Kopol and Browni's papa, with a problem

[Khodam]

Hi everyone,
I am the father of two cute guinea pigs: Kopol and Browni! Recently I got a serious problem with my boars (yes, they are boys). It has been three months since our piggies are living with us and they are now about six months old. Until yesterday Browni was the dominant one, but a good one. Both of them were happy, playing a lot, popcorning a lot, eating well, ... . But yesterday, a strange thing happened. Kopol (the submissive one) started to do teeth chattering for Browni and chasing him violently. We brought them outside and they setteled down a little bit. But when we put them back in the cage, teeth chattering was happening more and more. I let them to decide between themselves who is the master and what happened is they furiously attacked each other today. It was like two fireballs twisting to each other and it was very difficult to separate them. Kopol was acting very violently.

I have read a lot of posts on the forum, but I'm not sure if I should separate them completely or have them in the same cage but with a barrier in between. I should mentioned that their cage is big enough (150x50 cm). I should also say that it's a pity that they started fighting today because I just bought all the material to add the second floor to the cage.

Please help me with your experience.

Best,
Mos & Asi

 

[Hhbean]

If no blood was drawn and they are both eating(weigh them daily before their first meal) then you should just let them work it out. They have hit puberty and it's not pretty! I have a total of 4 boys now. My first 2 went through what your boys are going through and they did live with a divider for a few months then went through introductions again and all was fine. After introducing the last 2 boys and having some butt biting issues they are now living 2 on each side of the divider and appear to be happy. Good luck!

 

[arionat799]

Welcome to the forum!! Keeping them in the same cage with a divider is a good idea, how big is there cage now?

P.S.: I know this is a little off topic, but since you are new, I must tell you that we neeed pigtures of your boys!!

 

[Khodam]

No blood wasdrawn, but beleive me, it was a very violent fight. I am planning to extend the cage tonigh (tomorrow is sunday, neighbours do not like noise). I am sure i should not put them together now, but after cage extension i probably test putting them together. Btw, i only have one water bottle. Also there was not much of tunnels and stuff 3-4 days ago (only one bridge/tunnel) and i added a shoe box with entry and exit hole. I suspect that has something to di with fights starting.

Do you have any idea why the submissive one became violent all ofa sudden?

P.s. I will send pics soon.

 

[Hhbean]

They may change dominance off and on throughout puberty or even the rest of their lives. Boars like to challenge each other more then females. To me it's like little kids playing King Of The Hill and everybody is just bidding their time to be King!

 

[bpatters]

Do you have any idea why the submissive one became violent all ofa sudden?

Hormones. They're teen-aged boys. Remember what those are like? They're likely to squabble off and on for the next year or so.

You'll need plenty of room for them. Your 50x150 cm cage isn't large enough for one pig, much less two, much less two boars (see the Home page of this website for cage size recommendations). The second floor won't help the space problem, because they'll still have to go up and down the ramp. Lofts also tend to be narrow, which means one pig has to squeeze by the other one, which is a good opportunity for a squabble. One story, which is wider (at least 100x150 cm, and more is better), is much better for boars.