New male introduced to older male

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Siobhan_Roisin

Siobhan_Roisin

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Hi,

I have had to get a new male for my six month old male pig, as his companion recently died. I got him an eight week old male.

I know they can fight so I have kept them in seperate cages. This morning however I swapped them cages to get a sense of each others smells. My older pig has been quite quiet since his friend died... I have been worried he was was depressed. When I put him in the new pigs cage though he got very happy. He started making his happy sounds and looked close to popcorning. So we then introduced them on the bed in a neutral environment over food.

There were no negative sounds or behaviours when I introduced them. NO chattering or such. I am certain my new pig is a boy. However my older pig does not seem to realize this. He keeps trying to mount him... from both ends. The new pig is not fighting back much... and they try to get to each other through the cages when I put them back.. and talk to each other alot. They seem to really like each other which I am thrilled about.

Is it normal for my older pig to mount the new pig so much.. there is a smell released from him when he does so, and his penis comes out very quickly. I am afraid this will eventually stress out my new pig.. even though he doesn't seem to bothered just now...

Advice?
 
No my older pig is not neutared. I got my new pig from a pet shop.. I didn't want to , but I my older pig was getting very sad being alone and it was the only place to find young male pigs that would go with him.. people keep telling me there is a pig shortage just now in glasgow...

I am pleased they don't seem to be fighting, and both want to go into each others cages.. I was afraid they were going to fight constantly ... but I wonder when my older pig will realize the new pig is male...
 
yes, I was very afraid of this, I have heard the stories.

They did the thing where they press above the genitals and the penis comes out.. and we have been double checking withpictures on the internet for guinea pig sexing.. and it definetly looks like a male
 
that is good just keep an eye on it though to many petshop piggies having babies:( i would definantly say it is dominance i have 4 boars so i have this sort of behaviour quite frequentlyrolleyes.I would try to encourage your piggies to have regular meetings but be in the same cage before the baby gets to old did you quaranteen the newbie?
 
yup they are all separated just now, with meetings on the bed.

I had the bars lined up so they could see and talk to each other for awhile, but they just seemed to so desperately want to get into each others cages.. they were chewing the bars too much and getting really uppity. I think my older one will tire out the younger one if I put them in the same cage just now.. all that mounting...

so I have moved the cages further apart..
 
well i would put them in together then an 8 week old can surpirsingly take alot of pestering of course if it gets to serious i would break them up and if blood is drawn do not re introduce.After a few days together the novelty usually starts to wear off and they aren't as annoying to the other piggie
 
I introduced an 11 week baby boar to my 6 month old boar in January, and there was an awful lot of humping at first - have a trawl through the posts on here and you will see that it is very normal behaviour.

It looks terrible for the baby but just persevere and things will settle down. My baby boar just put up with it and now it looks like he is bosspig so things can go either way in time.

Good luck with it and don't be too put off by the behaviour - it will get calmer in time.
 
I've introduced a few boars together, always younger to older parings like you're describing. The pairings went from very vocal and humpy to me questioning whether either pig had noticed each other.

Humping the face, side, leg, bottom, back... air behind a guinea pig as well as teeth chattering, rumblestrutting and yawning are all signs of dominance. You don't really need to pay attention to any except the teeth chattering which means they are becoming agitated with each other. Be aware dominance is going on and keep an eye, but don't be too worried.

I have a huge cage (it's almost as long as my double bed!) so I'm not sure how this method of introduction will work but - from my experience, if I've introduced two boys and separated them continuously it's taken the two longer to get to know each other than if I quarantine the new baby for three weeks, and one day just put them together in the bath while scrubbing out the cage and - if bath time goes well - just put them in a cage together.

My situation may be different from you, but in my experience, by separating them, you are putting them back at square one.

My pigs are also in the same room as my bedroom which allows for me to eavesdrop continuously on what they are getting up to during the night. I had vocal warnings the night my younger pig began to make the older one feel that his dominance was being challenged!

If you have problems putting the two in the same cage (make sure you scrub the cage so it's also neutral territory. By putting them in each others cages you're letting them smell each other - something they've already done in their separate cages. I'm sure they're aware of each other!) with them settling down then you can try a buddy bath when the baby is 12 weeks old. Give them both a bath with a mild shampoo and put them together again; it will mean the baby smells less like his mummy.

Also: the older boy is going to hump the baby like crazy. Have two food bowls in the cage and make sure the baby isn't being humped away from the food bowl when you introduce them. Also make sure there are plenty of small hidey holes the baby can use to escape the older boy when he gets tired.

Have fun!

And I'm sorry for your loss of your other piggie. I hope your older boy perks up soon.
 
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