I had to separate my three boys

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Loopylou

The three boars who I bonded a few weeks back had been getting on really well. It started out fine and there was vitually no touble at all bonding them.
But over the last couple of weeks there were more and more incidents of chasing and teeth chattering and the last few days I noticed Spike go for Chewy a few times.
So yesterday I decided to give them all a bath to see if that would help and I noticed that Chewy had LOTS of little nips and scabs on his back - they were all in the long dark part of his hair so I hadn't seen them before :(
So I have split their cage and he is in one end and Sweep and Spike are in the other.
Chewy really doesn't seem to like other guinea pigs so I'm thinking of leaving them permanently side-by-side, although it was not my orignal wish for this to happen.

I'm wondering now, though, if they will be able to have their run time together? I have a good 6 foot run, so there's plenty of space for them. I'm just wondering if its a good idea or if he's likely to get bullied then as well.
Has anyone else found it OK to have guinea pigs that can't live together, play together?
 
I cant speak for experience on that one but I think others on here have done that. It is a shame but maybe for the best that they were seperated :-\
 
Hi LL so sorry to hear it hasn't worked out with the trio, but sounds like you gave it a good shot.

Our original pair of boars (brothers) lived together very happily until they reached their teenage years and then one day Rusty took a huge chunk out of Roger's ear and that was that :(. They were happy to live side by side and seemed genuinely pleased to meet up in the run, but they would never share their living accommodation again. I would definitely give it a go, make sure you haven't got anything in the run where someone can get stuck i.e. tunnels are fine, but I would avoid boxes or pigloos. Good luck and keep us posted.
 
Sorry to hear they've had a spat - I find even 'enemies' can get on at playtime if there's plenty of room and nothing to be possessive over, or in the run when there's grass- but it depends on the pigs!

Good luck with them

Sophie
x
 
Two of my boys, Oscar and Nigel, brothers, also fell out as teenagers. I too have a 6ft run and made a frame with 2x1 and chicken wire to seperate the run in the middle. I'm afraid they still sometimes rumble at each other through the divider and as they're unsupervised for quite long times, I'm happier to leave it this way as I can be sure that they can't do any damage to each other. Funnily enough though, when we do leggy arena and have the two out together on the floor, they're fine. ?
 
Well, I think I might try some supervised time in the run and play it by ear. I really hate to have any of my animals live on their own, but I think this is the best compromise if it works :)
 
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