Dominance New Cagemate troubles!

[Winston27]

Hello I?m so happy there?s a resource like this. So thank you. My question is: I just decided to add another boar as a cage mate for my Winston (1yr old boar) a week ago. His name is Hamilton. Winston seems to be Dominant. The first day I hink there was a fight and Hamilton got bit in his haucnch. Deep, however it is healing nicely. There is a lot of snapping and nipping and showing of dominant behavior by Winston but Hamilton has not given in. He keeps getting into head raising battles and Hamilton is biting his ears and just wil not let him alone often. I have them both in a 5x2 C&C cage with two houses and they do coexist for the most part. But A couple days ago winston, who has been chasing rumblestrutting and mounting relentlessly, significantly slowed down. Hamilton will chatter quite a lot, however He doesn?t back down. Although there has been no full fledge fighting since the first day that I can tell, There has been persistent dominance behavior by both of them and neither are willing to give in. They are able to feed together without much trouble (Hamilton does like to steal Winston?s food as he is eating it. Will they learn to accept each other (after all it?s only been a week) or is it a possibility that they will just only tolerate each other or never get along? Sorry if this is confusing but I?m just a concerned
Best,
a worried cavy daddy.

 

[bpatters]

How did you introduce them? See http://guinea-pigs.livejournal.com/3002707.html for how to go about it.

But the dominance behavior may go on for quite some time. You can add some fleece forests in two or three places in the cage so they're less visible to each other. And make sure both of the hideys have at least two doors.

 

[Winston27]

Thank you Patters. the seem to both want to be the alpha pig. however sometimes ill see them like this. How long is "quite some time"

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

There's really no telling how long "quite some time" could be. I have two boars who were from the same litter, and they turned a year old October 8th. They are VERY bonded, but still engage in the rumblestrutting and mounting constantly. There's no biting or bloodshed, but occasionally Scooter will get tired of Punkin (who is the alpha) and nip at him to tell him he's had enough of his crap for the time being. As long as they aren't drawing blood, or preventing each other from eating and drinking, best advice is to just leave well enough alone and let them sort it out. They either will, or won't, in their own time. Judging by that last picture you posted, I think they may just get along fine.

 

[bpatters]

Weeks. Months. Years. It depends on the personality of the pigs. But it's totally normal. Just let them work it out.