Behavior Separating boars

[totallynotabird]

Hi everyone! About 6 months ago, we got two boars named Doppio and Mista to live with and play with our two sows Trish and Lisa Lisa. We got the boars neutered so they could all live together, and have a massive cage that takes up most of our bedroom floor area for all four guineas to run around and play. Mista and Doppio used to be best friends; they would cuddle all the time and even wouldn't care if one of them had their foot on the other's eye or something. Last weekend, though, they suddenly became very aggressive towards each other; Doppio would start rumbling at Mista and Mista would yawn and snort at Doppio. It ended up in them jumping at each other and Doppio biting Mista's nose. Mista got a little nosebleed, but luckily it resolved pretty quickly; we put Doppio in the old cage we used to have the two girls in for the night. The next day, we reintroduced Doppio, and they were still a little cautious around each other, but they seemed fine.

On Saturday night, though, the boars suddenly got into another fight, and Mista bit Doppio underneath his chin, causing him to bleed pretty bladly. We took Doppio to the vet and they cleaned him up, and recommended us to separate them for a little while. What we've been doing so far is one day having Doppio in the big cage with the girls and Mista by himself in the girls' old cage, and the next day switching the boars so that Mista gets a day with the girls and Doppio spends a day alone. I feel really bad doing this, though; the one with the girls is so happy and running around and the one who's alone seems so depressed. But I also don't want to move one of the girls into the old cage either, because we've had Trish and Lisa Lisa together for longer than we've had the boars, and I don't want to separate them. What do you think? Should we keep rotating the boars in and out of the big cage for the next week or so before we try reintroducing them again, or should we put one of the girls in the old cage and just keep them like that until the boars are ready to play nice with each other?
Thank you!

 

[petluv]

From my very limited knowledge of this, it sounds like the boys are fighting over who the girls belong to. Once they are adult only one neutered male per group of females is recommended. They used to get along better because there weren’t females to fight over. Add the females and males can no longer live peacefully together. I hope that helps until someone else can come by and give you a more in depth answer and can help you know what living arrangements will be required from here on.

 

[bpatters]

Ditto. Two boars may very occasionally work in a very large herd, but one or both of them have to be very chill. Two boars and two sows are a recipe for disaster.

 

[totallynotabird]

Really? They've been housed with the girls for the past 5 months, and this only started a week ago. We also got them neutered when they were 3 months old to hopefully avoid this. My boyfriend thinks it's just a phase; is there any chance at all he could be right?

 

[bpatters]

He might be, but I really don't think so. All of the years I've spent on guinea pig forums tells me it won't work.