Dominance My boars are fighting

biggzbee101 · Dec 30, 2013

This is my first thread. I bought a guinea pig recently and named him Charlie. I used to have a guinea pig named Squeakers way back in the day as a young child. Anyway, I decided since I do not have all the time in the world to devote into the guinea pig as child would, I decided to get another pig (Don't get me wrong, I have my pigs out for a couple hours). The introduction to the boars went great, there was some minor rumbling and teeth chattering but it went great and they got along....

Until they both reached puberty... All hell broke loose, I heard some noises coming from my room and they were in a tornado. I managed to get them separated before any harm was done but Boo my other piggie had gotten a nice chunk of hair from Charlie. That was it, I decided to get another cage and break them up for awhile and perhaps try to introduce them once again, hopefully in the near future.

So my question is, will they ever get along or should I just keep them in separate cages? Also, my last question.

Boo is a very shy timid pig. I have yet to hear him make a squeak (its been a couple months now). The only noise he makes is, well it sounds like a bird chirping. Do you think he will ever squeak or is he just going to chirp? (Is he broken)

Princess_Piggie · Dec 30, 2013

When a pig makes a noise like a bird chirping, that is a rare and beautiful noise! Pigs only make that noise when they are in utter bliss, lucky you for getting to hear that sound!

What size cage where they housed in together? Did you have multiple hideys and hay racks etc?

biggzbee101 · Dec 30, 2013

I have 42x18 cage that has two wooden Hidey's. They both had their own and both never really went in the others house. I had one hay rack and both seemed very content when eating next to one another.

Princess_Piggie · Dec 30, 2013

Do you mean 42x18 inches?

If you do, you where housing your pigs in a cage far too small for even one sow on her own. 42x18 inches equates to three square feet. Two male boars need at least 10 square feet. Preferably more.

biggzbee101 · Dec 30, 2013

It looks like I will need to build a bigger cage. I shouldn't have bought a cage from the pet store.

Princess_Piggie · Dec 30, 2013

It's okay, we've all made mistakes with our pigs!

Furthermore, I do have a 'pet store' (commercial) cage myself, however it's a very large one that's 10.5 sqft inside. It wasn't cheap either, which is why most people build their own C&C cage. They where fighting due to the small environment, not because they don't get along. You'll probably want to go for a 2x5 C&C cage with two boars.

MrWhistles · Dec 30, 2013

Princess_Piggie said:
When a pig makes a noise like a bird chirping, that is a rare and beautiful noise! Pigs only make that noise when they are in utter bliss, lucky you for getting to hear that sound!

What size cage where they housed in together? Did you have multiple hideys and hay racks etc?

Actually, no one has been able to link exactly what emotion causes chirping. Sometimes chirping happens when they've been startled, sometimes when everything is utterly quiet. It's all very random.

Princess_Piggie · Dec 30, 2013

Really? I read somewhere that it's supposed to be like, the 'mega purr' if you know what I mean. Gosh they're mysterious little creatures aren't they hehe.

biggzbee101 · Dec 30, 2013

They really are amazing little critters. Each one has a personality of their own.

MrWhistles · Dec 30, 2013

It is likely the fighting you saw was because of lack of space. Regardless of gender, for 2 guinea pigs I, myself, have found atleast 10 sqft to be the comfortable min.

khw10 · Dec 30, 2013

maby you should find another buddy two settle them

MrWhistles · Dec 30, 2013

khw10 said:
maby you should find another buddy two settle them

Her current cage doesn't even provide the appropriate space for 1 guinea pig.

sdpiggylvr · Dec 30, 2013

khw10 said:
maby you should find another buddy two settle them

Adding another friend would probably only make the situation worse.

You're better off building as large a cage as possible and leaving the hiding houses out for several days as you reassess their relationship. You can try a buddy bath too or simply a reintroduction on neutral ground again. Remember not to separate unless they are in a full-blown attack/tumbling ball of fur as you experienced earlier!

khw10 · Dec 30, 2013

oh i'ts just it helped with me

(i breed rex's ) so i have these sorts of problems

sugarandspice · Dec 31, 2013

khw10 said:
(i breed rex's )

Not something to flounce about on this forum. I won't post any links to the rules or links from other websites because I hope you would have known better by now that what you're doing is wrong. C'mon, you joined this website in July!

To the OP, I think it's great you are building a new cage! Post pictures when you can.

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Dominance My boars are fighting

biggzbee101

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