Dominance Dominance issues and biting with new piggie.

[lennypuz]

Hello fellow piggie lovers and owners, I need your help.
I have a guinea pig Rocky approx 7months old and he is the calmest, most cuddly piggie I've ever met. Loves being brushed, gives kisses...hes wonderful! I have been wanting to get him a companion so I recently have been going to our rescue centre to find him a friend. I brought home a friend for him named Bob who is 4 months old. He is shy, but once he gets used to you very cuddly also, though he is more active than Rocky is.

I have a pen with a divider in it so they can get used to each others scent, and we have floor time on neutral ground so they can get used to each other before I would put them together. They do the normal strut, chatter bum smelling etc. Today they fought and there was blood on the floor and Bob has a bite mark.
I've had piggies since I was a kid and have never had an issue with a fight...but I've always had females.
I was hoping for some advice for them to get along better, how to introduce them better so they won't fight like that? When we're in the outside pen in the grass, they are great and everyday until today they've been great with floor time as they mind their own. Today just scared me as the fur was flying and the blood on the floor. Any suggestions or advice would be SO appreciated. I really was hoping they would be great companions. I thought of bringing home a baby, but Bob (4mths) was very sweet and I thought they would get along great. What can I do to help my boys?
Thanks so much in advance everyone!

 

[slynnski]

Just to clarify--are they in the same cage with a divider, or are they in two separate cages? Pigs should only be introduced one time--any more than that stresses them out because they have to establish dominance all over again. If they live in separate cages, they should not have floor/cuddle time together. Only have floor/cuddle time together unless you plan on housing them in the same cage.

If they are in the same cage and blood is being drawn, then they unfortunately may just have to live separately. I would put their cages close together though so they can still see, smell and hear each other and then they should be fine. But again, if you do end up having them live separately as a solution, they unfortunately can't have floor time together.

I hope everything I said makes sense.

 

[lennypuz]

I have a huge cage and a divider in the middle so that they can see/smell each other before I would take the divider out, and they usually enjoyed floor time until today. I just feel so bad that they fought

 

[slynnski]

Hmmm, I guess it might be best to floor them separately then. I'm not a huge expert on this subject so I am going to step back and let someone else take over. [MENTION=13820]bpatters[/MENTION] ?