Deem90
Junior Guinea Pig
Hi all, hoping for some advice about bonding a pair of older boars.
I have Al who is 5 and has lived alone for a few months, prior to that he lived side by side with another boar for a year and before then he was bonded with another boar who sadly died. So overall Al hasn't lived physically with another pig in some time. I tried to bond him with other boars twice before and he was bullied the first time and then fought with the second pig during the bonding session when the other pig was persistently humping him.
I am trying to bond him with another older boar who is also 5 now.
I've read the bonding guide, the guide on dominance behaviours and the guide on boars but finding it a bit hard to judge how it's going.
They've been together for 3 hours now in a neutral space with just hay, water and some grass. In the first hour they seemed to be getting on ok, they were sitting beside each other, Al was accepting humping and no negative or aggressive signs.
In the past 2 hours they have been staying away from each other more and occasionally the new boar will go up to Al and try to hump him, Al sometimes accepts it and sometimes they face off a bit and Al runs away, the new boar chases and Al will chatter his teeth and the other boar will sometimes chatter back. The new boar has backed off from trying to hump Al a couple of times once Al started chattering. The chattering has been very loud at times from both boars and there has been some submissive squeaking which I think is coming from Al. The new boar has also yawned a few times, they have both eaten and they have both groomed themselves a bit. When Al lets the new boar hump him the new boar then moves away from him again. So overall no major fallouts or aggression but there also hasn't been many signs of acceptance.
I think Al seems to be avoiding the new boar and the new boar is mostly letting him but occasionally trying to interact. Right now they are sitting about 2 feet apart and are very quiet, the new boar is lying down and looks very relaxed and Al is sitting in the corner. I'm just wondering if anyone can give any insight into whether a bonding can be judged as going ok and whether acceptance can happen without the positive signs like grooming each other, licking, sniffing and being close to each other? And maybe it's possible Al just needs more time to reach that level as he has lived alone for a while?
I was thinking of leaving them in the bonding pen for another few hours and if it stays the same as it is now then moving them to the cleaned out cage and hoping Al will want to interact more with time.
I have Al who is 5 and has lived alone for a few months, prior to that he lived side by side with another boar for a year and before then he was bonded with another boar who sadly died. So overall Al hasn't lived physically with another pig in some time. I tried to bond him with other boars twice before and he was bullied the first time and then fought with the second pig during the bonding session when the other pig was persistently humping him.
I am trying to bond him with another older boar who is also 5 now.
I've read the bonding guide, the guide on dominance behaviours and the guide on boars but finding it a bit hard to judge how it's going.
They've been together for 3 hours now in a neutral space with just hay, water and some grass. In the first hour they seemed to be getting on ok, they were sitting beside each other, Al was accepting humping and no negative or aggressive signs.
In the past 2 hours they have been staying away from each other more and occasionally the new boar will go up to Al and try to hump him, Al sometimes accepts it and sometimes they face off a bit and Al runs away, the new boar chases and Al will chatter his teeth and the other boar will sometimes chatter back. The new boar has backed off from trying to hump Al a couple of times once Al started chattering. The chattering has been very loud at times from both boars and there has been some submissive squeaking which I think is coming from Al. The new boar has also yawned a few times, they have both eaten and they have both groomed themselves a bit. When Al lets the new boar hump him the new boar then moves away from him again. So overall no major fallouts or aggression but there also hasn't been many signs of acceptance.
I think Al seems to be avoiding the new boar and the new boar is mostly letting him but occasionally trying to interact. Right now they are sitting about 2 feet apart and are very quiet, the new boar is lying down and looks very relaxed and Al is sitting in the corner. I'm just wondering if anyone can give any insight into whether a bonding can be judged as going ok and whether acceptance can happen without the positive signs like grooming each other, licking, sniffing and being close to each other? And maybe it's possible Al just needs more time to reach that level as he has lived alone for a while?
I was thinking of leaving them in the bonding pen for another few hours and if it stays the same as it is now then moving them to the cleaned out cage and hoping Al will want to interact more with time.
