Chewing Driven insane by piggo chewing bars

[4boipigs]

Maple Leaf (1.5 yrs old) lives in a divided cage with Talwar (8 months). Previously MLeaf lived in a divided cage with Trishula. The rescue tried to bond Talwar and Maple Leaf in Feb. We thought they were bonded, they fought a lot once home, and now they're divided.

Since they've been divided (over a month now), Maple Leaf has obsessive periods of chewing at the bars and digging at the bedding in an attempt to get to the other side. When I noticed this when they were first separated, I ziptied to the divider these plastic grids that are pointy and designed to deter cats. I overlapped them and figured Maple Leaf wouldn't be able to wedge his face thru the gaps and chew on anything. WRONG. He managed to find a way to chew on the plastic, and would tug and get under it. I decided to remove it when I found out he was chewing off the plastic pointy parts. Leaving just the grids again allowed him to get closer to Talwar, and he did calm down a bit and not chew as much.

Right now, for example, he is resting near the bars and not doing anything. Other times, he will go nuts at chewing the bars and digging, and I have to scare him away or raise my voice. They know when they hear a stern voice, it's time to stop. Sort of like you would with a dog.

Talwar, on the other hand, rarely chews on the bars anymore. He used to do it quite a bit when he lived next to Gungnir. Now when he decides to do it, I just firmly say his name and he'll think about it and stop.

Idk what else to do. I know this site has the 'wall of silence', but I'm not sure about using it since Maple Leaf shuts down when no pig is in sight. Plus with the way he digs, he would just find some other way to mess with the coroplast divider.

Any advice? I wish I could just bond them, but these boys made it clear that they don't want buddies.

 

[bpatters]

Fiberglass wall on the inside of the chewer's cage.

 

[mbvogt]

Maple Leaf (1.5 yrs old) lives in a divided cage with Talwar (8 months). Previously MLeaf lived in a divided cage with Trishula. The rescue tried to bond Talwar and Maple Leaf in Feb. We thought they were bonded, they fought a lot once home, and now they're divided.

Since they've been divided (over a month now), Maple Leaf has obsessive periods of chewing at the bars and digging at the bedding in an attempt to get to the other side. When I noticed this when they were first separated, I ziptied to the divider these plastic grids that are pointy and designed to deter cats. I overlapped them and figured Maple Leaf wouldn't be able to wedge his face thru the gaps and chew on anything. WRONG. He managed to find a way to chew on the plastic, and would tug and get under it. I decided to remove it when I found out he was chewing off the plastic pointy parts. Leaving just the grids again allowed him to get closer to Talwar, and he did calm down a bit and not chew as much.

Right now, for example, he is resting near the bars and not doing anything. Other times, he will go nuts at chewing the bars and digging, and I have to scare him away or raise my voice. They know when they hear a stern voice, it's time to stop. Sort of like you would with a dog.

Talwar, on the other hand, rarely chews on the bars anymore. He used to do it quite a bit when he lived next to Gungnir. Now when he decides to do it, I just firmly say his name and he'll think about it and stop.

Idk what else to do. I know this site has the 'wall of silence', but I'm not sure about using it since Maple Leaf shuts down when no pig is in sight. Plus with the way he digs, he would just find some other way to mess with the coroplast divider.

Any advice? I wish I could just bond them, but these boys made it clear that they don't want buddies.

Something similar happened to me as well. I had two boars, one about two years old the other about one year old. We boarded them over the Christmas break last year, and when we got back home, they just fought and fought, mostly the older one picking on the younger one. Like you, I separated them with dividers, but the younger one kept on chewing on them, because he wanted to be with the older one. Whenever they were reunited, the fighting resumed. I reached out to the adoption agency, and they said, as long as there’s no blood being drawn this is normal behavior. I was still quite concerned. I decided to try reuniting them beginning with short periods, and then for longer periods like overnight. I also held them both on my lap together at the same time, and after a couple or three months they finally started getting along better. I hope you can figure out what to do with your two guinea pigs, because it is sad when they really want to be together but end up fighting. I hope this helps.