abrennan110
New Born Pup
Okay. So I’ve been wanting to post on here for a while now to get some feedback/insight on the situation with my three nearly 7 month old boys. I didn’t know about the dangers and stress of having a boar trio, until after I already got my three boys. They lived all together as babies before I brought them home, and I didn’t have the heart to leave one of them behind. Not that I wanted to, I didn’t. Anyway, my boys lived in harmony together since I brought them home in October, when they were about a month and a half old. In January, I moved them all into their 2x6 c&c cage together. They were in a cage that was slightly small for 3 guinea pigs up until that point, but it was my only option at the time, and I’ve been working on making their c&c cage and getting everything I needed for it/them almost the whole time up until the point of moving them into it. Then nearly two months into living in their new cage, my boys started expressing many dominance behaviors towards each other. They’ve officially hit the teenage months. I made the mistake of putting some beautiful beds in their cage with one entrance, which a couple weeks into the dominance displays caused an issue. My more submissive boy (Pancake) and my more dominant/aggressive boy (Pepper) got into a little scuffle. Up until this point, Pepper had started getting very intense with my other two boys (Pancake and Oreo). He wasn’t hurting them, but being pretty relentless harassment wise. Pepper attempted to go near/into the bed that Pancake was laying in, and because of Pepper’s recent behavior, he felt vulnerable being enclosed in the bed and pounced at Pepper as a preventative measure. I felt fully responsible, considering I knew about the two-exit hidey rule and took it seriously, but I guess part of me thought that everything has just gone so well so far, that maybe my boys would be an exception and it wouldn’t be an issue, but I was naive. Nobody got hurt from this little fight that they got into. No blood was drawn. It lasted about 5-10 seconds, and although it terrified me to death in the moment, I’m glad that they just stopped on their own without me having to (or even yet having an opportunity to) intervene. I proceeded to put all 3 boys together on the floor while I figured out what to do with the cage separation wise. I supervised them like a hawk. Pancake was pretty afraid, Oreo was confused. The last thing I EVER wanted to have to do was separate one of them from the others, or even worse, possibly one day end up having to separate all 3 of them. I pray this doesn’t happen, I’m heartbroken as it is. After about an hour of being on the floor all together, racking my mind about what just happened and how to proceed, I decided to try and put them back in together. Pepper immediately started chattering his teeth so freaking loud like I’ve never heard out of any of them before. I’ve literally never heard any of the three chatter their teeth at each other once until this. Pancake seemed even more terrified and so did Oreo, who was also harassed by Pepper up until this point, but there was never a fight between the two. After the fight and the intense chattering, I made the heartbreaking decision to split the c&c cage in half for now with Pancake and Oreo on on side and Pepper on the other. Mind you all of this chaos was sudden to me and I woke up to it at about 3:30am on this night. I wasn’t finished separating the cage and doing all that I needed to do to accommodate this situation until about 5:30am. It was so stressful and I never imagined actually going through this, especially not this soon. I was so drained and exhausted from the emotional stress that I finally proceeded to go back to sleep praying that I made the right decision in every part of what I did. Was it right to separate Pepper and not Pancake? Was the side of the cage that I chose to place Oreo on the right side? Was everything going to be okay with them? Was Pepper immediately going to get depressed? I was a mess. I know separation is a last resort for guinea pigs, so I couldn’t stop thinking about if I made the right choice. Oreo started showing much more dominance towards Pancake once it was just the two of them. I sit here and pray nothing goes south between the two. He can be a bit relentless towards Pancake also, but I didn’t think Pepper and Oreo would be the best match considering they both have dominant personalities. Pancake perked up a bit in his new living situation, and Oreo did a tiny bit too. I kept them like this for about a week, and I eventually decided that I owed it to them and to myself to try and reintroduce them atleast once, since I felt that my cage set-up was responsible for the scuffle that occurred. I originally had one kitchen area in the cage that they all shared, although I did have