New guinea pig constantly exhibiting dominating behavior over other 2

[pcclosertofind]

Hello all!
I had two male guinea pigs who, though not without the occasional bickering, get along really well. One was obviously dominant and the other goes along with it.
A little over 2 weeks ago, I adopted a third from the local shelter. I completely cleaned and sanitized their cage (which is 1 midwest cage and a homemade extension that's about 1.5 times the size of an additional midwest-sized cage) and introduced them on neutral ground. I really tried to my best.
After some significant dominance behavior on the part of the new piggie (but no biting, luckily), I thought they reached an agreement as to the hierarchy. But the new guy just can NOT leave well enough alone. He's always teeth chattering at the other two, chasing them, raising his head. He's kind of a jerk, just *all the time*. The one who was already the submissive one has gotten so much so that he won't even eat from my hand anymore (which he used to do freely). He'll only eat hidden away from the new pig. I'm starting to worry that this new pig is making my other two pigs just miserable.
Is my only solution just to keep them separated all the time? Thank you for your help!

 

[Piggies&buns]

Welcome

I'm afraid adding a third boar to a bonded pair is almost always a disaster. Boars cannot live in trios or more, they need to be kept in pairs only.
I would highly advise you separate them immediately so that it doesn’t also threaten the relationship between your pair. If you separate now you can keep the original pair in tact and the new piggy as a single. Leave it too long and it can result in the original pairs bond also be being broken and you’d then have three single piggies.

The new piggy will need to live in a separate but side by side cage with the pair so they interact through the bars only - don’t let them be together physically not even for a short time.

He can live like this permanently or you can find him his own new compatible friend and then have two separate pairs.

Adding More Guinea Pigs Or Merging Pairs – What Works And What Not?

 

[pcclosertofind]

Thank you for your quick reply! I wasn't aware of that! I really appreciate your advice. Honestly, with the bonded pair, sometimes the more dominant one will give the submissive one a hard time, but it's nowhere close to what the new piggie does and usually resolves very quickly. I kind of thought the third would do the same, once they worked out who was the boss. He seems just to want to tell the other two he's the boss just all the time though. I'll get them separated as soon as possible.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Thank you for your quick reply! I wasn't aware of that! I really appreciate your advice. Honestly, with the bonded pair, sometimes the more dominant one will give the submissive one a hard time, but it's nowhere close to what the new piggie does and usually resolves very quickly. I kind of thought the third would do the same, once they worked out who was the boss. He seems just to want to tell the other two he's the boss just all the time though. I'll get them separated as soon as possible.

This is why boar trios don’t usually work, they find it very hard to form a functioning hierarchy and obviously there can only be one dominant piggy. It sounds as if you’ve got two dominants and this is why they need to be separated - it could end up in a bloody, injury causing fight and the submissive piggy will either become stressed and withdrawn, or become stressed and fight back and this is when you run the risk of all three ending up single.
Occasionally somebody will get lucky with a boar trio but they must want to be together, must have the right match of characters.…it’s rare that comes up, particularly in youngsters, about 90% of boar trios will fail.

Once you’ve got them separated, ensure the cage for the pair measures 180x60cm as boar pairs need a lot more room. A Midwest cage for a boar pair isn’t big enough, and lack of space can create problems even for a pair.
The single will need a cage of a minimum of 120x60cm.