My boys got into a fight

[fairysari]

Well, it's finally my turn - my boys have gotten into a fight. I went down a little while ago and found them both covered in scratches. Some bloody scratches. They are both skinnies, so the injuries look a lot worse than I think they would on a furred pig. They were cowering in opposite ends of the cage, I cleaned them up, and now are in the cage, separated by a divider.

Tanuki is the older pig, I don't exactly how old, but when I got him I was told he was an 'adult'. Costanza is probably somewhere under a year, I have had him since April. Tanuki is picking on Costanza now, and chases him, while Costanza freaks and takes off running away. They moved in together to a 2x4 in May, and had been perfectly fine together since then.

I just moved, and they recently moved into an L-shaped 2x6 connected to 2x2 (so 2x8 total). The 2x2 is filled with YN and has the hay and stuff, and the rest is fleece. They were spending a lot of time in the 2x2, and I think Tanuki may have decided to claim it as his own. I put Tanuki on the fleece end, and divided the cage, with Costanza in the 2x2 with some of the fleece area (they each are in a 2x4 area now).

I would really like my boys to get along and live together, but Tanuki seems to want to chase Costanza, he was chattering at him. Costanza just seems terrified, even since I separated them, and Tanuki seems fine.

I did put them down on the floor for a minute together with a salad to see hwta would happen, and they were more interested in exploring than in each other. But in the cage, not so.

I was thinking of keeping them separated for the night, and cleaning the cage out in the morning, and maybe adding a second kitchen area to the other end of the cage. Do you guys think this might work? Or have any suggestions? I was considering adopting a third boar since both my boys seemed so docile until now, but now I am not sure.

Anyway, any help is appreciated! I just want my boys to love each other as much as I love them .

 

[pigger]

I'm a newbie to guinea pigs, but not with cats. If my cats ever got into a brawl, I would seperate them for the night. They need time to calm down. But that's what I would do with cats. I'm not experienced with pigs.
I'm sorry that this happened. Make sure their wounds are clean. I hope everything else goes smoothly.

 

[SugarSpice]

I like your idea about a second dining area. Would tanuki decide to clam that one also and maybe make things worse? So sorry this happened, you must of got such a fright when you found them.

 

[PiggieMom]

Two dinning areas is not a bad idea. Kind of make two seperate cages: a pigloo and dinning area on one side, and the same on the other. So they can each have their own area to retreat too. I'm sorry this is happening Sari. :hug: I know how stressful it is.

 

[dextersmycutegp]

Could Costanza be in puberty and challenging Tanuki's athuority?

 

[fairysari]

Thanks for the advice. I don't think Costanza is challenging Tanuki's authority, because Tanuki comes after him and he just runs away.

 

[fairysari]

A little addtional info: Thanks to the chat (yay chat!) and talking about what happened with my boys, I realized that the last thing I did before I found the boys all scratched up was put a different hidey in their cage. It's a soft one that they both like, but don't get very often, so I think the fight may have been over that.

I'm going to clean the cage and do floor time later and see how they do, hopefully they'll be ok together.

 

[Sabriel]

I hope your boys work it out. They always seemed to behave better then my 2 little monsters.

 

[PiggieMom]

Good luck Sari. I hope it works out.

 

[fairysari]

Well, I think everything has worked out. I just built a 2x4 for the pigs to live in when I go visit my parents, so I had the empty coroplast. I put it down on the floor, empty, put their plate of veggies in it, and put both pigs in while I redid their full time cage.

I put in brand new fleece, washed all the hideys really well, and added a second kitchen area. I wish I could find my camera so I could post pictures. So not there is the 2x2 kitchen on one end, and a 1x2 kitchen on the other end. I took a bigbin/shelf/stacky thing and put it in the big kitchen. I don;t know how else to describe it, but it is basically a BIG hidey. Big enough that both pigs can go in and no have to cuddle. Which is what they are doing now, sharing the big hidey. They *never* share hideys, so I am very hopeful now!

So there are two hidey houses in each kitchen, and there is a tubing tunnel and a fiddle stick tunnel in the fleecy part of the cage. (I just reminded myself that I forgot to put cozies in there! I'll go do that as soon as finish typing). There is also a pellet bowl, water bottle, and hayrack at each end. While I was cleaning and organizing the cage, the rumble and chattered a little, and this time it did seem like it was Costanza trying to be dominant. Tanuki didn't seem to care too much, just let him chatter a bit, but they calmed down quickly, and just munched on salad and hay together.

They are coming with me to my parents house this weekend I think, so I really hope I don't have to separate them there...

 

[PiggieMom]

I'm glad things worked out. I know how hard it is to see them fight. You did a good job handling things.

 

[jdomans]

Sari so glad to read that things have worked out. The idea of a kitchen at both ends is a good one no matter what the reason for the fighting. How are they healing?

 

[JarBax]

Phew! That sounds like it's been an anxious time for you and your pigs! Glad to here things are settling, and hope it continues to go well at your parents!