Size My guinea pigs bite each other's backs

[Mandymaem26]

The size of my cage is three grids by 8 grids. Roughly 25 square feet. I have four boars. The oldest, nugget, is chasing and biting the backs of the younger pigs. They've lived together in this grid pen for about four months and all of a sudden nugget is biting my two middle piggies. He snuggles the youngest. Should I build a bigger pen for them? They've always gotten along this far.

 

[bpatters]

How old are they?

A bigger pen than that isn't going to help.

 

[Mandymaem26]

My oldest is just over one.

 

[bpatters]

Then you've got a bunch of boars in puberty, and they're going to chase and nip.

You could try a buddy bath with all of them at once, and then put the tiniest dab of vanilla on their rear ends. That way, they'll smell the same, and it may confuse them long enough to derail the nipping for a while.

Do you have fleece forests hanging so they can't always see each other. Sometimes out of sight is out of mind.

 

[Mandymaem26]

That sounds like a great idea. I have tunnels and hideys but no fleece forests

 

[Mandymaem26]

That sounds like a great idea. I have tunnels and hideys but no fleece forests

 

[bpatters]

Do all the hideys have two doors so that no pig can get trapped?

 

[Mandymaem26]

Yes they're very open.

 

[Mandymaem26]

They mostly run into the corners of the cage and nugget will nip at them and then they all go nuts and run