Dominance Dominant behaviour starting to scare me

[Heartaem]

Hey all,


As title suggests, need some advice with my alpha boars dominance showing.

For some backstory: I rehomed these two furry potatoes in about mid December. My friend at the time forgot to get guinea pig care when she went on holiday and asked me last minute which I said yes to. I've never dealt with piggies before so she gave me instructions which was basically feed them the two weeks she was gone, give them new water once a week, and clean them out once a week but could be left for 2 weeks. She said they wouldnt need grooming other than tbe long hair beeding matting cut out of his fur.
(Note here: I have since learned this is entirely frigging wrong and am as angry abt it as probably a lot of you reading this are).
I fell absolutely in love with them and knew she was going to rehome them as she didbt really get them out to play with them and such and felt guilty (bc she got a puppy... eye roll. This dog did spend a lot of time trying to hump them so very stressful for them I imagine).
It took them about 3-5 weeks to fully get used to me so I did leave cage cleaning a little bit. I at most did it once a week but sometimes pushed it to about 9 days as they made it very clear they didnt want me picking them up, chattering at me, head throwing at me and etc and they were in a very stressful rehome so I didnt want to stress them even further.

When she agreed to rehome them I asked about the fact they seem to scratch a lot and she said it was nothing to worry about and it was just piggie things which I trusted.

Recently, I noticed one of them very violently scratching and the alpha boar was very much being dominate over the non alpha way more. I did some research and discovered both of them have a pretty bad lice infestation. Immediately I got them to the vet, I've given them treatment and my mom and I are doing our best.
They have had a problem with itching since I owned them, so I'm pretty sure this started when she owned them — however, this display of domanince has never really shown up, other than when the alpha boar was way more itchy.

Recently, the dominant behaviour has now adapted to charging and near fights. I'm very worried as they are bonded since birth,
but this seems to come and go in waves. Theyll happily share food from the same pile (I do give them two separate piles but they seem to prefer to eat from the same one at the same time and go to the other pile together and do the same), they'll do this charging and then happily cuddle together and be brotherly again so I'm pretty sure it's just the waves of agitation from the lice causing an increase in irritability. I keep them together at the moment but will pull the alpha out if he's getting too dominance showing and causing distress. (The dominant one isnt much one for cuddling so the other gets a lot more cuddle time and such so I gigure it could also be a bit of "they're the favourite but I'm the alpha" as well which seems to settle him a bit when I put him back in for a while.)

I am separating them when I sleep as a few times the charging has looked like it would end in a bite — the only two times this has happened was when my mother was around and putting a new toy in their hutch, they did take a while to get used go me, so I do think this may have been a case of new toy + lice stress + new person they dont know, they calmed down a little after she left.

Today, it's gotten to a point the alpha will sort of run the non dominant into their house and sleep by them. They seem to happily place their heads together and sleep fine, but when the non dominant wants to get out, the other will rumble strut. This has struck me as very strange, and a little worried, although, the non dominant has no problems getting food or water or anything, theres no dominance display preventing that.

Is this just casual lice agitation and they'll calm down? Or is this a sign of their bond breaking?

I do have serious concerns about their cage which I'll post in the cage forums, I've not changed anything since I got it and now I'm pretty sure it's too small/etc (and will also link that here), but this is getting a bit too much and I'm a little scared to leave them unattended.

As an add on: both have not been snipped, it's been very much since about Tuesday this has been happening (I found the lice on wednesday night and got them to the vet on Thurs, which I also did their treatment the same day)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bpatters]

How old are they?

How large is the cage?

And BTW, keep everything about these pigs in this thread so folks don't have to chase all over the forum to see what's going on with them.

You've got two boars -- actually, are you positive they're both male? Have you turned them over and compared their private parts? If not, please do so immediately, and separate them immediately if they're different sexes.

But, assuming you have two boars, you're going to have dominance problems, particularly if they're young. But lack of space is a definite cause of aggression, and could be a major part of the problem here.

Let us know age and cage size and we'll go from there.

 

[Heartaem]

Def two boars, vet checked yesterday. They're about 3 years old; their previous owner got them in 2021 but can't remember what month.

I dont know the size of the cage specifically but here are some pictures

I have since been told it is definitely too small (I havent change the cage since she gave me it, it's the exact same as how she had it). I am currently looking into getting a 10 foot C&C cage and changing to cloth liners due to this lice issue.

Another guinea owner I was speaking to thinks it may be resource hoarding but triggered by the stress of the vets and everything. My mom has been visiting them more recently as well — they dont know her as I've said — as shes become besotted with them, during this stressful time for them as well.

It's all calmed down again. It hit a peak with the alpha (the orange and white one, Rami) suddenly tried mounting and charging Taco (long haired black and white one) when he was trying to drink water, but now theyve settled down and are sleeping together. Theres been no actual fighting to my knowledge just a lot of dominance showing behaviour. my moms going to help me get extra bottles/etc to try and ease up the potential hoarding dominance.

 

[Heartaem]

I would also like to add on: the person I rehomed them from is a very "do your research before getting pets" to the point theyve gotten into verbal fights with people for not doing this, so I genuinely had no reason to not trust them with their information when I rehomed these little fluff potatoes, until I got told that museli was potential unsafe for them and since then found out all this, and have been heavily researching as much as I can since. None of this was intentional ag all on my end and tbe moment I knew something was wrong, I've been doing what I can to correct all this and to learn and make sure I'm giving them the best life I can :/ i feel awful that I didnt realise sooner.

 

[bpatters]

Definitely not large enough for two males. You need a minimum of 10 square feet for males, and more is better.

They also need a large flat space to run in, so ramps in a cage that size are a big no-no. You could put a ramp in a larger cage leading to a kitchen area, but in one as small as yours, it just cuts into running space.

Also, a ramp is just an invitation for one pig to block another, or keep it from getting where it wants to go. In a larger cage, you could put two ramps to an upstairs area, and then no blocking would occur.

 

[Heartaem]

Definitely not large enough for two males. You need a minimum of 10 square feet for males, and more is better.

They also need a large flat space to run in, so ramps in a cage that size are a big no-no. You could put a ramp in a larger cage leading to a kitchen area, but in one as small as yours, it just cuts into running space.

Also, a ramp is just an invitation for one pig to block another, or keep it from getting where it wants to go. In a larger cage, you could put two ramps to an upstairs area, and then no blocking would occur.

Was definitely going to get a 10ft C&C already but going to try and see if my parents will help me get it sooner as potential emergency.

Definitely seems to be the water bottle, they woke me up getting vocal over it all and once again, it was at the water bottle. Going to put some other water containers in there for now and see if that takes stress off the situation, and try and give them way more floor time to try and alleviate the situation

 

[bpatters]

You always need at least two water bottles. They've been known to play with them and drain them, and you don't want them to be without water. I always kept one at each end of the cage.

 

[Heartaem]

You always need at least two water bottles. They've been known to play with them and drain them, and you don't want them to be without water. I always kept one at each end of the cage.

Yeah I'm in the process of ensuring absolutely everything has 2 or 3 and I have at least one back up of everything in case of breakage.

At the moment, I havent got them separated, but when it gets more rough I'll "separate" them for solo play time and make sure the non dominant one is getting proper water and then put them back together before they realise theyve been "separated" to preserve their bond.