting distance of both each other and Blaze and Scampy's cage (which admittedly may of course be a possible reason for Scampy's change in behaviour) and are going from strength to strengh (touch wood).

Think twice about trying to re-home Gus. Speaking from experience in the way we have seen Dylan progress in particular, contact with other piggies, even it is only through the bars of a cage, is preferable to no contact at all and I firmly believe a lone boar is an unhappy boar, and despite our problems with Scampy I wouldn't want to re-home him, he'll just have to live by himself in a separate cage next to Blaze :(
 
You will find plenty of people here that can have their boars together. But some just do not want to sleep and eat and be together 24/7, like our boys who were doing great and then, oh well it didn't work, but we had a cage that we ended up dividing but with a mesh divider so they could sit right beside each other and chatter away. LOL they were hilarious at time they'd rumblestrut and carry on and then sit there and eat their pellets ;D ;D Even playtime they'd start, mainly Duke cause he was the alpha piggie, but in the end as they grew up it was like 'oh shut up Duke' and Sully would just ignore him :-* :-*
 
From our experience with Tom and Jerry, I think the best chance of a happy boar partnership is to have only two boars, no other pigs. Putting T and J near Sam and Roo seems to have upset their relationship, possibly permanently. Fortunately Sam and Roo are still happy together.
Tom and Jerry are both quite happy in their separate cages, within 'shouting distance' of Sam and Roo. Yesterday I tried putting Tom's cage right up next to Sam and Roo's but S and R immediately started burring at each other, which they never usually do. I moved Tom back to his usual place and they were fine.
With the benefit of hindsight, I would not try to keep more than one bonded pair of boars in future.
 
Thanks Marty, Glynis and Sammyroo for the advice. In answer to Marty's question about their cages, yes, they are side by side so they do have constant 'contact'. I suppose I had this rose coloured vision of being able to put them in the same cage and they would be best friends forever! Unfortunately I think that as you say the best course of action would be to keep them in seperate cages or same cage with metal dividers for their own safety (and my sanity!). Will it still be okay for them to have floor time together or is it best to keep that seperate too? And what about Gus's reaction to me? Should I just give him lots of attention and hope that in time he comes to trust me as much as Reggie does? I would hate to think that the wee fella would hate me forever! This is great! I love being able to discuss my piggy problems with like minded people!
 
I'm not sure about floor time, I would think it's still worth a shot. Just be ready with a towel to throw over them in case they start fighting. We had another go at re-bonding Blaze and Scampy last night on neutral territory but Scampy took one look at him and went for him. Poor Blaze now has two bite marks on him so we've abandoned that idea. My nerves can't take it any more!

I'm sure with lots of love and attention you can get Gus to bond with you. May I suggest that when you take him out for lap time you wear something different to what you would have had on when you last had Reggie out. We've noticed that Scampy seems to be suddenly obsessed with the smells of all of our other piggies when we get him out for lap time now, rather than enjoying the cuddles etc. so the same may be true of Gus. Others may not share that opinion though, I'm speaking from expereince over the last few days only.

Good luck O0

Marty
 
Thanks Marty, will give it a go and let you know how I get on over the next few days.
 
It may just take some time. As far as boars not being able to be together, I totally disagree. I have a rescue and constantly have pairs of boars. The only squabbles I've had here have been between girls. I currently have a cage of four boars and they get on very well. While your two may not be compatible, that doesn't mean all boars aren't. If they don't get along with boars, would you be able to neuter them and get them each a girlfriend? That might work.

Kimmie
 
Getting them each a girlfriend would be great but unfortunately I don't have the room for anymore. Gus and Reggie have to live in my bedroom as I still live with my mum and she has two cats. I am going to get them a C&C cage and put them in with dividers just now and maybe try taking them down eventually, will see how it goes. Cleaned their cages this morning and put them out seperately and there was much squeeking and indignation that they weren't out together. I don't get them at all. Put them together they scuffle, part them they show their displeasure, I can't win!
 
piggy said:
Getting them each a girlfriend would be great but unfortunately I don't have the room for anymore. Gus and Reggie have to live in my bedroom as I still live with my mum and she has two cats. I am going to get them a C&C cage and put them in with dividers just now and maybe try taking them down eventually, will see how it goes. Cleaned their cages this morning and put them out seperately and there was much squeeking and indignation that they weren't out together. I don't get them at all. Put them together they scuffle, part them they show their displeasure, I can't win!
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The joys of boys! ;)
I've had my fair share of boy trubs as well as girl trubs, you're so not alone :)
 
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