Teeth chattering and chasing

[niamhday26]

Hi,
1 week ago I adopted 2 boars, two year olds and already bonded. One of them had been consistently asserting dominance and the other pig doesn't seem to question it. The dominant pig is constantly chasing the other, and though they aren't fighting, the non dominant piggie is teeth chattering quite a lot. Does anyone have any advice for this, please?

lots of pages say unless they're physically fighting or bullying to the point where the other pig can't eat, it's fine. But it's just so difficult to see them in so much distress!

 

[Piggies&buns]

When piggies move to a new environment, they will go through a period of reestablishing their relationship. You will see a lot of dominance during this time, even in established pairs. In well bonded pairs this will be a few days of dominance and things will calm down - the dominant will assert his position, the submissive piggy will accept it and things will settle.
In pairs where there is an underlying rift, then a new home etc can brings those issues to the surface and that’s when you can see fights occurring and relationships breaking down if they cannot come to an agreement between themselves

What you have read is correct - unless there is an actual fight or it becomes clear that the change in environment has caused a breakdown in their relationship, then please leave them to it. It may seem distressing to you, but to them their processes are normal.

Ensure their cage is big enough - for two boars that is 180x60cm recommended (150x60cm as a minimum) and that all hides have two exits so that they cannot trap each other inside one. Ensure there is two of every item.

The guides below explain boar behaviour and how to tell when things are or are not going well

A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs
Bonds In Trouble
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?

 

[Wiebke]

Hi and welcome

with @Piggies&buns and her very comprehensive advice.

Please take the time to read up on the links; they are full of very helpful practical information to help you learn understand what is going on and why and how you can stop whether things are still OK or not. This will come in vey handy, especially when the teenage hormone spikes hit once the testicles start descending.

Yours are still in the middle of establishing a working group in totally new territory, which usually takes around 2 weeks. If the leader is still insecure in himself, they can over-react a bit (fear-aggression).
Especially as your boys are both still at an age where they would be looking for a guardian boar to teach and protect them while they learn the intricacies of the complex social life that guinea pigs have and how to master their environment and they have obviously not postively chosen each other as mates.

 

[dhill_cb7]

Hello and welcome. My boars did this exact thing when I rescued them in September of ‘21.
Believe me when I tell you I was a nervous wreck. However, in my case this settling took a bit longer than 2 weeks, or so it seemed, and now things seem to be going pretty well

My dominant boar did teeth chatter recently but I believe he was nervous as we had them both out for their first lap time with my girlfriend.

Please read those threads and always feel free to follow up with questions.

 

[niamhday26]

That's very reassuring! Thank you

 

[niamhday26]

When piggies move to a new environment, they will go through a period of reestablishing their relationship. You will see a lot of dominance during this time, even in established pairs. In well bonded pairs this will be a few days of dominance and things will calm down - the dominant will assert his position, the submissive piggy will accept it and things will settle.
In pairs where there is an underlying rift, then a new home etc can brings those issues to the surface and that’s when you can see fights occurring and relationships breaking down if they cannot come to an agreement between themselves

What you have read is correct - unless there is an actual fight or it becomes clear that the change in environment has caused a breakdown in their relationship, then please leave them to it. It may seem distressing to you, but to them their processes are normal.

Ensure their cage is big enough - for two boars that is 180x60cm recommended (150x60cm as a minimum) and that all hides have two exits so that they cannot trap each other inside one. Ensure there is two of every item.

The guides below explain boar behaviour and how to tell when things are or are not going well

A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs
Bonds In Trouble
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?

That's great, thank you! I'll read the

When piggies move to a new environment, they will go through a period of reestablishing their relationship. You will see a lot of dominance during this time, even in established pairs. In well bonded pairs this will be a few days of dominance and things will calm down - the dominant will assert his position, the submissive piggy will accept it and things will settle.
In pairs where there is an underlying rift, then a new home etc can brings those issues to the surface and that’s when you can see fights occurring and relationships breaking down if they cannot come to an agreement between themselves

What you have read is correct - unless there is an actual fight or it becomes clear that the change in environment has caused a breakdown in their relationship, then please leave them to it. It may seem distressing to you, but to them their processes are normal.

Ensure their cage is big enough - for two boars that is 180x60cm recommended (150x60cm as a minimum) and that all hides have two exits so that they cannot trap each other inside one. Ensure there is two of every item.

The guides below explain boar behaviour and how to tell when things are or are not going well

A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs
Bonds In Trouble
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?

Thank you! That's reassuring, I'll read the threads. They've got plenty of space and two of everything (I made sure to research thoroughly before we adopted them).