emmyk89
Junior Guinea Pig
I have an 18 month old single neutered boar (who I got from someone online some months ago and he was in an awful tiny cage alone and we had him neutered months ago as we wanted to get him some friends, so he wasn't on his own the rest of his life, and had a choice of females too if he didn't find a male friend.
So 4 weeks ago, again there were 2 poor little girl pigs being sold online in a tiny cage (when we picked them up they were matted, one has an abcess and their wood shavings were soaking!) One is 6 months old (scoot) and the other is apparently her mother at 18 months old (Merlin) They have been vet checked.
They have been in separate cages in the same room since we got them, and have been out everyday in a run beside my boar with a divider for weeks now, none showed any sign of dominance not even a high pitched squeak and definitely no rumbling or chattering. Scoot was pipping (I call it that as it sounds like "pip pip" when they do their happy squeaks). In fact Reggie mostly ignored them and showed no aggression or dominace. We always put redigrass and hay right at the divider and they all sat ate nicely between the bars, for the last 2 weeks.
So today's the day we decide to let them meet without the divider. Everything is cleaned, we even bought a brand new blanket especially for the bonding so none of their scents were on anything. We clipped a towel over one side for "cover" .
All seemed to go well - we put hay, grass and veg in, reggie said hello to the pigs but all he was interested in was eating and it was like this for a bit. After the veg ran out, scoot then starts following reggie around, and sniffing his bum etc, then she would eat hay then back to following reggie. Sometimes reggie kinda jumps around when she did that as she startled him by poking him - everytime though when he knew who it was he just ran off to another hay pile and left her totally alone.
This behaviour from Scoot slowly escalates to non-stop chasing him, high pitched squealing and chattering (from her only) - even when reggie is just trying to sleep or eat hay at the far end of the pen she comes over to squeal (so loudly aswell) at him and eventually she continually lunges at him, dives on him and by now reggie is trying to jump out of the pen (we used C&C cube squares) he is that distressed.
He eventually starts chattering and squealing very loudly back, and all Scoot does is chase and chase, poke his behind, raise her head, lunge. He never once lunges back at her either - he just runs away and then eventually started chattering back - after running away.
I can't tell if this is normal or it was about to get nasty as the chattering from both got very loud at the end. Reggie literally ran away from her from the start and did not bother her whatsoever, he was totally relaxed at first as he attempted to lie down to sleep so many times but she just kept coming to him squealing whenever he lay down. I felt so bad for reggie after he started scrambling to get out of the actual pen we put the divider back and he's slept since (an hour literally), he was knackered because of it. They were all together for 2 hours.
Merlin the older female literally kept out of the way the whole time and was no issue at all (she is thr one with an abcess)
Scoot has been squealing at him since between the divider when he's got up for a drink and hay. She is definitely a female as the vets checked her over down there too.
Do we try again another day or is she being aggressive? I just felt really bad for reggie by the end as he was doing nothing to aggravate her. And nothing he did seemed to satisfy Scoot at all.
Why would she hound him like this? He left her totally alone and it was only at the very end he started chattering and squealing back
So 4 weeks ago, again there were 2 poor little girl pigs being sold online in a tiny cage (when we picked them up they were matted, one has an abcess and their wood shavings were soaking!) One is 6 months old (scoot) and the other is apparently her mother at 18 months old (Merlin) They have been vet checked.
They have been in separate cages in the same room since we got them, and have been out everyday in a run beside my boar with a divider for weeks now, none showed any sign of dominance not even a high pitched squeak and definitely no rumbling or chattering. Scoot was pipping (I call it that as it sounds like "pip pip" when they do their happy squeaks). In fact Reggie mostly ignored them and showed no aggression or dominace. We always put redigrass and hay right at the divider and they all sat ate nicely between the bars, for the last 2 weeks.
So today's the day we decide to let them meet without the divider. Everything is cleaned, we even bought a brand new blanket especially for the bonding so none of their scents were on anything. We clipped a towel over one side for "cover" .
All seemed to go well - we put hay, grass and veg in, reggie said hello to the pigs but all he was interested in was eating and it was like this for a bit. After the veg ran out, scoot then starts following reggie around, and sniffing his bum etc, then she would eat hay then back to following reggie. Sometimes reggie kinda jumps around when she did that as she startled him by poking him - everytime though when he knew who it was he just ran off to another hay pile and left her totally alone.
This behaviour from Scoot slowly escalates to non-stop chasing him, high pitched squealing and chattering (from her only) - even when reggie is just trying to sleep or eat hay at the far end of the pen she comes over to squeal (so loudly aswell) at him and eventually she continually lunges at him, dives on him and by now reggie is trying to jump out of the pen (we used C&C cube squares) he is that distressed.
He eventually starts chattering and squealing very loudly back, and all Scoot does is chase and chase, poke his behind, raise her head, lunge. He never once lunges back at her either - he just runs away and then eventually started chattering back - after running away.
I can't tell if this is normal or it was about to get nasty as the chattering from both got very loud at the end. Reggie literally ran away from her from the start and did not bother her whatsoever, he was totally relaxed at first as he attempted to lie down to sleep so many times but she just kept coming to him squealing whenever he lay down. I felt so bad for reggie after he started scrambling to get out of the actual pen we put the divider back and he's slept since (an hour literally), he was knackered because of it. They were all together for 2 hours.
Merlin the older female literally kept out of the way the whole time and was no issue at all (she is thr one with an abcess)
Scoot has been squealing at him since between the divider when he's got up for a drink and hay. She is definitely a female as the vets checked her over down there too.
Do we try again another day or is she being aggressive? I just felt really bad for reggie by the end as he was doing nothing to aggravate her. And nothing he did seemed to satisfy Scoot at all.
Why would she hound him like this? He left her totally alone and it was only at the very end he started chattering and squealing back