Guinea Pigs Fighting

[eliyahu kheel]

Hi everyone. I'm new to this forum. I own five young male guinea pigs. Two of them, I just adopted yesterday. And since I adopted them, two of my older guinea pigs have been fighting non-stop! One of them even managed to draw blood overnight. I have separated them for now and am taking the injured one to the vet tomorrow morning to make sure everything's alright. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to get them to stop fighting? It seems that i've tried almost everything! I'm assuming it's some sort of territorial dominance thing happening because the two that are fighting are around the same age. I really don't want to have to keep them separated but I want them to be safe! And these fights are different because there's no lead-up. From what i've read, the guinea pigs usually face off, rumblestrut, chatter teeth, etc. etc. before getting into a fight. In this case, one could just be walking across the cage and the other one will jump out and they'll immediately be trapped in a huge fight! Please help me figure out what to do!
Thanks.

 

[Mother Hubbard]

Hi there, welcome to the forum. I assume you have all 5 males together, if so then that's why they are fighting. Males can be kept together in a couple but no more than that without fighting. So you need to separate them into couples. Obviously the two extra you have just got would need to be kept separate anyway and under quarantine for two weeks, but its' really important you don't put them together when they have fought so badly. You will need to get 2 extra cages or hutches and work out who goes with whom. Keep us updated on your injured piggy. If you add your location also, it helps when giving advice as we have member from all over the world.

Good luck. There are a lot of people on the forum whom can give you a wide range of advice on keeping piggies. So don't worry about asking lots of questions.

 

[VickiA]

Welcome to the forum and sorry you have problems.

Have to agree with @Mother Hubbard here, groups of boars seldom work unless there is a very large amount of space and they have all lived together as a herd. The introduction of the new pair has upset all the hierarchy and dominance. Once blood has been drawn it is unlikely they can go back together, so you will need to separate them into pairs and keep them separate.

Where in the world do you live? Please can you add this information to your profile as we have members all over the world.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi everyone. I'm new to this forum. I own five young male guinea pigs. Two of them, I just adopted yesterday. And since I adopted them, two of my older guinea pigs have been fighting non-stop! One of them even managed to draw blood overnight. I have separated them for now and am taking the injured one to the vet tomorrow morning to make sure everything's alright. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to get them to stop fighting? It seems that i've tried almost everything! I'm assuming it's some sort of territorial dominance thing happening because the two that are fighting are around the same age. I really don't want to have to keep them separated but I want them to be safe! And these fights are different because there's no lead-up. From what i've read, the guinea pigs usually face off, rumblestrut, chatter teeth, etc. etc. before getting into a fight. In this case, one could just be walking across the cage and the other one will jump out and they'll immediately be trapped in a huge fight! Please help me figure out what to do!
Thanks.

Hi and welcome!

Boars work either in pairs or in larger groups with oodles of space (10-20 boars with ideally 1 sq metre per boar). What does not work is trios, quartets and quintets, especially not with sub-adult boars. Young boar trios have a fall-out rate of about 90% before they hit adulthood, and quartets and quintets have a 100% failure rate.

Please split your boars up in suitable pairs with one dominant boar and one submissive boar if that is at all possible. If you are unlucky, you can end up with 5 boars that will not go back together, but hopefully, there are one or two potential working pairs in your mix.

We have had that with somebody putting 4 youngsters together and ending with giving them all up because they couldn't cope.

You may find the tips in this thread here helpful:
Boars: Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?

 

[Lax_midi63]

Hi there, welcome to the forum. I assume you have all 5 males together, if so then that's why they are fighting. Males can be kept together in a couple but no more than that without fighting. So you need to separate them into couples. Obviously the two extra you have just got would need to be kept separate anyway and under quarantine for two weeks, but its' really important you don't put them together when they have fought so badly. You will need to get 2 extra cages or hutches and work out who goes with whom. Keep us updated on your injured piggy. If you add your location also, it helps when giving advice as we have member from all over the world.

Good luck. There are a lot of people on the forum whom can give you a wide range of advice on keeping piggies. So don't worry about asking lots of questions.

 

[Lax_midi63]

Hey! I'm new to this forum too, but I've had this kind of situation happen to me.If you have a big cage(that's what I assume you have) then divide it into two sections. Put three on one side and two on the other. Put the one that you think is more vicious on the side with the two. The other one put on the side with the three. If another two start fighting look into dividing it more. That will cost more money, but it's best in my opinion.

 

[Abi_nurse]

Please split your boars into pairs. You may well have to completely split all now as you have added two into the mix and caused an upset with them all so you may need to do reintroduction. They can potentially live in pairs with dividers if they don't swab lie through the bars.

Boar groups do not work I'm afraid. Good luck with bonding them.

x

 

[eliyahu kheel]

Update. I am from Boston, MA. I just took the injured guinea pig to the vet and received her professional opinion. Luckily, he will be alright. She recommended keeping the one that was fighting separate from the others while i'm out of the house (For now) but to allow them to be with each other supervised. So fingers crossed! (Ps. they have about 22 square feet of cage plus tons of floor time)