Two dominant boars & not enough space, Please help.

[Taikova]

Hello, I am a new guinea pig owner and I have unfortunately made a very irresponsible decision. Ten days ago I set out to get a new pet guinea pig, I had a 2x3 c&c cage set and all of the other necessities. To keep a long story short, I ended up being convinced to get two after being told they were female and that they would be fine living in a 2x3 cage. I brought them home and named them Kova and Mocha. After observing them, I noticed a lot of unusual behaviors which led me to suspect that I was possibly lied to and one of the guinea pigs was a boar. Since I could not take the responsibility of baby guinea pigs in the future I got them both sexed to make sure. Low and behold they were actually both little boars. Great news at the time because I would not end up with baby guinea pigs, however, I soon began to notice the downside to this. Originally, Kova (Now Kuzco) was the dominant Piggy and Mocha (Now Pacha) was the submissive one. As a couple days went by their dominance behaviors began to intensify. Two days ago, they started to constantly rumble strut and teeth chatter at each other throughout the day and at night they would get in big fights. I woke up to clumps of hair and what seemed to be small stains of blood on the fleece.

-Currently, I have split their cage in half and separated them, they still continue to teeth chatter, rumble strut and sometimes lunge at each other through the bars. I do not know what to do, I am out of space and out of spare money to expand the cage as they ended up costing me more than I originally expected. I don't want them to severely harm each other and half of a 2x3 c&c cage is admittingly way too small for them to live in separately. Unfortunately, if there is no solution I can afford I will have to rehome one guinea pig as soon as possible even though it breaks my heart. I know it was a very irresponsible decision on my half which is why I am reaching out for help. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[Merab]

Welcome to the forum
Sorry you’ve found yourself in this situation.

Guinea pigs are social animals and really need to be in pairs or larger groups.
Boars do need a lot of space.
You will have a tough choice to make for the welfare of both boys.
Read some of the forum guides for new owners and the housing guides as well.
These could help your decision. Feel free to ask more questions here and we will support you as best we can

 

[Taikova]

Welcome to the forum
Sorry you’ve found yourself in this situation.

Guinea pigs are social animals and really need to be in pairs or larger groups.
Boars do need a lot of space.
You will have a tough choice to make for the welfare of both boys.
Read some of the forum guides for new owners and the housing guides as well.
These could help your decision. Feel free to ask more questions here and we will support you as best we can

Thank you for replying, I am a bit overwhelmed with what I have gotten myself into. I definitely want what is best for the two boars even if it means that I will have to give them both away to someone that will provide them with a better home.

 

[Merab]

The best way to deal the feelings of being overwhelmed is to pause.
Give yourself time to think and to consider carefully what to do.
Make a decision then live with it for 24 hours. If you feel comfortable with your decision after that time then it’s probably right. If you don’t feel comfortable then think again.

 

[Bill & Ted]

I agree with Merab’s Slave, don’t make a decision yet, have a good think about what is the best solution for the boys. Would it be possible to buy some more grids (second hand?) cheaply and have them side by side? Look in local paper, free ads Ebay etc. Sometimes you can get a bargain! Perhaps look for local rescues, would they be willing to boar date one piggie and take your remaining piggie? A swap in personalities may be good for both piggies?

Don’t be hard on yourself, boars can be very picky and fickle and can fall out even after living together for a couple of years. There is never a guarantee that they will get on with one another x

 

[Taikova]

I agree with Merab’s Slave, don’t make a decision yet, have a good think about what is the best solution for the boys. Would it be possible to buy some more grids (second hand?) cheaply and have them side by side? Look in local paper, free ads Ebay etc. Sometimes you can get a bargain! Perhaps look for local rescues, would they be willing to boar date one piggie and take your remaining piggie? A swap in personalities may be good for both piggies?

Don’t be hard on yourself, boars can be very picky and fickle and can fall out even after living together for a couple of years. There is never a guarantee that they will get on with one another x

Thank you for replying, after looking at the materials I have left over, I might be able to extend the cage into a 2x4, if I move furniture around but that's as big as I will be able to get it. I don't know if that will still be sufficient space for two boars though. For today I will see how they behave with the partition up and make a decision when I get home from work tomorrow based on how they are interacting. It's an unfortunate situation that I did not intend to happen. As for the boar dating, there are no rescues with guinea pigs near my home the closest one is probably two hours away.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Sorry for your situation.
As has been said, they need to live in pairs.
Boars do need a lot of room. A 5x2 is the recommended for two boars, you might get away with a 4x2 But as they have been fighting and blood drawn, you will need to consider that now that no amount of space will solve this. The advice generally is that once blood is drawn they won’t get on and need to be permanantly separated with each piggy needing a new friend. It might that the lack of space has made them fight and that in a bigger space they may change their minds about each other but it would be impossible to know that . Even if you do enlarge their cage you would need to keep a close eye on them and possibly step in and separate if their relationship is now broken.
As the others have said though, give yourself some time to make a decision.