4 boars fighting

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Looking for advice please!

I have 4 boars I started with a pair and one passed away as he was quite old which left one very lonely piggy. I got him a friend a baby male from a local rescue and bonded them and the lived together fine at first. I then ended up rescuing 2 more males who were babies and also a bonded pair. When cleaning them out I used to put all four in a shared pen and they got along well. I wanted to upgrade their cage so got a c&c cage and built it as big as I possibly could with the space I have (they are indoor piggies) they lived together fine for a good 6 months and suddenly the original pair started fighting and blood was drawn so I separated the one who had bitten the other using the cage panels so he was with the others but couldn’t attack them. He did also try to attack the other two but they didn’t get injured as a result so this is why I separated him. This left 3 in the larger section but now two of them have also started to fight and once again drawn blood so been separated. So now I have 1 pig next to 1 pig next to 2 pigs. This is not ideal as they deserve to have more space than they currently do. I am not sure if it’s possible to rebond them at all but if I can’t rebond them I may have to rehome some as it isn’t fair to keep them like this long term. Any advice from people who have been in this situation appreciated. I love them all and ideally don’t want to get rid of any of them but if that’s what is best for them then I will do this because they all deserve to have the space they need
 
Once they have fought, it is best to keep them separate as they will be at risk of further serious fights. Guinea Pig boars generally don't go back from broken bonds. Attempting to keep so many miles together is very risky. I am surprised you have any compatible boars left. Bonding needs to be done with great care, especially with males, and only one on one, not two at a time. The future size of the herd versus the size of the accommodation needs to be considered. I have two males with a broken bond and they need two large cages each. They each have just the basic minimum of cage size 🙁 Ideally their individual space should have increased after separation, but they are a bit older now and manage in their 4' x 2' homes ❤️
 
Welcome to the forum

I’m sorry to hear this. Unfortunately multiple boars in a cage don’t remain stable for long. They find it exceptionally difficult for form a long lasting hierarchy, with a boar quartet having an almost 100% failure rate, and do much better when only kept in pairs

Now fights have occurred, they will need to be separated permanently. Unfortunately you cannot ever rebond any boars who have fought.
A pair need a 5x2 c&c
Each single needs a a 3x2 c&c as a minimum but a 4x2 is recommended.

As long as the two singles remain next to each other, then c&c cages can be stacked
- so you can make two 6x2 cages, stack them, put the pair in one cage, split the other cage in half and have one piggy in each half.

Adding More Guinea Pigs Or Merging Pairs – What Works And What Not?
 
Yes, the C&C cages are so flexible they lend themselves to convenient stacking. The piggies with the divided cages could be at the bottom and the pair at the top. You would be able to keep all of your piggies in the sand footprint as the original cage 👍❤️
 
The other option is to put two cages on top of two tables with the other cages underneath them ❤️
 
Piggies&buns said:
Welcome to the forum

I’m sorry to hear this. Unfortunately multiple boars in a cage don’t remain stable for long. They find it exceptionally difficult for form a long lasting hierarchy, with a boar quartet having an almost 100% failure rate, and do much better when only kept in pairs

Now fights have occurred, they will need to be separated permanently. Unfortunately you cannot ever rebond any boars who have fought.
A pair need a 5x2 c&c
Each single needs a a 3x2 c&c as a minimum but a 4x2 is recommended.

As long as the two singles remain next to each other, then c&c cages can be stacked
- so you can make two 6x2 cages, stack them, put the pair in one cage, split the other cage in half and have one piggy in each half.

Adding More Guinea Pigs Or Merging Pairs – What Works And What Not?
Click to expand...
Thank you I’ve not tried to stack the cages before so I will have to work out if this is possible with the one I have and how to do it
 
Truffolo said:
Yes, the C&C cages are so flexible they lend themselves to convenient stacking. The piggies with the divided cages could be at the bottom and the pair at the top. You would be able to keep all of your piggies in the sand footprint as the original cage 👍❤️
Click to expand...
Thank you I will give this a go and see if I can make it work
 
Truffolo said:
Once they have fought, it is best to keep them separate as they will be at risk of further serious fights. Guinea Pig boars generally don't go back from broken bonds. Attempting to keep so many miles together is very risky. I am surprised you have any compatible boars left. Bonding needs to be done with great care, especially with males, and only one on one, not two at a time. The future size of the herd versus the size of the accommodation needs to be considered. I have two males with a broken bond and they need two large cages each. They each have just the basic minimum of cage size 🙁 Ideally their individual space should have increased after separation, but they are a bit older now and manage in their 4' x 2' homes ❤️
Click to expand...
Thank you I was advised I would be able to have the four males together and they’d be fine but clearly that person was not very well educated on male guinea pigs 🤦🏻‍♀️ I have only ever had females before when I was a child so never had these sorts of issues and know lots about females but not as much about males so just learning about males as I go.
 
