Fighting guinea pigs

[fudgesmummy]

Morning all.

We have got a problem with our 3 male guinea pigs fighting ☹️

Toffee, Paddington and Elvis have all lived together in (relative) harmony for the last year, lots of displays of domanace (mainly from Elvis) with humping etc but no actual fighting.

This last week we have had to take Toffee to the vet with bites on his back and scratches on his nose. We put him in a separate hutch for a couple of days then yesterday when we put him back in the run with the other 2 it was all out war with blood being drawn ☹️☹️☹️☹️

Any ideas as to what we should do? I hate the idea of Toffee living on his own but he can’t go back in with the others ☹️

Has the vet suggested anything? Have they all been neutered? Unfortunately boars can get like this but usually neutering helps. If that hasn't helped you might have to keep them apart and maybe get a sow for Toffee.

Trio boars are tough- if poor Toffee is being set upon by his cagemates then its usually male pig hormones .
Usually about 5 months they start to wake up, but the hot weather doesn't help their temper. (My GP3 started jumping on his stepdad GP1 one baking hot day , DD and I washed them to take their minds off it and they were happy afterwards)

Do they have enough space ? Enough safe hiding spaces ( safe as in one pig cannot trap the other one)

Neutering won't change their ways . It only helps if you want to bond with sows (and reduces the risk of impaction as a nice side effect). Its a risk with any small animals and you'd be looking at the thick end of £150 for three.

You might find Toffee can't rebond - are the other two both picking on him?
Have you tried the Bath+Bond (Get the strongest smelling shampoo you can . Gorgeous Guineas do some lovely ones. I used Just4Boars or Lemongrass&Cedarwood )
Everything neutral, scrub their cage and use white vinegar.
Bond them in a neutral place (we use a paddling pool) but be prepared to lob a towel over if it isn't working - DON'T get your hands into a pig fight .

Be wary of introducing a sow - the boar who's married will be happy but your boar pair will possibly turn on each other., they will know she's there.
And he'd have to wait for 6 weeks to go sterile anyway

I have a 2+1 set up (our GP8 sow doesn't like the neutered boar) she lives with GP7 . He's The Husband Next Door. It's a lot safer for him. She absolutely flew at him, I don;t want him getting in the thick of a fight (He was bonded to GP4+GP5 and was very happy)

You could get Toffee a piglet boar or let him have through-the-bar chats .

Good Luck

It could be him being away and coming back from the vets smelling 'different' that was the trigger.

Neutering does not help in Guinea pigs.

I had 2 boars best friends when little as they got older fought . Happier on their own than fighting

Agree with the bath and bond from PP. We were also advised by a rescue centre (it had got that bad) to put a tiny bit of Vicks on their nose so they can only smell that as it's most likely that he smells funny from going to the vets. We also made sure we didn't clean them out for a few days so the "clean" one would start smelling like the old ones faster.

Worked for our trio and we managed to keep them all together until they died.