Together or seperate?

[Ben&Jerry21]

Hi everyone! Totally new piggy mum here but I’m loving it and have made sure I do all my research. You guys on here seem to have the best advice so I’m just wondering about how my two new piggies are getting along.

I know it’s probably too soon to be worrying over such things I just want to give them the best home I can! So I have two boys and they are both about a year (I thought it was two but the seller said about 11/12 months)they lived seperate my when they were with their seller. I’ve got a 2x4 CandC cage with a separator and last night on their first night i had them seperate so they could get used to being around each other etc. This morning I came down and they had moved the separator and had snuggled up together under the tree bridge log.

in the afternoon I noticed some purring and teeth chattering, sniffing each other’s bums and what looked like they were trying to nip or bite each other? I got worried and separated them again but I’m just wondering if that was the best thing to do?
I basically don’t want to keep confusing them by being together and not being together but then I also don’t want to leave them alone together in case it escalates and they get hurt.
Am I totally overthinking this? I just love them so much already I don’t want anything to happen because I wasn’t cautious enough but then also don’t want to keep them from behaving in their natural way
Thank you in advance!

 

[Piggies&buns]

When you introduce piggies to each other, you must put them into a neutral territory bonding pen for several hours and let them see if they like each other. If they do, then they can go to their cleaned out cage together and live together. What you can’t do is put a divider in a cage and then let them wander into each others half - I appreciate they pushed the divider away though and if they didn’t fight then hopefully you’ve got away with it on that front. Up until they were put in a separated cage, the cage was a neutral territory so the actual bonding could have taken place in there and then they could have just stayed there, but it’s not going to be a good idea to do that now.

However, a 2x4 c&c can be pushing it on size for two boars, they really need a 2x5.

You are going to see dominance behaviours, that’s entirely normal and will carry on for two weeks post introduction. It sounds as if you have intervened early. As long as there isn’t clear fighting or bullying, then you need to let dominance play out without panicking!

Now they have been separated again and each half of their cage will be seen as their own territory, you are going to have to do the neutral territory bonding. You must put them together in a different part of your house - somewhere neither of them has been before for several hours. This guide explains how to go about the bonding process
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics

What you don’t want is any more aggressive/warning signs or full on fights.

If they don’t get on, then each piggy needs a 2x4 cage to themselves but the two cages need to be side by side. You can’t divide a 2x4 in half as the 2x2 they are left with doesn’t meet requirements.

A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs

 

[Ben&Jerry21]

Okay great thank you! I have a play pen arriving tomorrow so I’ll use that for a neutral ground. Thanks so much for your help

 

[Piggies&buns]

Okay great thank you! I have a play pen arriving tomorrow so I’ll use that for a neutral ground. Thanks so much for your help

Give the bonding guide a read (I’ve just linked it again as it didnt work first time) so you know exactly what to do and what you are looking out for.