What a pair of pigs

[Guineapigdrama]

Shamelessly posting here with misleading title for traffic 🤣
I have two guinea pigs, horrendously spoilt things. Recently purchased them a new house (see image when uploaded) hence spoiled.

Now, one of them will not let the other into the bed area, chases him out. There's two beds in that area, completely separate and the same. So the ousted one sits in the other area all the time.

What do I do? Shut them both out of the bed so it's can't be hogged by one of them all day (pun intended)?

Or shut them both in at night and let them get on with it? I shut them in together for an hour yesterday and they were fine, no issues.

Going out of my mind with trying to please these two animals 🤣🤣

I think their cosy blankets and bits do get to smell, I wash them nightly. Their shavings and hay area doesn't. They don't smell themselves. I wouldn't have them live inside. Our house would be too noisy for them and I actually have horrendous hay fever lol

8x4 foot so plenty big enough

They will of course and to a points it's acceptable but I don't want it to escalate

Mine categorically are not smelly and I think that's because

(a) they're ladies,
(b) they get a gentle bath every week whilst I'm cleaning out their enclosure, and
(c) they have masses of hay (like masses, enough to hide in, all over their enclosure), on top of an absorbent fleece liner, which in turn is on top of newspaper, with extra newspaper and hay in the corner where they do their tiny furry business.

Cavy-at :)

Sorry, the above was in response to this!

Whenever you have two pets, one of them always ends up dominant. If they're more or less equal, they'll fight.

haha lovely thread my children had several yrs ago, have brilliant conversations with them.
suggestion: Maybe get a cat to watch them!! that could make them thankful for what they’ve got? …Ooor just a thought now I’ve written ⬅️, just wonder if a similar size/looking toy just planted in the hutch could take the top hog’s mind off beating up his pal?

This has got to be my most favourite thread for yonks! We used to have piggies when DC were young and I’d forgotten just how damn cute they are 😍🥰

Haha love your thought train but seeing as they're not scared of the dog I'm not sure what will phase them

I know some males who are real pigs. All they do is eat, sleep and run around with each other all day. They give me no affection at all.

Things have rapidly escalated. Pom Pom has really hurt Minnie today, we have a ripped ear, bite and a scratch. What do I do guys? Nueter them? Re-home one? Which one?

My daughter is crying her eyes out over 'my babies' and I'm stressing!

Hi,
I think you could look into neutering them. It isn't risk free but it should calm them down.

Did you see what happened?

Minnie ran into the bed area and pom just lurched at him and took a chunk out of him.

One of them, the bully? Or both?

It would have to be both, I think.

I'm concerned I couldn't reintroduce them and they couldn't be re bonded, I'm worried about poor Minnie. He doesn't like being handled by people but when I picked him up to check him over he just flipped in my arms and laid out, stressed.

I've spoken to our pet sitter who recently looked after them, she suggests they couldn't be rebonded also. Aagh 😭

Neutering doesn’t calm guinea pigs down unfortunately. You are going to have to separate them as once they have drawn blood it’s highly likely to happen again. Go back to the rescue and ask for advice but it’s likely they will suggest keeping them apart.
Neutered males live happily with 2 or more females but not with other males. It could be that one male needs to find a new male friend which a good rescue should help with bonding and your dominant male could be neutered and have a couple of wives…
We also had a male guinea pig with a female name as my at the time 5yo daughter wanted a girl but we had 2 boys… 🤦🏻‍♀️

Fair enough. Maybe they just don't like each other then. 😁
So, hopefully one of them isn't a she, and if not, personally I wouldn't worry too much. They've got what they need, and space by the sound of it, so as long as they aren't actively fighting and one of them getting bullied, they will be ok. I have only had five males out of the 22. Two lived as a pair quite 'happily' but only because one was very dominant and one very submissive so they rubbed along fine, but we kept a VERY close eye on proceedings and if there had been any hint of bullying would have separated. Two were so old and gentle they actually managed to live together within a group of females, which is almost unheard of, one of the females was actually in charge there 😮. And finally a single male who tried to kill almost every piggy he met. We finally found two females who he could live happily with thankfully. Sounds like you've got the first sort of coupling, as long as you're vigilant it doesn't spill over in to violence, you will probably be ok.

See my update, badly escalated with one being hurt today, bitten, scratched and hurt ear. I don't know what to do. He laid in my arms absolutely stressed out when i picked him up, and he is not a boy who likes being handled

God sorry - I totally missed this before my last comment. Ignore all of that then.
If they've drawn blood you need to separate them immediately obviously. It's not impossible to get them to live alongside each other but it isn't for a beginner unfortunately. Contact the rescue and see what they say. Keeping one and neutering, then getting a female or two would be a way forward for you (for one of them)

Oh no OP what a shame. The biter seems to be being very territorial. Is there a partition you could put in to keep them safe for now? Sometimes pigs can live side by side but not together.
Bitey pig isn't hurt himself or injured? (And lashing out?)