Rowdy little hormonal boys

[SinleyVera]

I was thinking of just blogging this, but I am curious if anyone else has had similar behaviors from their piggies.

I will start from the beginning:

I had brought together four boars which I want to say has been mostly successful. I first introduced the piggies and things went very well, I saw all the normal behaviors of rumble-strutting, mounting, and chasing. Eisbacon became Hammstein's little sidekick and was eager to learn how to grow up to be a big boar. Oreo, just hid inside a hidey and stayed out of everything after making the submissive sounds. Dr. Strange gave a bit of a hard time as a hormonal teenage boar, but as he was young and half the size of Hammstein, he lost the dominance games. This was where I assumed things were "over" and were going to be normal. Boy, was I wrong.

I noticed Hammstein bullying Oreo a bit, almost near constant chasing, but would also make sure he was eating as well. The behavior was strange, after chasing and mounting he would make sure to bring him hay and if I gave them veggies, he would bring him some. Eisbacon sometimes would divert Hammstein's attention to himself (Eisbacon loves to be chased, he thinks it is the best fun to run around.) so Oreo could rest. After a while of chasing sometimes, Dr. Strange would nip Hammstein as he ran by as if to say "DUDE WE GET IT, CHILL". Then Hammstein would stop and behave for a while. Then during a floor time a few days later, while Hammstein was chasing Oreo by Dr. Strange he nipped again. However, this time when he did, all of them froze. Hammstein was making a weird face like he was confused and I noticed a drop of red on his face. I picked him up and noticed the bite had drawn blood and I took him in the bathroom to gently clean the wound. It wasn't bad and I immediately separated them. The other piggies were looking at each other like they knew something happened, but they didn't know what. I went to bed and when I woke up I noticed Dr. Strange had somehow gotten into the top half of the hutch where Hammstein was and they were sleeping snuggled together in a log tunnel. I figured they had made up and I put them back together with floor time and things seemed "normal" again... Until...

Oreo hit adolescence and decided he was gonna just be the toughest of cookies. He tried to pick fights and get on all of their nerves until he got in a fight with Dr. Strange. No blood was drawn, but just before things escalated to a full-blown fight, Hammstein and Eisbacon intervened. Hammstein got between Dr. Strange. and Oreo, and Eisbacon got next to Oreo and walked him upstairs to separate them. Hammstein rumblestrutted all around to calm down Dr. Strange, and Eisbacon did the same to Oreo. After they had calmed down, Hammstein ran up to check on Oreo and make sure he was OK. Things were a bit tense with Oreo and Dr. Strange for a while but Hammstein and Eisbacon made sure nothing ever got past teeth chattering. I thought things were going to start to finally calm down until Hammstein started picking on Dr. Strange because of his attitude towards Oreo. Oreo got over his hormones rather quickly, but Dr. Strange seemed to hold a bit of a grudge. Hammstein started chasing and Dr. Strange would squeal with the submission sounds quite loudly and then Hammstein would stop, but after a bit he would start back up again. Sometime during then, there was a nip on Dr. Strange's ear. I didn't find it until days after and it was half healed. The hutch is big enough so Oreo could go past Dr. Strange and eat/drink on one side of the hutch while Dr. Strange had the other side I made sure of that so they could both get plenty of food and water. Hammstein has greatly lessened his bullying of Dr. Strange, so I am hoping it will be over soon. He does some chasing now and then, but that is all he does currently. I did pick up Dr. Strange for some laptime yesterday and I found scratches and nip scabs on his bum. I double checked to make sure they weren't mites, but I am pretty sure they are scabs that are healing. None were fresh, so I think they were from back when Hammstein was bullying him. I don't believe any nips are recent. Maybe things are finally calming down with the piggies.

It took me a bit by surprise at Hammstein and Eisbacon separating the fighting piggies like that and getting them to calm down and work out their problems. I wonder if anyone else has seen piggies showing behavior like that? It seemed pretty intelligent to me and I have a feeling guinea pigs are pretty dang smart when they want to be. But then they turn around and do dumb stuff and I am like why u so smart and stupid at the same time? LOL

 

[sport_billy]

Guinea pig boars go through a hormonal phase roughly between 4-14months old. These months are characterised by bouts of testosterone which manifest in lots of dominance behaviours. You have four boys together, you are hitting big hormonal problems. Boars rarely function in more than a pair and anything other than a pair normally results, in bullying, fall outs and fights often leading to severe injuries many threads on the forum attest to this.

My advice would be to separate your piggies into the two closely bonded pairs and rebond them. If you can work out who has injured who etc....

Please take the time to these guides here, so you can learn about the various phases of the teenage months, what you can do stabilise bonds, how to evaluate whether a bond is still working and what your options are if that is no longer the case:
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?
Bonding: Illustrated Dominance Behaviours And Dynamics
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs

 

[SinleyVera]

I have been considering put them into pairs if things escalate past the minor chasing right now I am probably going to put them in pairs. I have been discussing the idea of a large C&C cage for them with a middle separation with my husband. I thought that would be better to have instead of the two-story hutch if they are going to be separated, so they can still see and interact with each other.

 

[Piggies&buns]

I agree. It is virtually impossible to get more than a pair of boars to sustain a relationship to adulthood.
If you separate, you would need to see whether being side by side, as you mention above, works - only time will tell. Sometimes two pair of boars can live side by side but sometimes the presence of others can upset the bonds of the pairs. I have a pair of teenage boars and I would love another pair but because they would have to live in the space shed (but at opposite ends) there is a risk that the presence of another pair (albeit not together) could disrupt my original pair, so it puts me off.
Do bear in mind that a pair of boars need a 6ft by 2ft cage. So your four living together now (and if for any reason you choose not to separate) need a very large cage - you would be looking at at least an 8ft cage (two storey does not count as extra living space - it’s only the one level which counts) even then a large space is unlikely to make much of a difference in their ability to sustain a relationship with more than a pair.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi!

Sub-adult boar quartets regularly fail quite spectacularly once they reach the teenage months. The most common outcome is that you end up with one stable pair and two singles if you do not pair the two most dominant boars with a more submissive companion they get on well now. We have seen several cases in which members have ended up with four singles of which none of them would go back together again.

Please take the time to read the guides that @sport_billy has linked in. You will find them very helpful and interesting as they tell you exactly what to look out for, how you can contribute to minimising the risk of fall-outs in your pairs and what to do if things go wrong.