Fighting My guinea pigs got into a fight

[Piggyluv775]

Ginger (one of my pigs) got bit in the bottom lip I tried to clean the blood away from it to see how bad it is, but he won’t let me. So I don’t know what to do.

 

[Piggyluv775]

This is a picture

 

[Soecara]

There isn't a lot you can do given the location of the bite. It doesn't look that bad (compared to what some of my boars have done to each others mouths in the past) in the photo. Just make sure he is still able to eat, he might need some help with vegetables (you may need to cut them into matchsticks for him and maybe even hand feed them to him if he can't move his mouth very well).

On the bright side I have had similar wounds on some of my boars in the past, they typically heal very quickly.

Do you have any idea what caused the fight? Thing such as cage size, new introductions, incorrectly done introductions, one entrance hidys, age, a girl nearby, and illness can all be possible causes of two boars fighting. You may need to house them separately for now, at least until the wound heals. Did you catch them in the act of fighting or had they already stopped by the time you got there and saw the wound?

 

[bpatters]

Ditto Soecara.

How large is their cage? Lack of space is a major reason for guinea pig aggression.

 

[Piggyluv775]

They have a 2x5 C&C cage, but I’m working on getting them an upper loft area. But before that I was introducing ginger( the one with the bite) to my other 2 guinea pigs in a neutral area with plenty of veggies, and they were fine for the whole hour and a half that they were there, then I put them in the cage together and watched for about 30mins there was no signs of aggression. Then I leave for 5mins and I get back and one of my pigs ghost, who has all white fur has blood on him so I knew they got in a fight so I separated them and checked all of them and bandit my other guinea pig (he’s the least dominant) was fine. Then Ghost had some blood because Ginger pulled out some of his fur so I cleaned it. But I saw Gingers lip and I tried to clean it but he won’t let me, whenever I go to put a q-tip with water to clean the blood he shrieks really loud. I just don’t get it because I introduced bandit and ghost the same way and all they did was rumble strut, and mounted sometimes. But with ginger they just fight, ive seen ghost rumble strut and chatter his teeth. I just don’t know what to do.

 

[Piggyluv775]

But I had my mom help me and we cleaned his lip with peroxide and put him back in the cage, and I fed him some lettuce and he seems fine. I’ve just never had anything happed like this before so I wasn’t sure what to do and I was kinda panicking. Then I remembered that when I adopted ginger that the guy said that this was a great website for help. So thanks for your feedback.

 

[bpatters]

If they're all males, this project is probably doomed to failure. We never recommend trying to put three males together. Two can make it, sometimes a whole herd can make it, three almost always fails.

A 2x5 cage is not large enough for three males, and a loft won't help. It will require at least one ramp, and that's just an invitation for one pig to trap another.