Squabbling Boys.

[dreamweaver68]

Hi,
My 2 boys have been together now for 8 months, pretty much without incident, just the odd rumblestrutting but the last few days there's been some bickering. This afternoon I put them in their indoor run but Seth has been continuously chasing Angus and trying to mount him,something he hasn't done since I first introduced them,so At the moment I've put Angus back in their cage and Seth is still in the run. I'm worried now as to whether to put Seth back in the cage tonight or keep them apart. How long should a 'time out' last?

Any ideas please?

 

[Wiebke]

I would give them a time out overnight and then do a "buddy bath" (removes any testosterone stink) and formal intros on neutral gound first. Best give the cage a clean, too, before moving them back in, as it is most likely also very liberally sprayed with testosterone laden pee. As your boys haven't had a bloody fight with bites, your chances are very good that they will go back together again after they have had time to calm down.
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/faq-introducing-and-reintroducing-guinea-pigs.38562/

8-10 months is often a the trickiest period in terms of teenage hormones running wild; hopefully you can get your boys through it. It will be a bit of a tightrope walk, as you cannot separate too often without endangering the bond. On the other hand, if your boys were truly character incompatible, they would have fallen out already. Thankfully, they are not too far from a more settled adulthood from about 12-14 months onwards.

 

[dreamweaver68]

Hi,
Thanks for the advice. I'd already seperated them overnight but this morning put them in the run together and they were ok. I still gave them a buddy bath after giving their cage a meticulous cleaning. I've also gone back to a dish and bottle each which I did at the beginning but they only ever drank from one bottle and they used to eat out the same bowl together then move on to the second one lol.
Here they are after their buddy bath

 

[piggyfan]

Beautiful boys!

 

[Maddykins]

They are gorgeous! I have two boars that bicker sometimes but they never physically attack each other and the dominate one has never tried to mount the other one (could that be because they're both neutered?). They squabble like rumbling at each other sometimes and rumble-strutting but they usually forget about it pretty quickly and get back to whatever they were doing. They're about a year old and are good friends most of the time as they eat together nicely and groom each other a bit and sleep close to each other usually. So fingers crossed your boys will be fine but it sounds like it was just a little off day

 

[Cookie&Cream]

Mine are about 4 months and have been chasing eachother and rumbling. They'll mount eachother when in a new place but I'll just nudge whoever is on top and they stop. They've gotten a lot better since I got another igloo and bathed them together

 

[GloriousGuineaGirl]

My 2 boys fell out at 5 months :/ ( brothers always been together) did not see any dominance or anything. Husband came home one night to a bloody aftermath. Since that night Poe has shown his dominance over Edgar And after trying to bond them again and failing twice I gave up. They enjoy floor time together luckily but even still, after about an hour... poe starts again trying to bully Edgar. Shame as you can tell Edgar really loves seeing Poe