Two boars | A piece of advice is needed

Wollene

Wollene

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hello guys, and hope you're having a great day while you're reading this!
To cut a long story short, we have a trouble with our two boys... Peach (almost 5 y.o) and Rich (1 y.o).

A little side-story first: the first my piggy was a sow, which, after quite time, we discovered to be pregnant. And this was a boy. We kept them in separate cages all that time (two Ferplast Multipla Maxi modular cages), side by side. Unfortunately, his mom died almost a year ago after an extensive illness, heart failure and concomitant diseases. And he got so lonely, so we took a new baby-boy the next day to accompany him. We also connected two cages together so they had plenty of space. They got along just fine until two weeks ago. Peach (the older piggy) started to be aggressive towards the younger one, he started to bite him up, but in general, this wasn't too long, like a little misunderstanding rather than a fight. But it was getting worse and worse, and we started to find patches of fur of the younger one. And after a really big fight, where the older one has literally jumped on the younger while biting him, we have decided to separate the cages.

We hoped to reintroduce them on neutral territory after a while (two days had passed), but we unfortunately failed. The older one is still hostile to him... And we don't really know what to do at this point. Should we try again later, or should we keep them separate from now on?

And we have another question, after separating them, we have noticed that the older ones' poops became soft and mushy. There were no changes in nutrition whatsoever, and he gets lots of hay, and in general, looks good. I've heard that this might be caused by stress (he has literally lost half of his territories). We have already made an appointment to the vet and removed veggies, but I still would like to hear your thoughts on this one!

Thanks for your answers in advance!
 
I’m sorry to hear this:

A sudden change in behaviour in an older piggy could suggest that this is illness or pain related. His soft poops may not have anything to do with stress but rather a symptom of him potentially being unwell.
You have absolutely done the right thing in getting a vet appointment booked.

You’ve also done right in separating them following a fight. They may never go back together again, and generally once there has been a fight the advice would be to not try again.

While you wait for the vet appointment, I would suggest you switch from the routine weekly weight checks and instead weigh him daily. Any pain or illness could mean his hay intake drops, and as hay intake can’t be gauged by eye, the daily (each morning) weight checks become essential: it enables you to step in with syringe feeding if his hay intake drops and subsequently means weight loss would occur.

I’ve added some guides below to help further.
Do let us know how you get on at the vet

Emergency and Crisis Care as well as Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
How to Improvise Feeding Support in an Emergency
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/weight-monitoring-and-management.171577/
Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
 
Piggies&buns said:
I’m sorry to hear this:

A sudden change in behaviour in an older piggy could suggest that this is illness or pain related. His soft poops may not have anything to do with stress but rather a symptom of him potentially being unwell.
You have absolutely done the right thing in getting a vet appointment booked.

You’ve also done right in separating them following a fight. They may never go back together again, and generally once there has been a fight the advice would be to not try again.

While you wait for the vet appointment, I would suggest you switch from the routine weekly weight checks and instead weigh him daily. Any pain or illness could mean his hay intake drops, and as hay intake can’t be gauged by eye, the daily (each morning) weight checks become essential: it enables you to step in with syringe feeding if his hay intake drops and subsequently means weight loss would occur.

I’ve added some guides below to help further.
Do let us know how you get on at the vet

Emergency and Crisis Care as well as Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
How to Improvise Feeding Support in an Emergency
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/weight-monitoring-and-management.171577/
Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
Click to expand...
Thank you very much for the advice!
In general, he's a very active boy, he's running around and also eating well.
Poops themselves are not soft all the time, he also has an absolutely normal ones.
Anyway... we'll keep our eyes on him...
 
Will bother you a little bit more. I've noticed that he drinks a lot more than usual. This, of course, may be because of his wet poops, cause his body loses water and it is trying to compensate, and in general, I think, it is not a bad thing. But at the same time, I find small wet areas around his poop. Is that something I should be worried about? Our ultrasound and vet appointment will be on the 15th of August, we can't get to the doctor faster. It is the only rodentologist in our area and her schedule is pretty tight. Can I help him somehow until that time?

Attaching image of poopings...

photo_2025-08-05_13-04-42.webp
 
Ah, and his stomach makes very noisy sound. Almost like humans' ones.
We can literally hear it very clearly from the opposite side of the room.
 
