Behavior Chewing bars

[Mousewife]

My question is twofold.
1) How do you get guinea pigs to stop chewing the bars between cages.

I separated my boys after a bad squabble left my younger boar, Ginger, with a cm long gash in his shoulder (it?s healed now with the tiniest of scars). For a while Ginger continued to rumblestrut along the fence, but he?s starting to settle down as he gets bigger. He?s ~6 months.

In the last ~1.5-2 weeks, both boys have started chewing the fence. Just the fence. None of the other squares are being chewed. It appears to my human eyes like they are trying to get through it to each other. They have also started resting near each other on either side of the fence.

I draped a cloth over the fence to discourage chewing and they both got crazy loud, squeaking, wheeping, peeping, etc. Ginger eventually pulled it down.

So, the cloth isn?t going to work. Any other suggestions that will let them see each other? They each have a wood chew and a lava chew and a ton of fresh hay.

My 2nd question:
Might bonding be possible after all when Ginger finishes puberty?
Or am I crazy?

 

[Snugglybutt]

You're in the same situation I was in once. My two boars, Hippo and Michael, were introduced incorrectly by the petstore I purchased them, but I didn't know that at the time since they were my first pigs. They fought every day until Michael left a bloody wound on Hippo's snout (left a scar too), so I separated their cage in half with cage grids.

Hippo didn't chew the bars but Michael did CONSTANTLY. It was driving me crazy, especially since I sleep in the same room as my pigs. Both pigs slept beside each other on either side of the fence. I decided to put a piece of fleece over the bars and Michael went crazy, he NEEDED to see Hippo.

After a week of separation I looked up how to do a proper introduction and I reintroduced them together in the bathtub. It seemed to work, because both boys have been living together in peace for about a month now. They are by no means "bonded" though. They don't snuggle or do anything cute together. They live together without fighting, which is all I wished for. Maybe I just got lucky, but I don't think it's crazy to think that your boars might get along one day in the future.