D
Darky
Kayso.
If you followed my other thread in Behaviour, you'll know why I'm making this.
Basically.. I have two boars, Fry and Laurie - they're brothers and, to my knowledge, have always been together. I don't know how old they are. The pet shop owner made out like they had recently been born, but they were clearly full-grown adults.
They seem to get along well. They don't play or any such, but when out of the cage they go towards each other for comfort, especially in new areas or places they're not settled in. In the cage they sleep apart, but are happy to share food and such (when they do fight over food, it's far from violent - just innocent and cute!).
However, since they settled, Laurie has tried to assert his dominance by strutting, purring, rubbing against and mounting Fry. Fry clearly is not pleased by this, and he usually just runs away (Laurie will usually chase him) or jumps to get Laurie off. This happens nearly every day (most likely every day - I'm sometimes woken up by it at night.)
I just figured it was all part of the natural balance and left them to it - until I was awoken by the sound of Fry chattering his teeth. So I took Laurie out of the cage for a while to give Fry a break, placing him on my bed as I often do, stroking him and such. I eventually put him back, but he just harassed Fry again. But as Fry wasn't chattering his teeth, I went back to bed.
This was quite a while ago - but yesterday, as stated in my thread, Laurie would not leave Fry alone all day. At one point he was harassing him for two hours straight. Fry looked paranoid and wasn't his usual sleepy, napping self because every few second - Laurie was at it again. Constantly pinning him and mounting him, chasing him, purring at him. Fry ended up chattering his teeth a lot, and I think even Laurie chattered his teeth, and Fry kept raising his head in a sort of defence - but Laurie was totally oblivious to the threats and just kept overpowering him.
Even when Laurie isn't mounting Fry, he spends most of the day, when awake, purring and swaying side to side against Fry.
So, basically...
Even though they get along otherwise - I think I need to split them up. I love them both dearly and feel horrible splitting up their brotherhood, but I worry that one day I will return home from work or somesuch only to find that Fry has finally managed to fight back, and one or both may be injured, or worse. I just cannot take that risk, no matter how much I want them to stay together.
Where I'm moving, I do not have room for a second cage - unless I put one on top. But I worry, will this cast the other cage into darkness? My tiny bedroom has a skylight, so.. I don't want to put a piggy or two into darkness.
So I've been looking for someone to adopt him - there is one possible person at the moment, but he doesn't know yet if his parents will allow him to adopt one (most likely Laurie) - hopefully I'll have an answer by tonight.
It's just that if I do keep Laurie, and have two cages, one on top of another.. I'll also have to get them neutered, and get two girls, because I will not leave them by themselves whilst I work - it's unfair on them, I want them to have company.
But with the cages one on top of another, will the smells interupt relationships? Would it be bad to have two male/female couples that close?
I can't build a grid cage in the room, nor can I think of any other solution.
Please please, any advice is welcome.
If you followed my other thread in Behaviour, you'll know why I'm making this.
Basically.. I have two boars, Fry and Laurie - they're brothers and, to my knowledge, have always been together. I don't know how old they are. The pet shop owner made out like they had recently been born, but they were clearly full-grown adults.
They seem to get along well. They don't play or any such, but when out of the cage they go towards each other for comfort, especially in new areas or places they're not settled in. In the cage they sleep apart, but are happy to share food and such (when they do fight over food, it's far from violent - just innocent and cute!).
However, since they settled, Laurie has tried to assert his dominance by strutting, purring, rubbing against and mounting Fry. Fry clearly is not pleased by this, and he usually just runs away (Laurie will usually chase him) or jumps to get Laurie off. This happens nearly every day (most likely every day - I'm sometimes woken up by it at night.)
I just figured it was all part of the natural balance and left them to it - until I was awoken by the sound of Fry chattering his teeth. So I took Laurie out of the cage for a while to give Fry a break, placing him on my bed as I often do, stroking him and such. I eventually put him back, but he just harassed Fry again. But as Fry wasn't chattering his teeth, I went back to bed.
This was quite a while ago - but yesterday, as stated in my thread, Laurie would not leave Fry alone all day. At one point he was harassing him for two hours straight. Fry looked paranoid and wasn't his usual sleepy, napping self because every few second - Laurie was at it again. Constantly pinning him and mounting him, chasing him, purring at him. Fry ended up chattering his teeth a lot, and I think even Laurie chattered his teeth, and Fry kept raising his head in a sort of defence - but Laurie was totally oblivious to the threats and just kept overpowering him.
Even when Laurie isn't mounting Fry, he spends most of the day, when awake, purring and swaying side to side against Fry.
So, basically...
Even though they get along otherwise - I think I need to split them up. I love them both dearly and feel horrible splitting up their brotherhood, but I worry that one day I will return home from work or somesuch only to find that Fry has finally managed to fight back, and one or both may be injured, or worse. I just cannot take that risk, no matter how much I want them to stay together.
Where I'm moving, I do not have room for a second cage - unless I put one on top. But I worry, will this cast the other cage into darkness? My tiny bedroom has a skylight, so.. I don't want to put a piggy or two into darkness.
So I've been looking for someone to adopt him - there is one possible person at the moment, but he doesn't know yet if his parents will allow him to adopt one (most likely Laurie) - hopefully I'll have an answer by tonight.
It's just that if I do keep Laurie, and have two cages, one on top of another.. I'll also have to get them neutered, and get two girls, because I will not leave them by themselves whilst I work - it's unfair on them, I want them to have company.
But with the cages one on top of another, will the smells interupt relationships? Would it be bad to have two male/female couples that close?
I can't build a grid cage in the room, nor can I think of any other solution.
Please please, any advice is welcome.