The amount a piggy drinks is an individual thing. What is of concern is a sudden increase or decrease in drinking (once environmental issues have been ruled out) as it can be a warning sign of a medical issue.

All About Drinking, Bottles and Dehydration

Gut sounds are good (silent gut is a sign of a gut stasis which if not dealt with the promptly can be fatal) but a very loud, out of the ordinary loud, can also be a sign that their digestion is off.

Our advice in such a situation would be to remove veg (which you have already done), and otherwise follow the home care advice of weighing him every morning, stepping in with syringe feeding if necessary (if weight is lost).
 
Piggies&buns said:
The amount a piggy drinks is an individual thing. What is of concern is a sudden increase or decrease in drinking (once environmental issues have been ruled out) as it can be a warning sign of a medical issue.

All About Drinking, Bottles and Dehydration

Gut sounds are good (silent gut is a sign of a gut stasis which if not dealt with the promptly can be fatal) but a very loud, out of the ordinary loud, can also be a sign that their digestion is off.

Our advice in such a situation would be to remove veg (which you have already done), and otherwise follow the home care advice of weighing him every morning, stepping in with syringe feeding if necessary (if weight is lost).
Click to expand...
Got it!
So nothing to worry about more at this point!
Just waiting for the vet appointment and controlling his condition.
Lots of thanks again! You really gave me relief, because I was having a BAD anxiety over this...
 
Aswell as the older piggies health its important to consider that your younger boy is at that age where they challenge other boars and any relationships between piggies often shifts at this age. If neither boar wants to accept not being the dominant one the relationship won't work and it sounds like that's what's happened here. It may be that the older one seemed weak and the younger one saw this as an opportunity to try his luck or it may have just been a rush of hormones but it's unlikely they'd live happily together after a fall out like that.
 
Sweet Potato said:
Aswell as the older piggies health its important to consider that your younger boy is at that age where they challenge other boars and any relationships between piggies often shifts at this age. If neither boar wants to accept not being the dominant one the relationship won't work and it sounds like that's what's happened here. It may be that the older one seemed weak and the younger one saw this as an opportunity to try his luck or it may have just been a rush of hormones but it's unlikely they'd live happily together after a fall out like that.
Click to expand...
I also have been thinking about that. But the younger one is the sweetest little piggy, he didn't grind his teeth towards the older one at all. He was just defensive and that's it. And he also seems upset and he really wants the older's company. But that's just my perspective; those guys definitely have their points of view of these situations. I wish I could understand my pigs better...
 
I personally would think a bond break down due to incompatibility and dominance after a year together is fairly unlikely - not impossible though. I would be more inclined to think, as it is coming from the older piggy, that is more likely to be something up with the older one.
Either way, a fight even is it is health related, may well mean they would still not go back together
 
Piggies&buns said:
I personally would think a bond break down due to incompatibility and dominance after a year together is fairly unlikely - not impossible though. I would be more inclined to think, as it is coming from the older piggy, that is more likely to be something up with the older one.
Either way, a fight even is it is health related, may well mean they would still not go back together
Click to expand...
Well, he had some major health issues previously. He suddenly stopped eating and generally became very weak and stuff, and he tilted his head a little bit, so we got totally freaked out. After the investigation by our vet, it turned out that he had a maloclusion and an ulcer on his cheek. And additionally, she sent us to MRI, cause she wasn't sure if this was an otitis or something else... Hopefully, there was nothing in his ears. However, she noticed that the tooth that caused all the illness was a little bit larger than the others. So she stated "megadontia", and "pain syndrome", and prescribed cannabinoids as pain can return and go away from time to time.

And, I'm thinking right now, all the fighting started somewhere in the middle of this illness and treatment stuff. I guess, the older one was just not in a good mood to spend time with the younger one. And that led to conflicts.
 
Was the tooth dealt with in any way? Was it filed down so it stopped rubbing and causing ulcers?
 
Although, now there are no signs of pain, and his teeth are super nice. They are straight and he has a proper bite, at least visually.
 
It is of course going to need to be looked at again. Teeth can sometimes need to be repeatedly filed if they are not being worn down properly naturally by chewing hay .
 
Piggies&buns said:
It is of course going to need to be looked at again. Teeth can sometimes need to be repeatedly filed if they are not being worn down properly naturally by chewing hay .
Click to expand...
Sure, I know that!
We're visiting the vet on a regular basis!
 
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