neutering to control aggression - does it work?

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sianh

Would neutering help in this situation? I have 2 boars - brothers of about 3 or 4 months old. One has started to be protective over food bowls and houses etc but today has becoming fully aggressive, chasing the other one around, swaying from side to side and jumping ontop of him. For the first time the less dominant boy has stood up for himself and chattered his teeth. I have had to seperate them and the more aggressive boar is knawing at the bar which seperates their cage areas.

Would neutering help to calm them down or should I be doing something else? Any help would be great asap before the partition is knawed down and a fight begins!
 
I don't have boars myself, but it looks like yours are starting to hitthe hormones.
Just trying to keep your thread bumped up.
 
Unfortunately it's not like with dogs / cats - neutering guinea pigs does not alter their behaviour (or their tendency to hump!) so it's unlikely to solve anything.

Have a look at this thread:

http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=28949

to see if their behaviour is normal or not. They do go through the teenage hump stage - if you can get them through it without having to split them, they should settle down

Sophie
x
 
Yep, my pair are starting to irritate each other in little bouts, and they are both mature adults - I caught Pepe mounting poor Leo and he just wouldn't leave him alone last night rolleyes

As Sophie says, the general consensus is that neutering will not alter guinea behaviour, although I do know some who disagree. Personally, I wouldn't want to put an animal through an op which may or may not help, as all ops carry a risk and you need to find a guinea savvy surgeon to make sure you have someone experienced. Hopefully it's just a bit of hormonal surge or the Spring making them a bit frisky and nothing more serious, but it sounds like you are keeping good tabs on them anyway :)

Edited to add - if one is getting territorial, if you haven't already got two of everything, try that - bottles, bowls, hidey holes etc. I also find that closed off houses aggravate things as there is only one exit/entrance, which can cause problems, I find tunnels better for pairs of boars so neither can be bullied in or kept out, I've seen a couple of stressed pigs battling it out in a closed off hut and it wasn't pretty.
 
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Your boys are at the age when they want to start showing everypig just how big their testicles are. This period will go on until they are about one year old. To get through it you'll need:

To learn exactly what's okay and what's not. Owners have a tendency to freak out about boys fighting. Truth be told, if they are separating themselves from a fight then they're not out to kill each other and so can be left together... however...

At this stage it's important, especially because you have two boys going through the "ZOMG I'M TOTALLY MORE MANLY THAN YOU!" stage together (fireworks!) instead of a teenage boy firing off of a more settled, calmer older boy to give them as much cage-room as you can. You need to, if possible, go beyond the minimum.

Some tips I have developed from the joys of dealing with three boar pairs:
Have many of everything so they don't have to share:
  • Put hay in many different spots
  • Have two food bowls, at different corners of the cage
  • Multiple water bottles (two or three) in different spots of the cage.
  • Have many hidey holes of the same size. Boys have a tendancy to favour the biggest hidey... bigger hidey for bigger, manlier boys. Or only use hidey holes that have more than one entrance so they can't corner each other... better yet, have no hidey holes and instead drape a fleece over one end of the cage.
  • Bathe them together so they smell the same and are scared for long enough to forget that they were fighting.
  • Each day, if you can, move things around in their cage to make nothing familiar and "mine"
  • Re-distribute their bedding regularly. It'll spread out the areas they have taken care to scent mark and throw them off for a bit.
  • Breathe. Be calm. Keep an eye on things but don't be obsessive. If you keep separating them, they won't sort things out.
  • Many pig owners with hormonal boys have noticed that if they give their boys floortime in a large area more often, the fighting reduces as they feel like they have enough room to co-exist each other.

phew.

Oh - and welcome to the glorious life of boy ownership.
Just wait until they start to show each other how manly they are by smell. :(|)
 
teadragon said:
Your boys are at the age when they want to start showing everypig just how big their testicles are. This period will go on until they are about one year old. To get through it you'll need:

To learn exactly what's okay and what's not. Owners have a tendency to freak out about boys fighting. Truth be told, if they are separating themselves from a fight then they're not out to kill each other and so can be left together... however...

At this stage it's important, especially because you have two boys going through the "ZOMG I'M TOTALLY MORE MANLY THAN YOU!" stage together (fireworks!) instead of a teenage boy firing off of a more settled, calmer older boy to give them as much cage-room as you can. You need to, if possible, go beyond the minimum.

Some tips I have developed from the joys of dealing with three boar pairs:
Have many of everything so they don't have to share:
  • Put hay in many different spots
  • Have two food bowls, at different corners of the cage
  • Multiple water bottles (two or three) in different spots of the cage.
  • Have many hidey holes of the same size. Boys have a tendancy to favour the biggest hidey... bigger hidey for bigger, manlier boys. Or only use hidey holes that have more than one entrance so they can't corner each other... better yet, have no hidey holes and instead drape a fleece over one end of the cage.
  • Bathe them together so they smell the same and are scared for long enough to forget that they were fighting.
  • Each day, if you can, move things around in their cage to make nothing familiar and "mine"
  • Re-distribute their bedding regularly. It'll spread out the areas they have taken care to scent mark and throw them off for a bit.
  • Breathe. Be calm. Keep an eye on things but don't be obsessive. If you keep separating them, they won't sort things out.
  • Many pig owners with hormonal boys have noticed that if they give their boys floortime in a large area more often, the fighting reduces as they feel like they have enough room to co-exist each other.

phew.

Oh - and welcome to the glorious life of boy ownership.
Just wait until they start to show each other how manly they are by smell. :(|)
Click to expand...

I think that's worth putting up as a sticker thread!
 
I agree, that's a very good post, infact i will print it up so have that info at hand. Should def be a sticky


teadragon said:
Your boys are at the age when they want to start showing everypig just how big their testicles are. This period will go on until they are about one year old. To get through it you'll need:

To learn exactly what's okay and what's not. Owners have a tendency to freak out about boys fighting. Truth be told, if they are separating themselves from a fight then they're not out to kill each other and so can be left together... however...

At this stage it's important, especially because you have two boys going through the "ZOMG I'M TOTALLY MORE MANLY THAN YOU!" stage together (fireworks!) instead of a teenage boy firing off of a more settled, calmer older boy to give them as much cage-room as you can. You need to, if possible, go beyond the minimum.

Some tips I have developed from the joys of dealing with three boar pairs:

Have many of everything so they don't have to share:
  • Put hay in many different spots
  • Have two food bowls, at different corners of the cage
  • Multiple water bottles (two or three) in different spots of the cage.
  • Have many hidey holes of the same size. Boys have a tendancy to favour the biggest hidey... bigger hidey for bigger, manlier boys. Or only use hidey holes that have more than one entrance so they can't corner each other... better yet, have no hidey holes and instead drape a fleece over one end of the cage.
  • Bathe them together so they smell the same and are scared for long enough to forget that they were fighting.
  • Each day, if you can, move things around in their cage to make nothing familiar and "mine"
  • Re-distribute their bedding regularly. It'll spread out the areas they have taken care to scent mark and throw them off for a bit.
  • Breathe. Be calm. Keep an eye on things but don't be obsessive. If you keep separating them, they won't sort things out.
  • Many pig owners with hormonal boys have noticed that if they give their boys floortime in a large area more often, the fighting reduces as they feel like they have enough room to co-exist each other.
phew.

Oh - and welcome to the glorious life of boy ownership.
Just wait until they start to show each other how manly they are by smell. :(|)
Click to expand...
 
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