When to separate males

jatean

Post   » Wed Mar 14, 2018 2:05 pm


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?

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Wed Mar 14, 2018 2:10 pm


How big is the cage?

jatean

Post   » Wed Mar 14, 2018 2:11 pm


2x4 grids

jatean

Post   » Wed Mar 14, 2018 2:12 pm


Forgot to mention that even though I hadn't seen any hoarding (I interact with pigs every couple of hours, I work from home) I did add another pile of hay and second water bottle last night.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Wed Mar 14, 2018 2:40 pm


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.

User avatar
M1dn1ght

Post   » Wed Mar 14, 2018 2:45 pm


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.

jatean

Post   » Wed Mar 14, 2018 2:57 pm


Does adding an upper level qualify as making the cage bigger? (These are not my pigs, I'm the child care provider in the family) and the owner doesn't want to make it bigger. (I don't know why - there's plenty of space in this area)

jatean

Post   » Wed Mar 14, 2018 3:02 pm


Like maybe a 2x5 with 1x2 upper level? Hmm...or 2x4 with 2x2 upper? Anyone ever done that?

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Wed Mar 14, 2018 3:25 pm


There are thousands of pictures of cage configurations in the photo galleries over at www.guineapigcages.com.

jatean

Post   » Wed Mar 14, 2018 5:25 pm


It also says that upper levels don't count for floor space. Do I understand that correctly: adding upper level won't help with 2 males? (I need to know the best possible setup to convince this woman to enlarge the cage)

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Wed Mar 14, 2018 5:45 pm


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.

jatean

Post   » Wed Mar 14, 2018 5:57 pm


That's one of the things that worried me about the upper level - one way in and out. I may convince the owner to let me enlarge to 2x5, but I doubt a 2x6 or 3x4. (wonder what would happen if I did it anyway?)

We can make some fleece curtains easily though. 'And thank you very much!

Post Reply