Pigs Been Seperated - What to do now? Help........?

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For 8 months I’ve let them get on with the rumbling and teeth chattering. Now they’ve taken to actually lunging at and biting each other so they’ve been separated, currently in separate spaces that aren’t big enough for them so might be building a C&C this weekend.

Is there any chance of re-bonding them? I’m not holding out much hope seeing as I’m not sure that they were ever really “bondedâ€. From the same litter they came from P@H, if I did it again I would certainly go to a rescue but I didn’t know better at the time.

Both are un-neutered boys and although I shouldn’t really consider any more animals as I am in a rented property I’m not ruling it out completely.

What would be the best thing to do do you think?
 
I had two piggies who came as a pair and then I tried to add a third one, which in the end didn't work out. So, in the end, I invested in another Nero 4 cage and decided to look for a friend for my third piggy. Touch wood, he's bonded fine with Dave so far...

Would your boys live happily alongside each other in a C&C with a divider? If you were to look for new friends for each of them, a lot will depend on their personalities as to what type of piggy you were looking for. A rescue might let you take your pigs along with you to choose their new friends. Unfortunately, once pigs fall out, they're not easy to rebond with each other. :-\
 
Some piggies just don't get along.
Built the C C Cage and have them next to each other, so they still sniff each other and can communicate. They should be fine like that.
If you want them to re-bond....that's the difficult part. You can separate them and get them into different rooms for a while so they don't hear or see each other and then try to re-introduce them on common ground. That might work or not, depending on the piggies.
The boys are currently going through the "teenage" stage and the hormones are going bananas. Brothers are known to fight each other once the hormones kick in, so you might have to wait a little while until things calm down and re-introduce them when they are a bit older.

Good luck!
 
If you are keen on re-bonding them then I would try giving them a bath first - using the same shampoo etc so they will then smell the same, and then inroduce on neutral ground.

Good luck O0
 
Thanks for the responses.
Mackpossum, I think you’re right that they just “don’t get onâ€, they’ve never been close, they’ve never wanted to share the same space etc but they’ve never had a serious fight and they will (and still now) are happy to share a lap or a run, they just seem to be refusing to live together.

They have 2 of everything, plenty of hiding spaces, and a space of about 6 feet x 3 feet.

Ok, C&C could be the way forward then. Neither of them are particularly aggressive so I think they will be happy next to each other.

I have bathed them before, and Black jack you are right, it calms them down for about 12 hours then they are back to normal again.
 
Sunshine and Twinkle were like this they were never close but lived ok for ages then they hit the teenage stage and had a major falling out. I tried rebonding but Twinkle bit Sunshine (before Sunshine could attack him) so they lived side by side in cages. Sunshine now has a new friend little Radley and I have just introduced Milo to Twinkle and they are fine. Side by side does work in most cases.

You could try rebonding but its tricky. Barmy 4 boars will have some ideas if you decide to go down that route!

Good luck
x
 
i would try to bathe them and wash out their cage squeaky clean and has no scent of anyone, wash all toys, bowls, everything and could try putting them together, if this fails you could use something like i do a cooling rack and cable ties to divide cage in half. so they can see and smell eachother etc. i use it because zoe is scared of other piggies as she has been bullied so much and feels happier with a barrier. good luck with your boys O0 sending hugs :smitten: :smitten: :smitten:
 
unfortunately this happened with my two, louis and charlie - now louis is living alone and charlie has one of the babies living with him - we did try rebonding them back together, but charlie flew at louis which resulted in him having a cut on his nose which was bleeding and his nose was actually running with blood...
 
Same story here. Slush and Spike were inseparable then they hit puberty, Spike gave Slush one nasty bite which resulted in his lip literally hanging off. Because it was around 11pm and the vets were closed we called the emergency vet, but the price they wanted was unreasonable. We had some thick antiseptic small animal powder lying around and literally had to glue his lip back together. He was fine, the lip healed itself, we took him to the vet the next day, but the antiseptic stuff had done its job and his lip healed nicely. Sadly we were unable to reintroduce them; they refused to live together, but were fine with sharing a run, just not the same cage.

I would recommend that you try buddy bathing lol, clean out their cage so it smells of neither pig and then bath them together with the same shampoo. The idea is that they bond with each other through the horror and terror of being bathed, plus they both smell the same. After this reintroduce them. It may work, it may not, it really depends on the guinea pigs, some people find it makes matters worse between the two pigs.

If they still refuse to get on, then I would say separate them using grids or some kind of divider :) Good luck with the boys.
 
Speaking from my experience only and sorry to put a dampener on things but once Attacking/all out fighting has occurred, I do not think there is any way back. I had this a year ago and tried re bonding using above methods and more and they immediately lunged at eachother each time.

I made them seperate c & c`s next door to eachother, one was happy alone, the other wasnt so I bonded him with a baby boar-8 months on they are very happy :) It is always a risk though-the same could happen again. I would try them alone but next to eachother and see how that goes. It is easy to tell if one or the other is unhappy then if that happens, you could re think the situation.
 
I have only ever had boars & this problem is inevitable at puberty! Or the introduction of a new boar can cause chaos & the newbie being picked on, but I tend not to separate immediately rather I let them sort their differences & decide who's "Boss of the Week"! :tickedoff:

I currently have 5 pigs together & have found that as long as you are very patient & intervene when it gets really serious or a pig is at risk of being severely injured, then then problem can improve, although it is likely that the 2 or 3 boys concerned will always have a dislike for each other. They can sometimes get to a point where they will circle each other to avoid standing within a hair's breadth of the other! This can take 1-3 months to really settle down but is worth the wait.

We still have the odd teeth chatter, war wound & avoidance issue but I have managed to keep them all together! ;D ;D ;D

Good luck & trust your own instinct about what to do. As owners you get to know what is right for your babies! xx
 
Thanks everyone. I am trying to keep them as close as possible to maximise the chances of rebonding. They live right next to each other and what I have noticed was that when I first seperated them they rumbled at each other through the bars whenever they were near each other, this has almost completely stopped.

I had them both out on my lap at the weekend and they were both fine, eating their veg together without problems. I put them in their outdoor run together for an hour and had no problems, although Scampy was hiding and keeping out of Treacles way, but being shy this could have been because of the new run.

What do you think? Much hope?
 
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