Two boars started fighting

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HansG

Post   » Sun Oct 11, 2020 4:24 pm


We have two boars, Fern (1 yr. and 4 months) and Fritz (7 months) that we bonded back in May. Fritz immediately took to Fern and Fern's energy level perked up following their introduction. Personality-wise Fritz is high energy and stresses easily while Fern is pretty laid back.

Over the past few weeks Fritz has begun challenging Fern to be the dominant pig. We've mostly noticed this during floor time in the form of increased nose-offs, urine spraying, and rumble-strutting. None of this seemed to agitate Fern and we chalked it up to Fritz going through his hormonal "teenage" years.

This past weekend things escalated. On Friday Fritz began aggressively chattering at Fern during floor time. This lasted ~10 seconds and the two spent the next hour running around and acting normal. Prior to that, Fritz accidentally ran into a table leg. We checked him over and he seemed fine, so we thought/hoped that maybe he startled/hurt himself in the moment and became agitated.

Saturday, the chattering happened again. However, this time he lunged at Fern after which the two were aggressively chattering and rapidly squeaking. Overall they looked to be on the brink of a total fight before we were able to intervene. We separated them but shortly after then began calling out for one another. Once things diffused, we ultimately decided to put them back together in their cage. They were a little tense at first but then acted as if nothing ever happened, which is where we are today.

We're pretty new to guinea pigs. We read as much as we could on bonding them and what to expect throughout the dominance game. I feel like there are some red flags but we’re only seeing them on the floor, which also confuses me since it’s a lot more space. Has anyone else experienced this? For the time being we plan on foregoing floor-time and just monitoring them in their cage. Any recommendations in general would be greatly appreciated.

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Sun Oct 11, 2020 6:41 pm


Fritz is going through adolescence, so some dominance issues are normal. How large is their cage?

HansG

Post   » Sun Oct 11, 2020 6:59 pm


They have a 7x2 C&C cage. We've also made sure to have multiple water bottles, food bowls, and tunnels.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sun Oct 11, 2020 10:08 pm


It sounds like you have a good setup to make it work. Have you tried any fleece forests? Fringed fleece strung across the cage to break up the view?

HansG

Post   » Mon Oct 12, 2020 9:28 am


We've never tried fleece forests but definitely will. Also, have only one hay pile. Is that something we should have two of for the time being or just keep the one towards the middle of the cage?

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Oct 12, 2020 11:14 pm


I would go with two piles.

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