Guinea pig fight

[babybythesea]

We have two young guinea pigs (ten weeks old). Got them straight from the breeder, so I will be asking her advice as well. Two brothers. Both handled regularly and easy to handle. We have two cages for them. One inside, where they are most of the time. In the dining room, got them very used to noise. One that is outside with a run where we put them on nice days.
This morning, they were in the indoor cage when I came down for breakfast, as normal. A fight broke out and the more submissive one has a cut on his shoulder. It’s not deep, he isn’t fussing at it, he’s been eating and drinking. He’s not limping and didn’t seem overly bothered when I picked him up to check it, but there is blood there. The other one is fine. I’ve put them in separate hutches for the moment. I don’t think he’s bad enough to need the vet but what is best to do with them? Is this the start of them not being able to be together or a normal dominance fuss which will settle down?

Generally speaking once they’ve drawn blood you might have a problem...! But it’s hard to say. Boys are much worse at this than girls. (We ended up having to rehome one of our boys and then neutered the remaining one and rehoused him with 3 girls!) Things you can try is giving them a (lukewarm) bath in the same water with very mild puppy shampoo so they smell the same (helps bonding) and ensuring they each have a food bowl / their own hay rack / own treats / own water bottle to eliminate fights over these things.

Also, small point but in your photo they appear to be in straw..? Not sure if that’s the case but Guinea pigs can’t eat straw and it’s too hard for them for bedding. They need meadow hay. I would get a big load of this and give them a huge amount in their cage to hide in and eat - it will give them something else to focus on and if they can’t stare each other out across the cage they’re less likely to fly for each other.

(I’ve had guinea pigs for nearly 20 years now).

Also, make sure they have lots of places to hide - little huts, wooden houses etc, in both cages. They are prey animals and like to hide. If they can’t do this then they get very anxious and this can make them more prone to fighting.

Thank you. We had straw on The first day when the pic was taken but have swapped to hay now. They flatten it really quickly so I fluff it up several times a day to make sure they have somewhere to hide.

Brilliant, fingers crossed you can get through this!

We have one little house which they can both fit in but we were going to get another bigger one as they won’t both fit in there when they grow a bit more.

I have two males. All was fine for about the first 6 months and then one turned on the other and just would not leave the submissive one alone. It was awful to watch him being constantly hounded. I did try to reintroduce them a few times but to no avail.

So they live separately, they are in a massive enclosure outside 15ft long with mesh dividers all the way down the middle. So they can still see each other but the submissive one is safe. The dominant one STILL grumbles at him all the time, three years on

They definitely need one of each of everything. They like their own space. We have 4 houses in our (super large c and c cage) cage for our 4 piggies. We also give them a huge mound of fresh hay in the middle every day so they can all dig in. When I give them their fresh veggies every day I split them up around the cage. They are a bit like dogs and always want what the other one has!

Also if you have hidey houses, you need to make sure it has two exit points otherwise the submissive one will likely get trapped in there by the dominant one, with no means of escape.

In my experience the dominant one can start to get very territorial over the cage space and fixtures/fittings.

Honestly I'd be inclined to send one back to the breeder and look into getting the other boar neutered and get a female for him to live with.

I can see us ending up with two cages of females and neutered boars! I don’t do giving animals back!! I worked in a zoo for years and have plenty of experience with exotic stuff but not much with guinea pigs. Same rules with making sure hiding places have exit routes. We had some years ago but they lived peacefully and didn’t quarrel so I don’t know what to do for the best... Some good ideas to try here.

That's fair enough, I couldn't have passed my more troublesome boar on to become somebody else's problem either.

I have considered neutering both of mine and getting females but to be honest I don't want to end up with 4 and I won't be getting any more after these two. Plus I'm not even sure my dominant boar would enjoy living with a female any way. He's a funny character and likes his own space.

Their current living situation works well and they've got the biggest space I could possibly give them and they're safe so I can't do any more than that for them.

This has happened to us too! Two brothers living happily together for over a year but now the dominant one is hounding the other so badly I’ve had to split them up. The trouble is the more aggressive male spends all day and night pacing the cage and seems really distressed and upset. Don’t know what to do about it, it’s sad to see 😔

My DD original pigs were bonded male 1 year olds .
They were fine if they had enough space to get away if they chose to .

Oddly , when they did have a squabble (first winter with us and we brought them in at night ) it was the little boar who started it !

I put a divide in their cage so they could see/chat but not squabble .
They went out to their pighouse by day and they either sat in the big hay box in different corners , or one took itself off to another housie .

Deffo- any hidey houses need two doors or a wide enough door that prevents one being blocked

Move things about , give them new boxes . Cardboard boxes without staple or tape . Cut two doors and let them play .

Food - they are greedy .

Wash them . Get some good strong scented Guinea Pig shampoo . Gorgeous Guineas has some great shampoo ( I bought Cedar+Lemongrass to bond pigs) BUT as yours are under 12 weeks (Mini Pigs) there will be some you cannot use ( it''ll have an age guide)
The plan is to make them smell neutral and make them bond in annoyance at having a wash .

If you don;t want to bath them, rub the soiled bedding over both , they'll get each others smells .

The following winter , I put two boxes of hay and no divide . I also put them in the small bedroom (which has no door and I can hear them all night ) . They liked this better . If they were a bit grumbly I put a blanket over to give them peace .

Our Alpha Boar used to get really fretful if his little brother was taken from him . He used to sit next to him in the run, watching over him.

You can try rebonding them - bath, neutral territory ( nothing that smells of pig) and a pile of food .

Try and work out if anything set them off ( mine was gorging on coriander . They were fine with parsely - often known as Guinea-Pick Crack Cocaine - but coriander turned GP2 into a demon )

It might just be their age .

There are worse things than living side-by-side . Living alone or with a bully .

One of my sows wouldn't bond with our group (she had her own cagemate sow) we kept a 3+2 . Then our boar wasn't accepted by this pair so he lived beside them until the bolshy one died and he finally married her cagemate .
Even that had to be a proper bonding session , they lived on either side of a C&C barrier for a week when the sow was on her own. Both wanted company but slow introductions are needed .

Bear in mind to boars is a very artificial set up for guinea pigs . They would prefer a boar + several females if they had their way .
But if you give them space and consider their dynamics , it can work well.
And I'm biased but the four boars we had over the years were much cuddlier and soppier than the fours sows .

I posted this a few months ago. Our older boar lost his cagemate 9 months ago so we got him a baby boat as a pal (from the same breeder). They started fighting when baby became a teenager in his years. They still fight now. We've separated them by putting dividers in the cage but then they stress and spend all the time trying to eat through the divider and get to each other. But when they're together they spend all their time at opposite ends of the cage. I still don't know what's best for them. They both still want to be the boss.

Ours occasionally have dominance squabbles and I found the best thing we did was to have extra houses/shelters. Now they have their own spaces they have stopped fighting. Ours are brothers.