more than one water bottle and food bowl. Then as I said before; the one entrance beds. I tried to bond them again in a neutral area after the week was over, and it went great. No fighting, no arguments, just peaceful eating together and lounging around. This went on for atleast 2-3 hours before I moved them back into their completely cleaned out cage with all new things, with the divider taken out. Everything seemed like it was going well in the cage too. I reassessed everything, and made sure there were 3 of everything including areas for hay, so that they didn’t have to interact with each other. I spaced everything out, and put only two entrance houses. About a week into having them back living together again, I decided to expand the cage to a 2x8. I figured having the 2+ feet of extra space would help them get along easier, and worst case scenario, if I had to separate them again, that they’d have more than just the bare minimum of space, which is the last thing I wanted. It broke my heart having them in 2x3s for that one week. The very next day after expanding to the 2x8, I was doing my nightly rounds of individually cuddling my three baby boys. It was Pancake’s turn and as I was petting him, I felt a bump on his back. I decided to spread his fur and have a look, and I see a big scab with dried blood. My first thought was, “oh my god, you got bit,” although it did at least look pretty shallow, so I wasn’t completely freaking out - I knew I could fix him up with some sterile saline and betadine, but here I was again wondering what the hell am I supposed to do now. Why is this happening? My poor baby. Pancake never bothers anybody, he’s literally the sweetest. Then I remembered how Pancake was cowering in the corner earlier after being briefly chased by Pepper when I had them all on the floor together. Another thing I’ve never seen before. I looked him over and didn’t see anything, so I didn’t think too much of it. He was still acting pretty normal outside of that somewhat brief moment. But once I saw the cut and made that connection, I immediately thought to myself that I’m going to have to separate Pepper again. Then I had another thought on how that wouldn’t be fair of me to do to him again unless I knew for a fact that this cut/bite came from him. It could’ve came from Oreo, I thought, or maybe he did it to himself, by scratching, grooming, briefly biting at his backside once in a blue moon, etc. I decided to put Pancake back into the cage while I kept an extremely close eye while I once again tried to figure out what I wanted to do. About 10 minutes later, I witness Pepper aggressively chasing Pancake to the point where Pancake is squealing, and I lightly pushed him off with the oven mitt, and proceeded to pull Pancake back out. I see a chunk of his fur on his side sticking out from the chaos, like it was all disheveled, so I decided to take another look at his back through the fur, and now I see another cut that looks exactly the same as the other, but a bit smaller, and definitely fresh this time. I didn’t know if something like this was even intentional on Pepper’s part, and I also didn’t know if cuts/possible bites like these were even considered “blood being drawn,” but I made the decision to once again separate Pepper for the sake of Pancake’s safety and happiness. Now, they’ve been separated in their side by side 2x4’s for a little less than 2 weeks now. Pepper seems to be adjusting to being alone... he popcorns sometimes, and still spends time with the other two on the floor once in a while, and chats with them through the bars. Oreo is still trying to express dominance over Pancake, and driving me a little bit nuts lol. Pancake is constantly squealing in submission when Oreo gets too close, and it keeps me up at night a lot, but anyway, I still am wondering if what I did was right. There was no real fight that caused actual blood loss, and I also can’t even say with 100% certainty that these two marks on pancake’s back were bites or intentional. I was and am just so scared of something worse happening when I’m not around now that I’ve had my fair share of warning signs. I really could use some advice or atleast opinions on my situation. Would it be worth trying to reintroduce them after the 15-month or so point? I want nothing more than for them to all live in harmony together, but not at the cost of their happiness and health. I also have thought about doing boar dating for Pepper, but I have absolutely no rescues within a reasonable distance. I’m still going to try and come up with a better solution.
So... tell me, did I do the right thing in every choice that I made along the way? Where do I try and go from here if anywhere?
So... tell me, did I do the right thing in every choice that I made along the way? Where do I try and go from here if anywhere?