Piggy Has Become A Teenager Overnight!

[pudding&ginger]

We have two boars, Pudding and Ginger, about 6 months old. This morning Pudding seems to have become a teenager over night, he keeps trying to hump poor Ginger! Ginger is usually dominant piggy and he doesn't seem scared or trying to run away but is still being quite vocal and we're getting a lot of teeth chattering. We've tried distracting them with food, we had them out of the cage for floor time for about an hour this morning (he was still at it!) My children have also donated a soft toy for puddng to "cuddle" instead of Ginger which is getting some attention but he won't leave Ginger alone for more than a few minutes.

We've had normal male dominance behaviour before but never so much humping like this, so just wondering if it's normal and to just leave them to it or if they should be separated for a while. We are due to take the children to Legoland today and not sure if it's ok to leave them together or not? Our cage setup is a shop bought cage with a run extension on the side so I could seperate them if needed but don't want do this unnecessarily as they are usually best buddies. Any advice would be greatl appreciated, many thanks for reading!

 

[Squeak Dreams]

We have two boars, Pudding and Ginger, about 6 months old. This morning Pudding seems to have become a teenager over night, he keeps trying to hump poor Ginger! Ginger is usually dominant piggy and he doesn't seem scared or trying to run away but is still being quite vocal and we're getting a lot of teeth chattering. We've tried distracting them with food, we had them out of the cage for floor time for about an hour this morning (he was still at it!) My children have also donated a soft toy for puddng to "cuddle" instead of Ginger which is getting some attention but he won't leave Ginger alone for more than a few minutes.

We've had normal male dominance behaviour before but never so much humping like this, so just wondering if it's normal and to just leave them to it or if they should be separated for a while. We are due to take the children to Legoland today and not sure if it's ok to leave them together or not? Our cage setup is a shop bought cage with a run extension on the side so I could seperate them if needed but don't want do this unnecessarily as they are usually best buddies. Any advice would be greatl appreciated, many thanks for reading!

My girl guinea pigs have done this twice in the past its always the same piggy stalking the other pig and humping them the other pig does teeth chatter obviously because shes trying to tell the other pig to stop.

I don't really know if you can stop it in the end i just let my guinea pigs get on with it . They weren't harming each other just annoying them , i'd leave them but if they start fighting or he won't leave him along after the next hour or two maybe you should separate them . I guess it's like my friends dogs they hump each other all the time , maybe just a boy thing?

Have fun at Legoland

Love From

Georgie and Pigs
xxxxx

 

[Squeak Dreams]

We have two boars, Pudding and Ginger, about 6 months old. This morning Pudding seems to have become a teenager over night, he keeps trying to hump poor Ginger! Ginger is usually dominant piggy and he doesn't seem scared or trying to run away but is still being quite vocal and we're getting a lot of teeth chattering. We've tried distracting them with food, we had them out of the cage for floor time for about an hour this morning (he was still at it!) My children have also donated a soft toy for puddng to "cuddle" instead of Ginger which is getting some attention but he won't leave Ginger alone for more than a few minutes.

We've had normal male dominance behaviour before but never so much humping like this, so just wondering if it's normal and to just leave them to it or if they should be separated for a while. We are due to take the children to Legoland today and not sure if it's ok to leave them together or not? Our cage setup is a shop bought cage with a run extension on the side so I could seperate them if needed but don't want do this unnecessarily as they are usually best buddies. Any advice would be greatl appreciated, many thanks for reading!

Also i have forgot to mention boar glue since i don't have boars i only have sows i'm not an expert on this but make sure no boar glue gets on his fur because it's hard to get out of the fur , check out this post - https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/boar-glue-all-over-poor-alby.126430/

 

[pudding&ginger]

Also i have forgot to mention boar glue since i don't have boars i only have sows i'm not an expert on this but make sure no boar glue gets on his fur because it's hard to get out of the fur , check out this post - https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/boar-glue-all-over-poor-alby.126430/

Yuck! Thanks for the warning! The joy of boys! They seem to have calmed down now and are snuggled up together in their hidey with just a bit of chirping occasionally so think I will leave them too it. Can't see any signs of boar glue, fingers crossed, especially as pudding is such a long haired pig!
Thanks for replying x

 

[Squeak Dreams]

Yuck! Thanks for the warning! The joy of boys! They seem to have calmed down now and are snuggled up together in their hidey with just a bit of chirping occasionally so think I will leave them too it. Can't see any signs of boar glue, fingers crossed, especially as pudding is such a long haired pig!
Thanks for replying x

that's okay hopefully that's it now maybe pudding was just a bit hormonal

 

[Squeak Dreams]

Yuck! Thanks for the warning! The joy of boys! They seem to have calmed down now and are snuggled up together in their hidey with just a bit of chirping occasionally so think I will leave them too it. Can't see any signs of boar glue, fingers crossed, especially as pudding is such a long haired pig!
Thanks for replying x

i've also found this from another post


he hormonal teenage months

Guinea pig boars go through a hormonal phase roughly between 4-14 months old. These months are characterised by bouts of testosterone which manifest in lots of dominance behaviours.
Things can be kick-started a bit earlier, often during an introduction shortly before the teenage months would start. While boars are able to make babies from 3-5 weeks old, it is usually the descent of the testicles that triggers the teenage months.

What are the most difficult times?
Typically, boars experience a strong spike of testosterone at the beginning at around 4 months old, then again at around 6 months of age. These are generally the times when the worst personality clashes and fights happen between boars that are not character matched and too dominant to get on with each other; this age is also the most difficult age for bonding boars.
Another very difficult period is normally the period between 8-10 months old, but it results less often in full-out fights although boars can often be right up at the bearable limit of scrapping and winding each other up for several weeks.
Boars that have had a very smooth ride so far can suddenly wake up and get into trouble right at the end at a year old or slightly over when the other pairs are already over the worst.
Boars generally reach a hormonally more settled adulthood by around 15 months of age. Occasionally adult boars can experience a sudden short-term hormonal spike or get into fights when they experience major changes to their cage or environment. But thankfully, most adults can be rebonded again after a cooling down out-time.

What are your boars’ chances of making it together?
- Pairs: the good news is that more baby boar pairs than not make it together. It doesn’t matter whether they are siblings or not; the key to success is whether their individual personalities balance well enough. Two dominant brothers will inevitably clash the same as any other all-dominant pairings.
- Trios: 90% of baby boar trios will not make it to adulthood together. They usually end up with either one dominant boar making war on the other two or two ganging up on a third (bullying). If you are unlucky, you will end up with three boys that won’t get on with any of the others.
- Quartets or quintets: no chance whatsoever. At the best, you end up with two working pairs, but it is more likely that you end up with one pair and two singles. We even have had a sad case where all four boars fell out with each other.

Boars are best kept either in pairs or otherwise in bachelor herds of over 10 boars with at least 1 square metre per boar.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi! This thread here may help you.
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/boars-bullying-fighting-fall-outs-and-what-next.127295/


As long as they are only chattering, leave them together. Each separation comes with a risk that they won't go together again, so only do it when absolutely unavoidable and things are getting really dodgy. There seems to be very hormonal spike around 6 months for boars; your experience is not unusual. I hope that your boys can make it through it.

 

[pudding&ginger]

Thanks for your replies and help, Pudding has calmed down now and they are back to being best buddies so I'm putting it down to a dose of hormones!

 

[Wiebke]

Best of luck in getting them throught the taxing teenage months!

 

[LizGuineaGurl]

Good luck!