Separated boars after a fight, then one jumped over a grid to get back with his companion.

[webb1234]

I've had male guinea pigs for around 6 months now, they're both 1 year 3 months old. They live in a 2x5 C&C cage with two water bottles, two hay dispensers, two log tunnels and one food bowl.

My herd:
Frank (long haired, dominant)
Andy (short haired, submissive).

Previously, I've looked after 3 female guinea pigs and they were very easy to look after, however these boys seem to have their challenges. For the first month of having them, there were no issues between them, however from the second month Frank began to be more aggressive towards Andy. We left them be as it was usually Frank doing very loud teeth chattering and slowly approaching Andy, but then Andy makes his submissive quiet squeaks and Frank leaves him alone. Today I arrived home and found Frank chasing Andy around the cage, I checked on both piggies and noticed Frank had a cut under his nose, I then checked Andy and he didn't have any signs of injuries. Shortly after some googling of what to do, I put them both back in their cage and watched them for a bit, Frank immediately started chasing Andy and chattering his teeth, but this time Andy wasn't running away and was instead lifting his head up above Franks, then Andy jumps onto Frank and now Andy has a cut on his lip as well.

My first thought was to separate them. I cut a piece of cardboard the size of 1x2 C&C grid and fixed it in the middle of the cage to keep them apart (it's all I have at the moment), for some reason this made Andy quite anxious and he started trying to chew his way through it, around 20 mins later I turn around and somehow Andy managed to jump over, still no idea how he did it, I didn't think he could jump the height of a grid, but he managed it, they've been back together for half an hour now and haven't been fighting since. I'm still not sure what to do though.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Welcome to the forum

First, I would recommend you remove the food bowl. There should always be two of everything in any event but we don’t recommend the use of food bowls because it can mean the dominant claims it and hogs it. Must importantly the use of a food bowl discourages foraging - eating at a bowl is rather a mindless activity. We recommend veg and pellets are scattered in loose piles of hay to encourage them to forage for it and make it more mentally stimulating. It also means the dominant cannot hog.

If they’ve gone back together and are ok, then leave them but watch very carefully - there isn’t a guarantee all will remain well between them.
Cut lips may be misplaced swipes rather than something more serious.
Their spat may have been something and nothing that doesn’t occurs again.
It may have been a bit of hormones but they are actually ok together.
Or, it could be the beginning of the end and if that is the case, it will escalate and into fights again.

If they are determined enough piggies absolutely can jump the height of a grid and actual fallen out and separated boars will try to get back together to be able to fight again and defend their territory - you can’t risk that. I would therefore recommend you get some more grids as spare and some cable ties in case you do need to separate them permanently (it’s recommended grids are cable tied for extra security). You would also need to extend the cage to a 2x6 before splitting it in half so they each separated piggy can have the minimum of a 2x3 cage each. A piece of cardboard is never going to keep them apart. And if they were to have an actual fight and need to be separated, you cannot risk them getting back together.