I hope it works out and you can keep your boys. Yes, the females can form nice compatible groups with a stable hierarchy, but boys can be more tricky. They are lovely though and soppy and can be quite confident little characters when it comes to bonding with people 🥰
 
I’m sorry you were given bad advice about a herd of boars. We see it all too often unfortunately and it’s sad when an owner is then left to have to deal with the repercussions.

If you have a dog then depending on what your set up is now (lidded etc) then stacking may not be possible - The bottom cage won’t be able to have a lid
Boars are fantastic - I'm a boar owner myself. They tend to mellow and get friendlier with age; they’re such characters!
Things will be easier with the two singles as obviously they don’t have anybody to worry about dominance with now, but there are a few things of note when dealing with a pair.
Things like never cleaning out the whole cage in one go - if you clean the whole cage then you remove all scent and that can, in some pairs, cause new rounds of dominance every time. Only ever clean half the cage at a time (then do the other half the next day) so avoid territory disruption.
And ensuring you deal with the dominant of the pair first so as to not upset the hierarchy

I’ve added our boar guide below as it contains lots of useful information

A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars
 
Truffolo said:
I hope it works out and you can keep your boys. Yes, the females can form nice compatible groups with a stable hierarchy, but boys can be more tricky. They are lovely though and soppy and can be quite confident little characters when it comes to bonding with people 🥰
Click to expand...
Yes they are all lovely individually and I hope I can get some sort of arrangement to keep them all because they are very loved here they love a cuddle and to sit on my lap 🥰
 
Piggies&buns said:
I’m sorry you were given bad advice about a herd of boars. We see it all too often unfortunately and it’s sad when an owner is then left to have to deal with the repercussions.

If you have a dog then depending on what your set up is now (lidded etc) then stacking may not be possible - The bottom cage won’t be able to have a lid
Boars are fantastic - I'm a boar owner myself. They tend to mellow and get friendlier with age; they’re such characters!
Things will be easier with the two singles as obviously they don’t have anybody to worry about dominance with now, but there are a few things of note when dealing with a pair.
Things like never cleaning out the whole cage in one go - if you clean the whole cage then you remove all scent and that can, in some pairs, cause new rounds of dominance every time. Only ever clean half the cage at a time (then do the other half the next day) so avoid territory disruption.
And ensuring you deal with the dominant of the pair first so as to not upset the hierarchy

I’ve added our boar guide below as it contains lots of useful information

A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars
Click to expand...
Thank you I didn’t know that about cleaning the whole cage at once! It does make sense though! They seem to have settled now I’ve separated the second male to be alone next to the others. The two who are still together are brothers and have always been together and never really shown any kind of aggression towards one another so I’m hoping they will be able to stay together going forward 🥰
 
Muffincookie said:
Yes they are all lovely individually and I hope I can get some sort of arrangement to keep them all because they are very loved here they love a cuddle and to sit on my lap 🥰
Click to expand...
You are lucky, so many people have difficulty getting their piggies to enjoy handling 🐻 Really chilled piggies are precious 🥰
 
Good luck 😊 we've had a similar fall out with our boar pair, it was hard because we had a pair of boars years ago and they were the best of friends! These 2 are very different. They're now hopefully living very happily as neighboars in a 4x2 space each (we have ferplast cages but rigged them into a similar set up as a c&c).
I've learnt so much about guinea pigs and their behaviours and it's fascinating. I hope it works out for you x
 
meepfish66 said:
Good luck 😊 we've had a similar fall out with our boar pair, it was hard because we had a pair of boars years ago and they were the best of friends! These 2 are very different. They're now hopefully living very happily as neighboars in a 4x2 space each (we have ferplast cages but rigged them into a similar set up as a c&c).
I've learnt so much about guinea pigs and their behaviours and it's fascinating. I hope it works out for you x
Click to expand...
Thank you hopefully we can get something sorted for them permanently 🥰
 
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