Fighting males

[Lindalebeau]

Hello, I am new to this forum, so here goes.

I have had guinea pigs for many years but have a problem now which I don't know how to deal with. I lost two guinea pigs recently through old age, one was nearly 8 and the other 5. These were two males who were kept separately as they did not get on. One I had from young and the other was given to me by the previous owner as she couldn't keep him.

Anyway, I saw an advert in preloved for a gorgeous male and went to see him two weeks ago. He was in a cage with two other males and the owner, who was downsizing her large collection of rabbits and guinea pigs, said they all had been kept together very happily for 4 weeks. They looked fine in each other's company so I decided to take one other male. The youngest is 5 month's old and the older is 8 months. They are housed temporalily in a 100 cm cage while I am waiting for a 140cm cage to be delivered in the next couple of days'

Anyway they get on fine in the cage but when they are out having their run indoors (they have been having a lot of time in the hall - at least 4 hours a day) they start serious squabbling. The usual rumbling, mounting and noises that I am used to with previous pigs. But in the last couple of days this has become a bit more aggressive, with the younger one really harassing the older one, and today they actually flew at each other, no blood drawn. This only happens when they are out. Now I don't know whether to separate them or hope that when the larger cage arrives things might settle down. Sorry it's a long post for my first one but I want to do the right thing and not have them really hurting each other. Right now they are back in their cage as if nothing has happened, and I am very confused.

Any advice would be very welcome, thanks.

 

[Ani]

I am a bit new too, so i hope my advice would be ok.
I think that the younger one might be a bit hyper by the amount of space when they are out. It may just have started when the younger one irritated the older one. I think that maybe you should try to keep them appart when they are out , if you could half the space they run around in and put them sepparatley that would probably work. But you also have to make sure that they can still smell each other in the sepparate compartments, otherwise they might not recognise each other when they go back to the cage.

 

[Lindalebeau]

Hello Ani

Thanks for your quick reply, I was wondering if I had given them too much freedom too soon. They are both very timid, more than any others I have had, but I felt sorry for them as the cage is a bit small. At first they seemed to really enjoy running around together, at least I assumed they were. But the last couple of days have been a bit difficult, so I will take your advice and give them a bit less space and possibly separate them at run time. I suppose I was finding it hard to understand how they didn't fight in the cage, only when they came out.

Cheers, Linda x

 

[Niki]

When in a new space some boars feel the need to display dominant behaviour, staking their claim to the new territory if you like.
My pair of boys, who have lived together for the past 18 months, started last week when i put them back into their newly cleaned cage. They were chattering, leaping, chasing & brrring at one another & whilst they did eventually calm down they still have their moments & i'm keeping a very close eye on the pair of them.

Your boys are also at the prime hormonal time for spats to happen. The only thing i can suggest is to keep watching them & see what happens, if it stays at the stage it's at & no wounds are inflicted & there's no bullying going on then i'd not be separating just yet.

 

[Ani]

my two boars (one is dead now) were bullying each other and It did die down after a while so i suppose your right. I think you should wait for a few days before sepparating them.