What to do with male pig after repeat bonding fails?

[Daiayv]

Hi everyone, thanks in advance for any help. I had two male guinea pigs up until about a month ago, when one of them passed away (he was the older pig). I have tried bonding my other pig, Blini, to another male that was younger than him from a rescue (who offered a bonding service and was confident they’d be okay), and for a few weeks this was fine. I had the boys in the garden in a pen and was monitoring them, but a fox had jumped into my garden and grabbed Blini in his mouth (I live in London, one of my neighbours garden is very overgrown and I have since found out there are at least four foxes in there). Fortunately my partner noticed this immediately and we managed to rescue him, he needed vet treatment on a few scratch wounds but is absolutely fine otherwise. I no longer use the pen and do not put them outside.

After this, Blini and the new pig were getting in okay, but unfortunately after another week they had a fight with bloodshed.

We took the rescue pig back to the rescue to try again, tried the bonding service again with a slightly older pig, took them both home after two days and for a week they were absolutely fine, I assumed they we’re quite happy together as they seemed relaxed and shared food and sat together. Yesterday I noticed they both had bite marks and had drawn blood, so I have separated them and will have to take the rescue pig back, as I don’t have the space for more than one pen.

Is Blini just not a friendly guy? Is he traumatised by what happened to him? He’s always been a little bit of a grouch, doesn’t really like human attention despite our best efforts, needs his own personal space even when he was living with the pig that passed away. I’ve had Guinea pigs most of my life and have never had issues with bonding before so this is all new territory to me.

Any tips or advice or just encouragement would be really helpful. It’s been tough trying to mourn my poor boy Salt whilst dealing with all this fur flying and disinfecting wounds! My partner and I are finding this experience very upsetting and just want Blini to be happy.

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m so sorry to hear of the situation. Must have been very scary for you with the fox.

For a bond to be fully settled it takes two weeks together and it’s during those two weeks that they fine tune their relationship and hierarchy - sadly it can go wrong within those two weeks if they fail to come to an agreement.
He is obviously accepting other pigs it’s just they arent able to fine tune. The reality is not every bond will work and it can take many attempts to find the right pig.

In some cases pigs simply can prefer not to share a territory with another but that doesn’t mean they can or should be alone. A side by side neighbour is the alternative in that situation. That sounds to be tricky with space for you though.

How old is he? Is neutering him and finding a sow an option. While a neutered boar/sow bond still comes down to compatibility, it can produce more stable long term results.

 

[Daiayv]

Thank you so much for your reply, I really appreciate it. Blini is 2, nearly 3 years old, so neutering is definitely an option if we need to go down that route!

The rescue we have been using is an hour drive away from us, so it has been a lot of back and forth! I will talk to them about neutering options though as they do offer support for this as far as I know.

Thanks again!

 

[Daiayv]

I’m so sorry to hear of the situation. Must have been very scary for you with the fox.

For a bond to be fully settled it takes two weeks together and it’s during those two weeks that they fine tune their relationship and hierarchy - sadly it can go wrong within those two weeks if they fail to come to an agreement.
He is obviously accepting other pigs it’s just they arent able to fine tune. The reality is not every bond will work and it can take many attempts to find the right pig.

In some cases pigs simply can prefer not to share a territory with another but that doesn’t mean they can or should be alone. A side by side neighbour is the alternative in that situation. That sounds to be tricky with space for you though.

How old is he? Is neutering him and finding a sow an option. While a neutered boar/sow bond still comes down to compatibility, it can produce more stable long term results.

Thank you so much for your reply, I really appreciate it. Blini is 2, nearly 3 years old, so neutering is definitely an option if we need to go down that route!

The rescue we have been using is an hour drive away from us, so it has been a lot of back and forth! I will talk to them about neutering options though as they do offer support for this as far as I know.

Thanks again!

 

[fluffysal]

Welcome to the forum. I have a pair of "neighboars". Given the option, I would personally go down the neutering route as it seems like the mixed gender pairs are more stable.
I am actually working on hubby to get him to suggest getting our boys to the plum fairy as we have space for two pairs.