Danielle Smith
Teenage Guinea Pig
I've had my two boars for just over two weeks; they were 5 months old when I got them and had apparently been living together for most of their lives until that point.
When I initially put them into their new cage (a Ferplast 120), there was lots of dominance behaviour (mostly rumblestrutting and humping, with some very gentle teeth chatter after which the shenanigans died down for a while), with one of the chaps -- Tubs -- clearly acting more dominant out of the two. Both boars were bickering and chasing a fair bit, so I bought C&C grids as quickly as I could and set up a 3x4 cage for them hoping that the extra space would do the trick.
They've been in the new cage for four days, with two bowls/hay trays/water bottles etc, as well as lots of hideys. Within this time, the other boy (Flubs) has been a bit more testy, responding to Tubs' advances with rumblestrutting and occasional gentle teeth chattering and increasingly instigating these behaviours himself. Both have been directly lunging at each other, and this has been increasing in frequency over the past day or so (especially if one is in a hidey and the other one comes up to the entrance; all have two exits, don't worry!). Teeth don't puncture (only light nips if anything), and there are no bites or scratches that I can see, though they squeak at each other a lot quite loudly during stand-offs. Only a couple times has there been any 'screaming', and I think this is just submissive behaviour.
When not rumblestrutting at/humping each other, they are pretty good at avoiding one another -- unless Flubs is in the mood to harrass Tubs or vice versa, if one sees the other in one of the hay trays, they usually make an effort to go for the unoccupied one.
The loud squeaking and lunging are just making me really nervous, and I keep feeling like I have to stop what I'm doing to make sure I'm available to separate if it all devolves into a flying ball of fur. Does it sound like they might need separated soon? Has anyone got any tips?
When I initially put them into their new cage (a Ferplast 120), there was lots of dominance behaviour (mostly rumblestrutting and humping, with some very gentle teeth chatter after which the shenanigans died down for a while), with one of the chaps -- Tubs -- clearly acting more dominant out of the two. Both boars were bickering and chasing a fair bit, so I bought C&C grids as quickly as I could and set up a 3x4 cage for them hoping that the extra space would do the trick.
They've been in the new cage for four days, with two bowls/hay trays/water bottles etc, as well as lots of hideys. Within this time, the other boy (Flubs) has been a bit more testy, responding to Tubs' advances with rumblestrutting and occasional gentle teeth chattering and increasingly instigating these behaviours himself. Both have been directly lunging at each other, and this has been increasing in frequency over the past day or so (especially if one is in a hidey and the other one comes up to the entrance; all have two exits, don't worry!). Teeth don't puncture (only light nips if anything), and there are no bites or scratches that I can see, though they squeak at each other a lot quite loudly during stand-offs. Only a couple times has there been any 'screaming', and I think this is just submissive behaviour.
When not rumblestrutting at/humping each other, they are pretty good at avoiding one another -- unless Flubs is in the mood to harrass Tubs or vice versa, if one sees the other in one of the hay trays, they usually make an effort to go for the unoccupied one.
The loud squeaking and lunging are just making me really nervous, and I keep feeling like I have to stop what I'm doing to make sure I'm available to separate if it all devolves into a flying ball of fur. Does it sound like they might need separated soon? Has anyone got any tips?
). Both have a slight case of mites (currently being treated) -- that probably isn't helping matters. I've had my eyes glued to those links, but it's hard to judge when the line has been crossed... so far it seems if there's no blood, it's okay.
