I'm not sure if my boars are normal. I read that guinea pigs are diurnal, but now I'm not so sure.
Let me set this up for you...
We have three boars. One is older (Alton), one is about 6 months old (Byron), and one is about 3 months old (Carlton). All was fine in Pigsville until Byron hit puberty about two weeks ago. We tried letting them work it out, but it got really violent. It got so bad, we separated Byron from Alton and Carlton (who get along great). We did this by putting grids right down the center of the cage. I know this is not good at all so now we have to expand the cage. I have a question about this later in this post.
Anyways - about the sleep deprivation - Byron can still see and talk to Alton and Carlton and vice versa. Every night I am awoken to the sounds of squealing, rumblestrutting, and burbling. This goes on for hours. Byron is rumblestrutting in front of Alton and Carlton's section and Alton is humping the heck out of Carlton. I am seriously getting no sleep. The bedroom is the only place we had to put the c&c cage, so I really can't move my set up to a different room as our apartment is pretty small. Our bedroom is not pitch dark at night because there is a street lamp outside our window. So now I ordered black out curtains thinking maybe since it is not pitch dark in our room, that it causes the pigs to stay awake and carry on. Hopefully that will work. Here is what we have tried already: We put towels over the grids that separate the pigs so no one could see each other, and that didn't work. Then we threw a blanket over the cage thinking it might have the effect of covering a bird cage at night. That didn't work either. What am I to do? I'm desperate.
One more question about the cage set-up and if it will help...
Because of the current situation described above I need some advice on my cage. I know the pigs have no room now and this is not healthy. I have a 2 x 5 c&c cage and am in the works of expanding it by adding a second 2 x 5 section to form an L shape with the original cage and also an upper loft on each. I am going to replace the coroplast and de-stink everything else with vinegar. I am hoping that once done, I can try putting Byron back with Alton and Carlton. Anyone have success with this when their boars are behaving badly? I thought maybe with enough space, the guys might not have as much stress with territory and Byron's puberty. I figure if all doesn't go well, I can just separate the two 2 x 5 cages and everyone will still have plenty of room.
Anyone have advice?