Back in May we bought two male Guinea pigs; both were alone in their enclosures and we had learned that guinea pigs are social animals, so about a week after buying the first one, an Abyssinian, we bought a shorthair from a different location. After reading guides on bonding online, we attempted to bond them together using the outlined procedure and knowing the higher difficulty of bonding two unrelated boars over other pairings. Things were more or less going well, at the time the Abyssinian was smaller than the shorthair and they did the standard mounting routine. At one point however the shorthair mounted the Abyssinian's face and I believe this must have distressed the Abby, I can't remember well but I think this is what prompted us to separate them and end the session (which in hindsight was probably a mistake).
After that I'm not sure how much time elapsed before we put them back together to attempt bonding them again, but I recall that unlike the first session they began fighting each other. This is where my concern comes in. The fighting has been relatively benign, and I assume this is because the boars seem to like each other; we have them in a partitioned cage at the moment and they'll interact with each other by rumblestrutting and popcorning near the partition, never chattering their teeth unless they actually come face-to-face outside of the cage, and no attempts at harming the other while in the cage. The worst point the fighting has reached is the shorthair nipped a bit of the Abby's fur off during their fighting, which made me worried that they'd escalate and do worse so we stopped them. Since that session, we'd just conceded to letting them be separated by the partition and didn't attempt any more bonding sessions out of fear of one of them seriously hurting the other one. But I think it would be beneficial for them to work it out and be able to live in the same space, I just can't gauge how they feel about each other...
So my question is how I should go about these two. Do I attempt letting them bond again, with the proper procedures, and if they start fighting just let them fight it out? The Abyssinian has grown significantly since we bought them, so it's become sort of a toss-up between who's going to dominate who. They don't seem to dislike each other, like I said they interact positively (based on the popcorning) through the cage partition, but become agitated when we hold them near each other (I assume this is because they want to fight). My biggest concern is that they will draw blood, which I would be worried about the severity of and how to go about handling it, and which I worry would ruin their seemingly good rapport with each other.
Thank you for any advice on the matter.
After that I'm not sure how much time elapsed before we put them back together to attempt bonding them again, but I recall that unlike the first session they began fighting each other. This is where my concern comes in. The fighting has been relatively benign, and I assume this is because the boars seem to like each other; we have them in a partitioned cage at the moment and they'll interact with each other by rumblestrutting and popcorning near the partition, never chattering their teeth unless they actually come face-to-face outside of the cage, and no attempts at harming the other while in the cage. The worst point the fighting has reached is the shorthair nipped a bit of the Abby's fur off during their fighting, which made me worried that they'd escalate and do worse so we stopped them. Since that session, we'd just conceded to letting them be separated by the partition and didn't attempt any more bonding sessions out of fear of one of them seriously hurting the other one. But I think it would be beneficial for them to work it out and be able to live in the same space, I just can't gauge how they feel about each other...
So my question is how I should go about these two. Do I attempt letting them bond again, with the proper procedures, and if they start fighting just let them fight it out? The Abyssinian has grown significantly since we bought them, so it's become sort of a toss-up between who's going to dominate who. They don't seem to dislike each other, like I said they interact positively (based on the popcorning) through the cage partition, but become agitated when we hold them near each other (I assume this is because they want to fight). My biggest concern is that they will draw blood, which I would be worried about the severity of and how to go about handling it, and which I worry would ruin their seemingly good rapport with each other.
Thank you for any advice on the matter.