Is this friendly or fighting?

[YearOfYouRemember]

I have two boy piggies and they are 3.3 years old. Currently they are in their play pen in the kitchen having a change from their indoor cage. One keeps getting on the others back sideways on so no nonsense . The one underneath isn't overly bothered or happy and he's normally the one bossing the other about.

Sounds fine to me. A bit of normal dominance behaviour. My original 2 boys would regularly bicker and the non-dominant one would do exactly as you describe with his friend who would promptly lie down underneath him and completely ignore him! Pigs are weird

Oh, thank you, that all good to know. They've been inside for a few months and I've been worried they are fighting more as their indoor cage is smaller than their outdoor hutch. DS keeps getting upset they are fighting as they are normally vocal when doing it.

Our GP3 used to pounce on his stepdad GP1 (we got GP3 as a piglet so we knew there'd be tussels when he reached puberty)

GP1 used to mutter darkly and wander off to his house but I did feel sorry for him, GP3 was a large Rex who was 1.4kg at his heaviest.

There was one warm day in May when GP3 was being particularly pesky , we took the little blighters up to the bathroom and washed them! That often works, make them smell neutral and puts them in a sulk, gives them something else to strop about.

I think you're right about the confined space and its That time of year.

One of our sows tends to pester the other one , but nothing spiteful but its not just boars that try it on.

Guinea pigs need quite a fair amount of space, more so for boys. What cage size do you have?

It is very much a dominance thing though, usually pressure of a small cage can make it much worse as they have no separate spaces from each other.

Their indoor cage is the biggest one from Pets at Home and their outdoor hutch is the one the RSPCA told us to get so both big enough I think. I'm not clear on when they can go back into their outdoor hutch as it has been cold (SE) and the grass is much too wet for them anyway. I've been putting them in their indoor play pen in the kitchen 10-7 and they seem to be happy.

All of ours are back outside now, we have 12 pigs over 4 hutches we've been doing it gradually over the few weeks since the snow left. Put the last 2 (elderly) ones out today. It's awfully quiet!

Bit of extra hay in the homes and they'll be fine. If the run is attached to it or it doesn't have a floor on the bottom you could put it on some concrete for now if you wanted too get them back outside.

A bit of wood would also suffice but ofc you don't want to kill the grass off, but I pretty much go April-October for outdoors, Nov-March indoors.

We usually put the play pen on the patio as it's obviously drier than the grass and I hope it keeps their claws down (it doesn't) but they aren't keen and take it in turns to just lie in their comfy bed!

If you've an old blanket / towel you could put that down, they like soft things, you could chuck some veg or pick some grass and scatter it and they may get a bit more movement. Either way I'm sure they enjoy the fresh air.

My lazy piggies love a tunnel . they play chase and just pootle through them.

Quick cheap tunnels from boxes with doors cut.

If you want to treat them , HopInn tunnels - they are actually brilliant to catch them, ours had the one that had three tunnels leading out so when they ran into it , pick up the sides to trap them. Its soft so they don't get scared and they're showerproof for 20 minutes IIRC.

I'm still looking for the long plastic ones that are wide enough, we''ve got the cardboard tubes but they're short .

The bit about him going sideways so no nonsense made me

When our previous neutered boar met his new wives he tried to jump on one head on !. She was a tiny Himmy that had previously bred , she was up for no nonsense from this massive lump of lard and if we hadn't had his bollocks removed , I think she'd have done the job herself

We put grass and hay down but hadn't put a towel down as I was worried they'd eat it. When we've put paper on the kitchen floor they've ripped at it but I don't know if they just like doing it or are eating it.

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