We adopted Merlin as a rescue after someone found him in an alley. My mother overheard that he needed a cage mate, so she went ahead and adopted one we named Pluto. Merlin is an adult, whereas Pluto seems to be a teenager. Both are male.
I followed Cavy Spirit's introduction advice. The neutral introductions took almost 7 hours. 4 hours in they seemed to be fine, so I cleaned the cage. During this time, they started having a dominance struggle that seemed to be resolved 3 hours later. When I returned them to the fully cleaned cage (a 2x4 C&C cage, I've been saving money to buy a bigger one), they continued some of their dominance struggle. (Merlin rumble strutting, both chattering, both nudging, both mounting, and both chasing.) A few hours in, they finally started having a roll-around bout that did not draw blood. Merlin also headbutted Pluto about 30 minutes after that. They started having another fight right before bed, which was probably 2 hours later. All they had in the cage was two hay racks, two hides with exits, two water bottles, and two food bowls. The only time they fought near the food was when Merlin head butted Pluto for trying to take the food from his bowl instead of the other one.
I wasn't confident in them staying together overnight until I knew exactly what to do in this situation, so I put Pluto back in his quarantine cage in the same room as Merlin. I know that the usual consensus with boars is only to remove them if there is blood, but since these are my first two Guinea pigs, I wanted to make absolutely sure I wasn't endangering them.
Pluto is usually skittish with us humans, but Merlin is rather social. Today Merlin isn't feeling social with anyone but me, and even then he is still acting really reserved and would rather hide away.
Is there anything I can do? Was I wrong to separate them? Should I wait until Pluto is out of puberty, or should we return him and try to find a far less dominant companion?
I followed Cavy Spirit's introduction advice. The neutral introductions took almost 7 hours. 4 hours in they seemed to be fine, so I cleaned the cage. During this time, they started having a dominance struggle that seemed to be resolved 3 hours later. When I returned them to the fully cleaned cage (a 2x4 C&C cage, I've been saving money to buy a bigger one), they continued some of their dominance struggle. (Merlin rumble strutting, both chattering, both nudging, both mounting, and both chasing.) A few hours in, they finally started having a roll-around bout that did not draw blood. Merlin also headbutted Pluto about 30 minutes after that. They started having another fight right before bed, which was probably 2 hours later. All they had in the cage was two hay racks, two hides with exits, two water bottles, and two food bowls. The only time they fought near the food was when Merlin head butted Pluto for trying to take the food from his bowl instead of the other one.
I wasn't confident in them staying together overnight until I knew exactly what to do in this situation, so I put Pluto back in his quarantine cage in the same room as Merlin. I know that the usual consensus with boars is only to remove them if there is blood, but since these are my first two Guinea pigs, I wanted to make absolutely sure I wasn't endangering them.
Pluto is usually skittish with us humans, but Merlin is rather social. Today Merlin isn't feeling social with anyone but me, and even then he is still acting really reserved and would rather hide away.
Is there anything I can do? Was I wrong to separate them? Should I wait until Pluto is out of puberty, or should we return him and try to find a far less dominant companion?