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fighting boars, how long do you let it carry on

  • Thread starter Thread starter neeshkabeesh
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neeshkabeesh

My friend has a couple of male guinea pigs, they're about 8 months old and were castrated just over a week ago. They were castrated because they were fighting, they'd had a scrap where one had a cut on his back and the other had one on his ear lobe so after that I let her borrow my larger cage for them (Ferplast 140 type). However I've just read that castration doesn't do anything to help aggression!

As they're not my pigs I'm not sure how badly they're fighting now but my friend is worried because they were fighting today. I suggested she get them out more often, changes the cage around to distract them, makes sure they have plenty of hiding places, said I'd help her construct a shelf in the cage to give them more room to get away from each other, and also that she put the caged part on the grass so they could have a run and a munch.

Could you tell me what else can she do to help them enjoy each other's company? At what point is it that they should be separated?
 
thats twice today ive hit the 'thank' button instead of the quick reply. I really must dye the rest of my hair blonde :P

Anyway.. I always worked under the assumption that neutering DOES calm an animal down as they wont have the testosterone surging throught their veins. However, as its only recently been done, i would be inclined to leave it a while longer to have any real effect.
I think that a bath (at the same time so the 'stress' of this event encourages them to cling together for support) with very mild shampoo may help the bonding process. Their cage and toys etc should also be scrubbed and discinfected using something pet friendly such as Milton (used to sterilise babies bottles) before they get put back in.
Without seeing the extent of the fighting its really hard to judge, but if they keep going hell for leather at each other despite the bathing then a split is definatly on the cards, perhaps keeping them either partioned off from each other or in seperate cages but put next to each other.
 
Neutering "generally" doesn't alter behaviour in boars altho' i do think it "can" make some calmer (depending on their pre-neuter personalities).
I had 2 neutered boars one was walked all over by his girls the other was a bu*ger, he would chase (and nip) other girls in the run & chattered his teeth at the other boar.

The general rule of thumb is if blood is drawn they should be separated. Your friend can try bathing them together & re-introducing on neutral ground with veggies & hay to distract them, making sure there is nothing in there that would enable one to corner the other but there are no guarantees it will work.
She may find they are fine with one another in a run but will not share living arrangements together.

By having 2 of everything she can lessen the possibilties of any arguing but again this is no guarantee.

If they won't live together & now they are neutered has she thought about pairing each one with a girl?
It may be something to think about if she has the room/funds for another cage/more piggies.
 
Please don't let your friend bathe these boys until the wound site is totally healed. The neuter site should be kept as dry as possible. :)

I'm inclined to say that if they were fighting before they will continue to fight. I would recommend seperate housing for now.
 
I agree that once boars start fighting they usually continue - I'd separate them :)
 
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