Biting on cage bars?

GuineaPigsPipPumpandJG

GuineaPigsPipPumpandJG

Junior Guinea Pig
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My piggy Jorge keeps on biting the bars of his cage, mainly when he can see my girl piggies (in their hutch opposite him.) He is a lone piggy but is very happy, he has interaction with the girls through the cage bars, but won't stop biting the bars. His teeth are fine, he has hay, veg, pellets, chew toys etc, but he still does this! It is mostly when the girls are near him, i'm a little worried as it has been going on for a couple of months now. Any reasons why he could be doing this?
 
It’s possible he wants to get in with them. Sow scent/hormones can rile up even the most calm of boars. Will he ever live with them? I would have suggested covering the divide with something so he can’t see them.m but he needs the interaction.
 
My guess would be it’s because he can see them and wants to get to them.

I know you were looking into expanding his cage and finding him a friend because you weren’t going to neuter him due to his age - is this still going to happen?
 
Piggies&buns said:
My guess would be it’s because he can see them and wants to get to them.

I know you were looking into expanding his cage and finding him a friend because you weren’t going to neuter him due to his age - is this still going to happen?
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Unfortunately, I can't expand his cage as i simply don't have the space and so can't get him a friend. However, he is completely happy (weeking, popcorning, talking) and so I don't think he is really that fussed. (He came from a home where he was kept in a tiny hutch with another boar, however that boar passed and so he was left alone with hardly any interaction in a dirty hutch with no veg, so I feel that he is just grateful he is out of that position, if that makes sense?) On the other hand, if he starts to display unhappy or depressed behaviour I will try to find a solution to this. :)
 
Piggies live in the moment so the fact that he is wheeking and popcorning is good as he is happy but it doesnt mean he is satisfied with being alone. Now, he does have interaction through the bars so he can have piggy chats with the girls, but the fact that he is bar biting means he may be upset about something
 
Piggies&buns said:
Piggies live in the moment so the fact that he is wheeking and popcorning is good as he is happy but it doesnt mean he is satisfied with being alone. Now, he does have interaction through the bars so he can have piggy chats with the girls, but the fact that he is bar biting means he may be upset about something
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Ok, thanks! I am going to keep my eye on him and make sure he is okay :) The girls have started to cage bite toward him as well (not that much) but could this be a learned behaviour from him?
 
I don’t know that it would be learned behaviour given they don’t live together. They possibly want to get to him as well. I don’t know if I remember correctly but do they live outside? Could you get a bigger hutch? And how old is your boy?
 
Siikibam said:
I don’t know that it would be learned behaviour given they don’t live together. They possibly want to get to him as well. I don’t know if I remember correctly but do they live outside? Could you get a bigger hutch? And how old is your boy?
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Yes they all live outside, I do have a large wooden run that at the moment that Jorge lives outside in (at night as well) for the warmer summer months to give him more space, however in the winter he will be in his hutch at night. He has just turned 5.
 
Are you not able to fit in a bigger hutch? What’s on the floor of the run?
 
GuineaPigsPipPumpandJG said:
Yes they all live outside, I do have a large wooden run that at the moment that Jorge lives outside in (at night as well) for the warmer summer months to give him more space, however in the winter he will be in his hutch at night. He has just turned 5.
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It’s rather risky leaving him outside in a run overnight - predators and adverse weather would be rather a concern
 
I would think about putting something down for him. Concrete can get cold quickly. Is the run secured to the concrete?
 
GuineaPigsPipPumpandJG said:
I've made sure that the run is secure and nothing can get in to him, also it is covered so rain can't get in. 🙂
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Covering over the top alone would not be enough to prevent rain from getting in - it could surely pool around the ground
How fine is the gauge of the mesh? Juvenile rats can and will get through the smallest gaps, adult Rats can get through just 2cm
Plus the overnight temperatures. It’s down to just 9 degrees in my area tonight, far too cold for piggies to be outside
 
Foxes are cunning. Is his hutch 120x60cm or smaller? If yes to the former I would keep him in that.
 
Siikibam said:
It’s possible he wants to get in with them. Sow scent/hormones can rile up even the most calm of boars. Will he ever live with them? I would have suggested covering the divide with something so he can’t see them.m but he needs the interaction.
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For me this is the opposite, my sow is bitting the cage and is trying to fit inside the square hole going to the boar's place
 
Reginart said:
For me this is the opposite, my sow is bitting the cage and is trying to fit inside the square hole going to the boar's place
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As we’ve advised on your thread, you need to make sure he can’t escape to get to your sow.
 
GuineaPigsPipPumpandJG said:
His hutch has 2 tiers I'm not sure of the dimensions.
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I think we have advised you on cage sizes previously. Your single boar needs a cage of 120cm x 60cm as a minimum but if he was to have a boar friend then it needs to be 180cm x 60cm. Upper tiers do not count towards the total cage size
 
This is his hutch, before I had him he was kept in a hutch like that but with no bottom level(and with a other pig for a while), I think he has about 1.1m squared of space in this hutch.IMG_20200715_104056_791.webp
 
GuineaPigsPipPumpandJG said:
This is his hutch, before I had him he was kept in a hutch like that but with no bottom level(and with a other pig for a while), I think he has about 1.1m squared of space in this hutch.View attachment 148193
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It’s only the one bottom floor level that counts towards the cage size and of course they shouldn’t have access to the floor level over night. You lose space at the top level because of the ramp so overall the hutch could be a little small. What are the measurements of the bottom level Ie width by length
 
Angle said:
yep, my boar does that, to get to another boar...
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Same here! Had to recently separate my boars and the one keeps biting the bar but the other one isn’t bothered!
 
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