Male guinea pig won't stop humping other male guinea pig

[snickers123]

so I have a male guinea pig that's almost 2 years old, and I recently bought another male guinea pig who is now 5 months old. I knew when you put two males together that they would hump to determine who's the boss, so I put them together on my cleaned floor to introduce them. However, later on I found boars glue all over the 5 month old guinea pig. They now live in separate cages because it was very hard to get off of him and I didn't want to go through it again. Thats when I learned that my 2 year old guinea pig wasn't neutered even though the place I got him from said he was. I really want them to live together, does anyone have any tips to stop him from constantly wanting to hump the other, because I have their cages next to each other and all the 2 year old does is chew at the cage and purrs when he sees the other.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Humping and boar glue is not a reason to separate them. It’s perfectly normal behaviour and something which will always happen throughout their entire lives. It’s nothing to be concerned about but you cannot stop them humping. My two boars do it - Its normal. If they get Boar glue on them, you just leave it and let it works it’s own way out, or cut the piece of hair out.

Double check your newest piggy is definitely male (particularly if your younger is a pet shop piggy), and then please reintroduce them properly in neutral territory and then if successful after several hours in the bonding pen, put them back into the thoroughly cleaned out cage and have them living in the same cage together permanently . Do be aware that it takes two weeks after the introduction for them to fully establish their relationship. During this time you will see a lot of dominance behaviours, coupled with the fact that your youngest is now a hormonal teenager. You don’t separate for dominance though - you only separate if there is a full on blood drawing fight and their bond fails.

Being neutered doesnt make any difference if they are both male. You don’t need to have two males neutered to be able to live together. All neutering does is prevent pregnancy, it doesn’t change their behaviour.

How big is their cage? Two boars together need a cage of 180 x 60cm to have enough space.

A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs

Cage Size Guide

 

[Free Ranger]

Did your younger piggy accept the dominance behaviour? I'm assuming there were squeals of submission but he wasn't actually hurt was he?

What's weird for me is that I've had 4 boars in total, some together, some (neutered) with sows, and none of them have done this... unless I'm just very unobservant! When joining the forum I was surprised at how common this is!