When to separate males
Finchley is exactly 3 months old, Bellpepper is over 3 years. BP has loved and protected Finchley like a parent. Any little squeak at all from Finchley sent Bellpepper dashing to his side!
Two days ago I found him chasing and mounting Finchley (who is too fast to get caught). Last night there was constant non stop chasing and attempted mounting for well over an hour. Then a face -off with lots of intense chattering. Our 10 year old says she saw them stomping their feet. (She was present at the rescue when trying to speed date Bellpepper so learned some of the signs)
During the face off I heard chattering and some other noise from Finchley - and something about their body language just alarmed me. It's past our bed time already so I decided to divide the cage. (grids) However Bellpepper chewed and pushed at the grids so much that I worried he'd hurt himself during the night, so I set up a separate emergency cage. An hour later things were calmer so I dared to remove the divider and observe. There were short moments of chasing but nothing alarming. I sat a few feet from them for another hour to observe....and by then things were completely calm.
How do I tell when they need to be separated? Which pig is the one to remove? I'm really confused how to interpret the teeth chattering because at the rescue they sometimes left the new pig in the cage despite teeth chattering, but other times quickly removed a new pig when chattering started.
Is there a danger that this bonding will fail? And how do you know the difference between acceptable dominance struggle and a failed bonding?
Two days ago I found him chasing and mounting Finchley (who is too fast to get caught). Last night there was constant non stop chasing and attempted mounting for well over an hour. Then a face -off with lots of intense chattering. Our 10 year old says she saw them stomping their feet. (She was present at the rescue when trying to speed date Bellpepper so learned some of the signs)
During the face off I heard chattering and some other noise from Finchley - and something about their body language just alarmed me. It's past our bed time already so I decided to divide the cage. (grids) However Bellpepper chewed and pushed at the grids so much that I worried he'd hurt himself during the night, so I set up a separate emergency cage. An hour later things were calmer so I dared to remove the divider and observe. There were short moments of chasing but nothing alarming. I sat a few feet from them for another hour to observe....and by then things were completely calm.
How do I tell when they need to be separated? Which pig is the one to remove? I'm really confused how to interpret the teeth chattering because at the rescue they sometimes left the new pig in the cage despite teeth chattering, but other times quickly removed a new pig when chattering started.
Is there a danger that this bonding will fail? And how do you know the difference between acceptable dominance struggle and a failed bonding?
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- And got the T-shirt
Not big enough, especially with one coming into puberty.
I'd enlarge the cage to a 2x6 or 3x4 if possible, make sure all the hideys have two doors, and drape some fleece or fleece forests in the cage to break up the lines of sight so they're not always in each others view.
I'd enlarge the cage to a 2x6 or 3x4 if possible, make sure all the hideys have two doors, and drape some fleece or fleece forests in the cage to break up the lines of sight so they're not always in each others view.
I don't know how helpful this will be, but I have a similar situation.
I have two boars that get along really well sometimes and fight like feral cats in a bag sometimes. I think the general consensus is that, as long as they are not drawing blood, they are fine. It's possible that BP senses Finchley getting older and entering "piggy puberty", so he's mounting to assert and maintain his dominance.
Mine have displayed behavior on a very wide range - some that looks like it came out of The Matrix (read, jumping up and striking at each other in mid-air) to snuggling contentedly together on my lap. Especially with young boars, this is totally normal.
I have two boars that get along really well sometimes and fight like feral cats in a bag sometimes. I think the general consensus is that, as long as they are not drawing blood, they are fine. It's possible that BP senses Finchley getting older and entering "piggy puberty", so he's mounting to assert and maintain his dominance.
Mine have displayed behavior on a very wide range - some that looks like it came out of The Matrix (read, jumping up and striking at each other in mid-air) to snuggling contentedly together on my lap. Especially with young boars, this is totally normal.
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- And got the T-shirt
There are thousands of pictures of cage configurations in the photo galleries over at www.guineapigcages.com.
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- And got the T-shirt
You want the biggest flat space you can provide, with the sight lines broken up by something hanging in the cage or across the corners.
You can do a hay loft if you want, but with two boars, it's a good idea to have two ramps. And a 2 x something hayloft is much better than a 1 x something.
You can do a hay loft if you want, but with two boars, it's a good idea to have two ramps. And a 2 x something hayloft is much better than a 1 x something.