Help! I now have 4 boys guinea pigs

[guineapiglover14]

Hi, I have end up with 4 boy guinea pigs and they are not all getting on (perhaps not a complete surprise)

It started with 2 boy guinea pigs I bought 4 years ago. One sadly died. So I paired him up with a younger boy guinea pig and we were v lucky they seemed to hit it off and were great friends.

So I had a 4 year old boy and a 2 year old boy

THEN I was given another pair of boys, one about 4 years and the younger about 18 months (def smaller than the 2 year old)

So we had then in a huge run in the garden (about 8 ft by 5 ft) with a dividing wall. However the original 2 year old bot I had kept getting into the other side with the new pair, every day I would come home to find him there with no signs of any arguements.

So after a week of seperating them every night etc I decided to just take the dividing wall and see what happened. For about 3 weeks they have got on great and I thought we had been lucky again.

But at the weekend I suddenly saw the youngest boy was starting to try and mount the others. I have heard of guineas doing this before. But this guinea has been actually quite aggressive and actually hurting the others. So much so they are all running away from him and look quite scared.

I have seperated him and put him into a hutch for the moment as I don't know what to do. He has been in the hutch a couple of days and obviously doesn't like being seperated. I found on a website that neutering him may not even have the effect of calming his behaviour?

Should I get him neutered or not? Thank you if you have read this far!

[RedToothBrush]

Neutering makes no difference to guinea pigs. If they are fighting they will continue to. Ideally, boys should be in pairs and no more as eventually they will get up fighting (as we have found out despite ignoring this in the past!). If you have a boar who can't behave around others, try and set up a cage / run split into two where they can see and communicate with a friend to stop them getting lonely and they will be fine. We have done this lots and it works really well.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

guineapiglover - I reckon the time of year has alot to do with it too. Our 11 month old Rex boy (who we got at 6 weeks) has been mounting the older boar last weekend.

Bank Holiday, nice weather, wahay .
DD and I ended up taking the pair of them off to the bathroom and giving them a "Just for Boars" shampoo. Put them in a likeminded sulk and they smell the same.

When I see them in the run or the Pighouse they're standing judgily 2' apart, but the little boy gets short shrift from GP1.

I'd definately go back to a 2+1+1 or a 2+2 pair. Boars like the company of other pigs but it has to be on their terms. If they can see each other and communicate , though it's not ideal it's not the same as a piggie all alone. They like their space and privacy. Ours sleep in the haybox if it's a bit chilly (opposite corners, there are 2-3 neat pooh nests) or GP1 sleeps in his wicker house, GP3 in the haybox.

Neutering won't change him, you'll have the risk of putting a little animal under anaesthestic and the recovery period to nurse him through.

[guineapiglover14]

Thank you for your replies, I think I won't put him through an op then, I'll just rejig the run so he can at least go in one end and they can all see each other again. He was actually the most aggressive with the piggy that was his original partner, so I'm not sure I trust them to go back in together unfortunatly