One of my guinea pig bullies the other one (his brother)

[SUMMERFRUIT]

What can I do to make the situation better ? I called the vet and he doesn't recommend castration as gp don't do too well with general anesthesia. I have really limited knowledge concerning gps. They are 9 months old. One is bigger than the other one and is a bully.

Hi sorry to hear about your boys. I'm
A novice but I'm
Sure one of the GP gurus will have some great advice. This could be me asking this in a few months, hope things improve soon for them.

We had this with our boys. We got them separate bedrooms and that fixed it. They liked having their own space to be king of, and would then happily share the rest of the space.

Hi Summerfruit, your boys have become 'teenagers' and are sorting out who is going to be Alpha Boar.

The vet is right, castration makes no difference to guinea character. Hopefully they will agree quickly that the big one is boss and settle down. Funny enough when I had boars it was the little runt that was the boss. He was a very strong personality though.

As long as behaviour is just humping, rumble-strutting and noses in the air 'I'm bigger than you' they are ok to leave to get on with it. However, if they actually fight and draw blood, you will need to separate. Guineas are happy to live side by side so they can see and talk to each other.

TIP. I not tried this but some people have success returning harmony to grumpy guineas by giving them both a bath to neutralise their individual smells or apply a tiny dab of Vic on top of their noses.

Good luck

My boys did exactly the same at 9 months old. They are now 2 1/2 years old and still have the odd moment. I left them together to sort it out themselves. They settled down after about 2 weeks of bickering and one slightly bitten ear

Bathing them together is good so they both smell the same. They definitely need separate houses to hide in. I angled mine so that when they were in them, they couldn't see each other. If they start an you hear them, throw in some veg as a distraction.

Mine did once have a rolling round on the floor biting each other fight. If this happens don't put your hands in - GP bites can be nasty. Throw a towel over them - it'll confuse them. Ours were separated for a bit earlier this year after one had injured his leg but we made sure they could always see each other and did successfully reintroduce them but it was a slow progress.

When you do feed them veg, make sure they don't have to share a carrot / piece of cucumber.

GP boys are like the Odd Couple - they bicker like mad but don't want to live without each other

Good luck

Fortified - your post made me laugh a bit when you said that my boys were becoming teenagers...you are completely spot on :-) I hope they are going to calm down soon ! They are due a bath soon as they are a bit smelly, actually now that I'm thinking, they have a strong smell which I can only describe as a smell of balls ! It was not always like that !

Thank you for your help !!

Mine are also due a bath .

GP1 (my DD big agouti 3yo boar) came on to pass his first hand experience of how to deal with arsey little boars what you have to live with.
But if you are bandying about Bath type threats then he's off to find red peppers

The main thing that saves their sanity is space away from each other. Yes, they need to know the other one is there. GP1 didn't like it when his brother was taken away . GP3 gets a bit vocal if he's away from GP1.

But we went to pick them up from the Pighouse and GP1 was burrowed in the hay (there's a huge bag of hay in the sleeping box and the floor). GP3 was hovering outside the box. GP1 was a little twitchy nose under the hay.
They like to pretend they're invisible.
Inside , they sit at opposite ends of the pen. Each has their 'own' mat.

Also second lots of food (though they still try to steal food from each other )

Sometimes they are a bit ridiculous...during the day I think they are fine, they have a massive hutch so plenty of space and at night, we bring them back home because it's too cold so the cage is smaller so they fight. I take one to give a break to the other and the one left in the cage squeak like mad, so I take him too and they fight in my arms ! What we are going to do is as you have said, separating the cage in 2 so they don't sleep together, they can still smell each other but not contact. And saturday : bath time ! They have a shampoo called "Just for boars"