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Small pets

Fighting Guinea pigs - advice needed

7 replies

lavenderbongo · 01/07/2016 20:36

We have three male Guinea Pigs. We had a Rabbit and a Guinea pig first and unfortunately our Rabbit passed away about 6 months ago. Our remaining Guinea pig was obviously lonely so we got a pair of baby brothers to keep him company.

I have never seen him so happy. He was jumping in the air and clearly thrilled to have company of his own species. However over the last few weeks the brothers have been fighting. Nipping each other on the backside, one has been hurt so bad that he had scabs forming down his back. So obviously we separated them as soon as we spotted how bad it had become.

They live outside in a massive run which we have now split in two with seperate hutches. We have left the least aggressive pig in with our original pig as they do not fight. The other pig is now on his own but has a long length of dividing netting through which he can interact with the other two. However he is not happy and is desperately trying to get through the net to the other pigs. :(

Any advice on how to keep them all happy? Can I somehow find another pig to keep the solitary one happy? Do you think I could ever reunite them all?

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lavenderbongo · 02/07/2016 04:25

Bump

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macy188 · 02/07/2016 05:49

If you can afford it I'd suggest nutering them which SHOULD calm their agressive. If only one is the problem maybe get him done first and see if that solves the problem. Apart from that, keeping them separate like you're already doing. I have the same problems with my rabbits, but seem happy enough to be on their own, and I'm wuss when it comes to giving them an op! Shock

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applesvpears · 02/07/2016 07:13

I had the same problem, one pig would pick on the quietest one. Now the bully pig lives alone and seems happy. He gets handled quite a lot which helps. Plus he has lots of toys!
I read that neutering doesn't always help and some Guinea pigs just don't like eachother.

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FernieB · 02/07/2016 08:02

3 boys is generally a recipe for disaster. Now you have them separated, if they're happy and can see each other I'd leave it.

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70isaLimitNotaTarget · 02/07/2016 08:07

Okay:

Yes, best thing is split the group for their own safety which you have done. It's not ideal to have a lone pig but he's not technically on his own, he can chat to the others safely .

What's done is done but three boars very rarely work. ( I emailed a breeder once who adviced boar trios - I think all littermates. She said it works and they never had problems Hmm but all the advice and evidence was to the contrary and maybe they never heard back from any of their customers who had Boar Trio Angst ? )

Neutering does not alter their personality. Almost every other mammal is quietened by it , but not guineas. If they're fighty narky little gits with testicles , they'll still be fighty narky little gits without them unless their environment changes
Only neuter a boar if you want to to not breed. The operation is straightforward but it carries risk, it's ££ (we paid £56 for our GP3. Our GP6 was neutered in Rescue) , you need to find a vet that neuters piggies routinely.
Which leads to ...............don't put a sow in the mix (B:B / B:S) your boar pair will go ballistic if there's a sow.

You could get another piglet boar for your single boy but you can't guarentee they'll click.

How old are your young boars, I'm guessing it all kicked off around the 5-6 months age (The Terrible Teens)

TBH, if they won't get on, they might never get on. You would be better in their currant situation to keep harmony.
Eventually you'll have 2 and you could try bonding the remaining pair (assuming your older boy goes first) but you need to do the whole Neutral Territory/Bath/Remove all the scent from their house.

I know what you're going through, I have a soppy neutered boar and 2 sows. I got two new adult sows from Rescue and the four sows have resisted all attempts to blend Hmm

So we have a 3+2 set up, the Pighouse is divided and I have 2 runs+2 houses for the garden.
I'm going to attempt another Wedding in the summer holidays when we have more time to oversee .

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lavenderbongo · 02/07/2016 11:08

Thanks all :)
The advice is very much appreciated. I'm not sure what we shall do long term but for the moment we will keep them separate. We may try to give our aggressive pig a male friend in the future but just worried what will happen when our older pig goes, will we just have to keep getting replacements so no ones lonely?

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FernieB · 02/07/2016 17:28

Ah, the endless pig cycle! I started with a rescue pair of 6 month old boys. One died last year when they were nearly 4 and I got the remaining boy a baby boy from a rescue as a companion. DH was a bit Hmm as he could see an endless cycle of pigs happening. So I had Gingerpig (baby) neutered as soon as he was old enough. Now he's 18 months old and Scruffypig is 5.5 years old. If Scruffy does succumb to old age, the plan is to adopt an older sow or pair of sows as companions for Ginger.

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