Brothers fighting out of nowhere

[palehunty]

So, to cut a long story short I rescued these guys from a mum who had four sons, she’d got the kids guinea pigs for them and they grew bored of them and they never really got the correct care, in a cage that was too small and were being given straw for a year of their lives. They’re 1 next month.

They’ve still got the same cage now, mainly because we thought the new environment would be easier on them if we didn’t give them a new cage immediately. And they really have settled so much, to the point where more dominant one will willingly come to me if I approach the cage, less dominant one will fall asleep on me, easy peasy. We are waiting for the new one to be delivered.

I’ve had them 2 weeks tomorrow. They’ve been getting along fine and it’s been evident who is (or was) the more dominant one. But tonight out of nowhere they’ve started fighting. The one who was less dominant just won’t leave the more dominant one alone, is constantly mounting his face/back end or getting in his face. They haven’t hurt eachother yet, and I really hope they don’t. And after reading all the guides on here I’m worried they’re going to end up not being compatible but I just don’t understand! Theyve got hideys, hay, pellets, toys, chew toys. 2 of everything. And they’ve been living together since they were born so I’m getting quite stressed. Especially with all the noise as it sounds much worse than it is! Do I really need to just leave them and let them hash it out? How long do I do that for?

 

[fluffysal]

A lot of our boars are having a spring hormone spike right now. Keep rereading the bond in trouble guide for reassurance. Mine recently gave me two solid days where I feared the worst would happen and it got me through.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Moving to a new environment will cause them to reestablish their relationship. It takes around two weeks for them to reestablish in a new environment and sometimes they can find they have incompatibilities in their relationship during this time. We can occasionally also see boars who have always been together get towards the end of their teens and suddenly fall out.
We do see some boars start to go a bit crazy at this time of year - it doesn’t affect them all though.

Equally, it’s been important to remember that dominance and mounting isn’t fighting - it’s just a normal part of a boar relationship. What will be an issue is if the dominant takes exception to the submissive doing this or if the submissive is trying to take over the hierarchy.
You should leave them to sort themselves out and only separate if they do actually fight, keep an eye on them.

The other issue is that being in a cage which is too small will not help them - boars need a huge amount of room.
I can appreciate you were trying to ease their transition to their new home but actually they would have been better to have moved into a larger cage on their very first day with you. To get all environment and territory changes dealt with at the same time.
Unfortunately, moving them to the new cage (which is also a new environment/territory) will cause another couple of weeks of them restablishing their relationship again in that new environment so you are likely to see this continue for a while longer.
They do need a new bigger cage though - a cage for boars needs to be 180x60cm.
You should use all the soiled bedding in their current cage and move it to the new cage as it can help them still recognise the new cage as their space.

Make sure all hides have two exits.
Also make sure you scatter feed veg (one cup per pig per day) and pellets (one tablespoon per pig per day) rather than use food bowls as that can help keep them occupied but also prevent food hogging.

Reacting to group or territorial changes: Dominance and group establishment/re-establishment
Bonds In Trouble
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs