Introductions Putting two boars together

[guineafeet]

I just got a new male guinea pig about 8-10 weeks old, my other was born in June i believe. well Chewie (being the older) is acting very dominant, with the rumblestrutting, nose raising contest, licking at ears, etc. Well sometimes Peanut puts forth a little effort at being dominant and not submitting and I'm afraid of is that once Peanut is completely comfortable with being around in the new place that he's going to start acting more and more dominant behavior, any suggestions on that?

 

[BennyBooBoo]

How long have they been together? Usually it takes at least 3 weeks for them to acclimate themselves to each other and where they are in the dominant chain. The only time to separate is when one won't let the other eat or drink or you see blood. Other then that they will work it out.

 

[guineafeet]

so far its been about 4 days, i've read up on everything and know it takes at least 3 weeks but i have been putting them together during floor time, is that a bad idea? they don't fight at all, just a few tiffs every now and then but nothing bad at all.

 

[BennyBooBoo]

O ok I understand now if you are going to put them together they need to stay together do not separate because what happens is they have to do the "dominance dance" all over again. Every single time you put them together so if they are not together 24/7 then it will never end. If you put them together and leave them that way they become a bonded pair. It is actually very stressful for the piggy's being put together then separated like that. I went through this myself with my 2 boys. Long story lol if you look through my posts you will see the problem i had and the advice i was given. Hope it helps! Good luck.:cheerful:

 

[guineafeet]

awesome thanks for the advice. since my last post Chewbacca (the older one) has been humping Peanut like crazy, and by crazy i mean chasing peanut down to mount and hump, and i think finish by marking Peanut. does this mean complete dominance by Chewie or not?

 

[guineafeet]

PS. when Chewie attempts mounting Peanut, Peanut lets out a little yelp every so often, it worries me, any reason for that?

 

[brindyzoeycandy]

As long as there is no bloodshed, there is no reason to seperate. I wouldn't keep putting them together and seperating as it can cause stress. Rumblestrutting, mounting, etc. are all normal introduction behaviors.

For boars it is best to have two of everything, and for hideys have one for each plus one, so you would have three. (For females too, but they tend to be less territorial than males)

 

[guineafeet]

Cool thanks! a couple more things that I'm worried about is leaving the house with them together just because I'm paranoid when it comes to my pets haha, like what if they do get in to much of a fight and blood is shed, Chewbacca seems to back off once Peanut is grinding teeth but not all the time, plus i still need to make a trip to the store for new cage materials and hideys

 

[Nicolene]

They sound like they are doing fine, mine hump each other daily, I also remember worrying about leaving them home alone together, but if they are fine after a couple of hours they will be fine.

 

[guineafeet]

Awesome, Thank you all very much, I'll try and get a couple pictures up very soon too.
Also just got done looking at all the great C&C cages here, found a perfect one that i love, gonna get to making that one very quickly!!!

 

[BennyBooBoo]

One thing that might help would be to check out some of my posts and read through what everyone has told me. I have only had my boys 2 yrs? Maybe slightly more? And I have asked the same questions lol. Just for kicks and giggles to find the posts I have done right click my name Good luck

 

[lissie]

Are you sure they are both boys? Where did you get your new little one? If he's from a petstore, don't rely on what they've told you.

 

[BennyBooBoo]

I have 2 boys and when I brought Sumo home and tried the introductions I freaked out when Sumo was going to town humping Benny and took Sumo straight to the vet. LOL he is a boy and it happens alot. Both sexes hump each other it is part of the dominance dance.

 

[lissie]

Yes, it's normal for boys to hump each other. But I thought the OP should also make sure that they are both boys, since there was no mentioning of where both pigs came from.

 

[guineafeet]

Oh they are both boys, thats no worries, we checked