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Original poster

Guinea pigs fighting

18 replies

ef61173 · 02/01/2019 13:47

Hi,
My Guinea pigs have been fight recently -three males in cage and two of them fighting. They have don’t it before but this time we tried to put them back together after removing them and they seemed fine but they then started fighting and it looked like it does in the cartoons when they go into a ball and are flying everywhere we emidiately checked them one of them( the vicious one) just had a scratch on his nose and the other have two holes like things on his back and a scratch above and under his eye they are separated now - what do we do? Thanks

OP posts:
Original poster
ef61173 · 02/01/2019 13:48

^^
It wasn’t that bad before so we tried them again and murder broke out we don’t know why this has happened nothing has changed

OP posts:
Fairylea · 02/01/2019 13:51

Long time guinea pig keeper here.

It’s very unusual to manage to keep 3 males together. Usually with 2 they’ll try and hump each other for dominance for a few weeks and squeak a lot at each other until they settle down but with 3 there isn’t a clear alpha male so they do tend to keep fighting. Do they have a big enough cage / area? Sometimes a huge amount of space can help.

I do think however if they’re at the point of spilling blood and nipping each other you need to separate for good. Maybe keep the 2 most docile ones together and keep the other separate...? You could neuter him and get a girl guinea pig and see if he would be okay with her, sometimes a dominant neutered boar does better with a sow.

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 02/01/2019 22:13

How old are they?
I agree with Fairy trios are very hard to manage on boars.

You do need a huge amount of space with boars anyway , but if the fighting has got to the wounding stage you are likely to need to seperate .

You can get a sow for a neutered boar but you;d need to be very careful to keep her scent away from the two boars , that can make them fight .
Or have them side-by-side (at least the one on its own will have company ) You'd need to have him neutered 6 weeks before you could introduce a female anyway.

Original poster
ef61173 · 03/01/2019 01:34

Thanks for all your help we will try and figure something out we wanted to keep them together because they have always been together from birth and we don’t know how this happened. Could it have anything to do with that the vicious one was with an older Guinea pig for a short amount of time and that they where separated when the older male guinne pig sadly passed away. But they seemed fine. Thanks for all your help

OP posts:
Original poster
ef61173 · 03/01/2019 01:36

@70isaLimitNotaTarget they are around 1

OP posts:
brizzledrizzle · 04/01/2019 12:31

When we had this problem it was with a sow and a boar, we put them both in a cage like a C&C but with a divider down the middle; when they started trying to get to each other nicely through the gaps we opened the door in the middle and they could go through at will and still each had their own space to retreat to, we were able to take it out after a while.

It's harder with 3, I think boars (or sows for that matter) work better in even numbers.

Soiree · 04/01/2019 12:33

I think they'll need to be permanently separated too, sorry. You can try the old bathing them together trick but I wouldn't be too hopeful from my boar experiences. Awkward little buggers!

brizzledrizzle · 04/01/2019 12:39

Bathing them together never made much difference here either. We did find some success with making sure they had identical houses and so on. Honestly, they are like squabbling siblings at times but now they have a mismatch of houses (a tube, a house, two wine boxes from Waitrose) and are happy.

The only thing they argue over now is when they all have some vegetables and want to take the vegetables off each other as clearly each piece of the same vegetable tastes better when somebody else has it. So much so that they will take a piece of smaller apple from another pig and give up their larger piece.

knockknockknock · 04/01/2019 12:41

I kept 3 boys together. Had a time when two of them started to fight. Gave them all a bath and put a tiny bit of Vicks on their nose above their nostrils so they all smelt the same. No more fighting so worth a try?

brizzledrizzle · 04/01/2019 13:16

That's an interesting idea. Did the vicks bother them at all when you put it on? I'll bear that in mind if we have problems in future.

Original poster
ef61173 · 04/01/2019 17:08

Thanks you very much we will try and bathe them should i bathe all 3 of them or just the two?x

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Fortheloveofscience · 04/01/2019 17:15

efb how big is their cage? As others have said I suspect you’ll have to resign yourself to the fact that they don’t like each other, it’s quite rare for them to tolerate each other again once they’ve drawn blood.

I’d advise against neutering one boy and getting a sow unless you can keep the pairs in separate rooms because of the risk of the smell of the female making the remaining boar pair fight. Finding a rescue to let your loan boy go ‘boar dating’ might be a better idea. 7-12 months is a textbook time for problems to start because it’s when the hormones really kick in, but always a shock when it happens.

Fortheloveofscience · 04/01/2019 17:16

Sorry lone boy, not loan Blush

ISdads · 04/01/2019 17:19

How big is the cage? I kept 3, and they squabbled, but the cage was big, with three different sleeping areas, and they roamed the garden when it was warmer as well. They need a huge amount of space.

When did you re-introduce the third one?

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 04/01/2019 23:21

I've never done the Vicks/nostril trick, the thought of them trying to remove it with their paw and getting it in their eyes makes me wince.

We had two bonded boars as our first pair and there were episodes with them but they were fairly harmonious if they had their own space.

When we had to boar match GP1 with tiny piglet GP3 they were lovely , the natural evolution of their relationship but GP3 as Alpha Pig when he grew to maturity. But around 10 months , he tried to dominence mount GP1.
We gave them a bath (Gorgeous Guineas 'Just For Boars' shampoo) and let their combined hatred of us overcome their animosity Grin It is worth bathing if you have enough willing hands and you can get them properly dry .

GP1 had his own 'space' a wicker hedgehog house (in winter we filled it with hay then put more hay on the roof and a rubber trug with a door cut , to cover the wicker one. GP3 learned this was Not For Him .
He had the haybox.

Original poster
ef61173 · 06/01/2019 17:55

@ISdads only a few months after

OP posts:
knockknockknock · 10/01/2019 16:19

@brizzledrizzle sorry didn't see question. Didn't bother them in the slightest. Anything simple is worth a try.

Flower777 · 10/01/2019 17:09

We had 3 boars together. Gradually they all fought so now they all live separately. Happy as Larry and can still hear each other.

We did everything ‘right’ but it just wasn’t working unfortunately. Very stressful I know.

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