# Fighting Pigs



## FreyaD (May 15, 2011)

Hiya
We bought 2 male piggies in October 2010, but sadly one died in March 2011. We bought our lone pig another friend and they bonded straight away. However, now the baby piggy has grown up and is maturing the pigs are fighting. Nothing too bad, although we have had to separate them on one occasion. Is there anything we can do to stop this? Or will they grow out of the fighting once puberty has finished?
Thanks


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## Nico0laGouldsmith (Apr 23, 2011)

my pigs never grew out of it but they reached puberty whilst separated because one was poorly  so when we put them back together they hated each other. . . they will stick together if need be e.g. to team up against us for protection when out and about (they have never really bonded with us either because when one of them was poorly we had to spend all our time force feeding him with syringes and the other one felt neglected and he hated us for force feeding him  )

I have read that they sometimes do grow out of it though

anyway

we find that ours act a lot better together if you bath them together with a small amount of animal or baby shampoo and then dry them both with the hairdryer. . . the fright of it all makes them friends :/ someone advised me to do this on here but I can't remember what lovely person it was haha


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## mstori (May 22, 2009)

i have successfully bonded lots of piggies, if you have more details, ages etc i would be happy to try and help

tori x


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## Nico0laGouldsmith (Apr 23, 2011)

I'm not sure about the OP but mine are about 6 months old. . .they were separated whilst going through puberty because of Auby's vitamin c deficiency 

we manage to do the bathing thing and then they will be together for anything up to a day. . . but then they will start the teeth chattering and making all their hair stand on end. . .they start circling each other and then their testicles descend . . . then the chase starts  it's really horrible to watch and we daren't leave them past that point because we fear they will injure or even kill each other


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## mstori (May 22, 2009)

Nico0laGouldsmith said:


> I'm not sure about the OP but mine are about 6 months old. . .they were separated whilst going through puberty because of Auby's vitamin c deficiency
> 
> we manage to do the bathing thing and then they will be together for anything up to a day. . . but then they will start the teeth chattering and making all their hair stand on end. . .they start circling each other and then their testicles descend . . . then the chase starts  it's really horrible to watch and we daren't leave them past that point because we fear they will injure or even kill each other


im presuming they are the same age? the most troublesome age is actually anything between 3 to 15 months, which is why the most successful bondings are ones between older and younger boars. Of course this isnt the case always, Ive had pairs that have been fine, and infact in most cases it will settle down. but an older one that has gone through the puberty/adolescence stage works best normally, they need to either be boss to a baby and mother (or should that be father lol) or allow the baby to become the leader as it were.

It can also be the weather that can cause fallings out in boars. As the weather gets hotter, or the size of their cage. What size is it?

what does the fighting look like? sometimes what we think is aggression is just a bit of dominant behaviour and actually nothing to worry about. Is it rumbling, teeth chattering etc


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## Nico0laGouldsmith (Apr 23, 2011)

mstori said:


> im presuming they are the same age? the most troublesome age is actually anything between 3 to 15 months, which is why the most successful bondings are ones between older and younger boars. Of course this isnt the case always, Ive had pairs that have been fine, and infact in most cases it will settle down. but an older one that has gone through the puberty/adolescence stage works best normally, they need to either be boss to a baby and mother (or should that be father lol) or allow the baby to become the leader as it were.
> 
> It can also be the weather that can cause fallings out in boars. As the weather gets hotter, or the size of their cage. What size is it?
> 
> what does the fighting look like? sometimes what we think is aggression is just a bit of dominant behaviour and actually nothing to worry about. Is it rumbling, teeth chattering etc


their cage is the same size as this (but not the same stuff inside of it)
Ferplast Rabbit 140 Guinea Pig Cage - Cage Only
they are indoor guinea pigs

we bought another cage the same because we realised we had to separate them though so they're in one of those each

but we never intended to keep them in that cage we wanted to make them a C&C cage that's much bigger for them both to live in together when they were bigger because they were really small when we got them

so we try to bond them on neutral territory and then clean both the cages and then on the cages we have you can lift the sides so we have tried lifting the sides up and putting the cages side by side close together, tying them together so they can move apart and release them and then we placed a large bridge over the plastic bases between the two so they can move from one to the other so it made it double the size. . . just to see if they will live together until we get them a bigger cage set up because we don't want to risk forking out for all the stuff and then finding they refuse to live together anyway hahaha although to be fair we would rather them both big in much bigger cages than they are in now even separate

we let them out for a long time every evening though to let them have a proper run around the house and they definitely need that because if you leave them in their cage even a little bit later than normal they start trying to run around inside their cages hahaha

so you think it's just dominance and we should try and leave them to it?
what's the sign that we really need to stop what is happening?

someone suggested before that if we really can't bond them we should get 2 rescue girls and get the boys neutered but at the moment until we get our own place we don't really have the room for twice as many cage space 
thanks for your help


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## mstori (May 22, 2009)

well, what you have done with the cages is exactly what i was going to suggest even with the bridge lol.

have you put them in a run outside? or a pet carrier in a car?

The thing that has worked best for me is to bath with guinea pig shampoo and the bathroom is a great place or a pop up ball pool like Ball Pit : ball pits & paddling pools : Early Learning Centre UK Toy Shop and slowly let them play.

chasing, mounting, bottom wiggling, face to face, purring, quiet chattering etc is all normal behaviour and that is what you would expect from 2 boys esp of similar age who need to determine who is the boss.

if they are yawning with loud teeth chattering and look like they are lifting off the ground and kind of shuffling then this has to be monitered more carefully but still isnt really serious. You can try intervening if they look like they would nip. use a towel though, not bare hands. then use a guinea pig deodorising spray and reintroduce in another neutral area (not same area)

if they start making general displays of aggresion like teeth clacking which is a fast loud sound and lunging then they must be seperated immediatly.

A male/female bonding is obv the best for risk of fallings out but still not 100%. I currently have a pair of girls, 2 pairs of boys and a lone boy who will be getting neutered.

Have you tried having them in their own cages with the sides down and bridge there so they can access each others sides if they want to but have their own space too if they need?


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## Nico0laGouldsmith (Apr 23, 2011)

mstori said:


> well, what you have done with the cages is exactly what i was going to suggest even with the bridge lol.
> 
> have you put them in a run outside? or a pet carrier in a car?
> 
> ...


thank you so much we'll have to give it another go  I feel so bad for them at the moment because they must be lonely


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## mstori (May 22, 2009)

Nico0laGouldsmith said:


> thank you so much we'll have to give it another go  I feel so bad for them at the moment because they must be lonely


if you are unsure record them and upload and if its clear enough i can give you my opinion on if its what i would call normal or not.

Good luck  x


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## Nico0laGouldsmith (Apr 23, 2011)

mstori said:


> if you are unsure record them and upload and if its clear enough i can give you my opinion on if its what i would call normal or not.
> 
> Good luck  x


ahh brilliant idea!!!! x x x


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