Mamphers
Junior Guinea Pig
Hello 
We are new to the forum, after bringing our two baby boars home on Friday. They are both approx 11 weeks old and are shop bought. There are a few things I wanted to run by all you guinea experts that we are doing the right thing and drawing the right conclusions. I'll start at the top.
We have them in a shop cage which has only ever been a temporary setting whilst we wait for the C&C stuff to arrive (coming on Weds, more on this later), which our friend who has had piggies a long time would be okay. There were four baby boars within the group in the shop. On watching them both the boys we picked didn't seem dominant, there was another boy being more bolshy (we had seen these boys on a few occasions whilst making the decision to bring them home).
We got them home and settled. Although we had watched many a YouTube video on cage set ups etc we had not read about the two of everything (bowl, hay rack etc) and the two exit out houses. My bad. Poor research.
The boys were initially very shy on the first night and just left them to it. Once they gained some more confidence they began exploring the cage, and yesterday Miguel was popcorning around. This seemed to wind up Tulio and he started rumblestrutting. Since this they have been annoying eachother, and although there is a house for each, if Miguel goes into Tulios hidey he will rumblestrutt again, and this morning they had a bit of a tussle in one of the houses. No squeals but Miguel is always withdrawing away. This is only occasionally. They are less shy and will come out of their houses and eat whilst we are in the room watching TV/listening to the radio, it's not constant.
Now, I'm hoping this is the two boys trying to establish the dominance between them having since been split from their buddies in the store who were more dominant. Also annoying eachother because they need more space. I know boys get a stroppy age but thought these guys were a little young for it. I am building a 3×4 C&C cage for them, will have two of everything and bought even more fleece and bits of wood to make some fleece forests to combat the two exit problem.
I just want some reassurance that we are doing the right thing and thinking the right way. I appreciate that we should have built the bigger cage first, but there was a problem with shipping.
If we are squeeing up the wrong tree please also give us advice. We have read all the sticky threads on boar aggression, how to split a fight and when a fight gets serious. We have towels on hand. Just when I hear them tussle, although no squeaking, it breaks my heart!
So yes, please help! You wonderful people!
We are new to the forum, after bringing our two baby boars home on Friday. They are both approx 11 weeks old and are shop bought. There are a few things I wanted to run by all you guinea experts that we are doing the right thing and drawing the right conclusions. I'll start at the top.
We have them in a shop cage which has only ever been a temporary setting whilst we wait for the C&C stuff to arrive (coming on Weds, more on this later), which our friend who has had piggies a long time would be okay. There were four baby boars within the group in the shop. On watching them both the boys we picked didn't seem dominant, there was another boy being more bolshy (we had seen these boys on a few occasions whilst making the decision to bring them home).
We got them home and settled. Although we had watched many a YouTube video on cage set ups etc we had not read about the two of everything (bowl, hay rack etc) and the two exit out houses. My bad. Poor research.
The boys were initially very shy on the first night and just left them to it. Once they gained some more confidence they began exploring the cage, and yesterday Miguel was popcorning around. This seemed to wind up Tulio and he started rumblestrutting. Since this they have been annoying eachother, and although there is a house for each, if Miguel goes into Tulios hidey he will rumblestrutt again, and this morning they had a bit of a tussle in one of the houses. No squeals but Miguel is always withdrawing away. This is only occasionally. They are less shy and will come out of their houses and eat whilst we are in the room watching TV/listening to the radio, it's not constant.
Now, I'm hoping this is the two boys trying to establish the dominance between them having since been split from their buddies in the store who were more dominant. Also annoying eachother because they need more space. I know boys get a stroppy age but thought these guys were a little young for it. I am building a 3×4 C&C cage for them, will have two of everything and bought even more fleece and bits of wood to make some fleece forests to combat the two exit problem.
I just want some reassurance that we are doing the right thing and thinking the right way. I appreciate that we should have built the bigger cage first, but there was a problem with shipping.
If we are squeeing up the wrong tree please also give us advice. We have read all the sticky threads on boar aggression, how to split a fight and when a fight gets serious. We have towels on hand. Just when I hear them tussle, although no squeaking, it breaks my heart!
So yes, please help! You wonderful people!
