Serious answers only please... re guinea pig fighting.?

Question

one of two males died; as the remaining male is only 12 months old i have tried to introduce a 6 month old male ( only during run times not sharing cage) but they not getting on so my vet suggested castrating younger of two or both. but in a book i read it says that castration doesnt change male aggressive behaviour. it also stated that once blood has been drawn it is a def no no for them ever being able to tolerate each other(the younger bit the older). does any one have any ewxperience of this type of situation or know how males behave post castration? please help as i at a loss of what to do for the best.!!! p.s at present they are not any where near each other even during run times as they started to get aggressive with me - they were that up set with each other.

Answer 1

you wont change the pigs behaviour by castation in a pig only in dogs and cats.if you would like to have more pigs you could try another with one of them.probably the younger one will be more friendly to a mate than the older one.operations are risky in pigs anyway,mine is having a couple of lumps off tomorrow and we are warned that she may die having it done but it must be done.i dont think i would take the risk having an operation done for agrression.maybe get them their own cage but hwere they can just see each other if you cant have another pig

Answer 2

Well 6 months old is the peak time for guinea-pig sexual maturity to be in full swing. And the 12 month old has gotten use to his own space and being the "dominant one" so new blood is a 100% threat to him. I know it looks awful but when they are fighting ( even in the case of blood being drawn) they are fighting it out for the position as top dog. And when you seperate them they need to continue it next time. I adopted 2 male brothers who when i first got them at about 3 month old ( again in sexual maturity ) they fighted so much so hat we had to seperate their cage by a piece of laminate! They are also indoor guinea-pigs so we could hear what was going on. We talked to our vet and he said to let them battle it out but i just couldnt, it was like a **** pit fight! But i was lucky and in time they got on and now they are unseperable.

                  We was told by our vet ( also family friend so gave us good advice) said that there was no point getting them "done" as as they are so small it is and can be a terrible stress on their heart, so they do not advise it and the best thing to do is unfortunatley keep them apart. The thing that i did which i believe helped me a lot was giving them a whol load of lettuce, cucumber, and veg .etc. and putting them either side then they are learning to eat together and they are too far apart to instantly get at each other so then that is the point where you need to but in.

I hope i helped and good luck with your Glyns .x.

Answer 3

2 males can work but its fairly rare, I got a male companion for my lovely tempered Max after his dad died, he loved the baby to bits but baby has a barbering habit (himself) but started barbering Max so I seperated them. They now only share run times and do so very happily. Baby seems to be growing out of barbering so I may try them again at some point.

As yours have fought and drawn blood its doubtful they'll get on well enough to go together but keep the cages close so they have each other to chatter to but watch for signs of stress from either of them...if that happens move the cages away from each other.

Females can also fight, had a very cantankerous female...wouldnt let any piggie near her and was aggressive with her food bowl to anyone and anything, I think she thought she was a terrier as she never acted like a piggy (no pop corning etc)

Answer 4

You should NEVER try and introduce male guineas, especially when one is that much older than the other.

Split them up. Never put them together. There's nothing else you can do.

Female guineas can be introduced at older ages using split cage method, but male guineas will fight 99% of the time if they are introduced older. Trust me on this. I work in a pet shop, and putting together one 10 week old guinea male with one 12 week old guinea male resulted in bad fighting.

Answer 5

Contrary to what some people believe, male guinea pigs can be kept together just fine. How big is the cage? What have you tried introduction wise? I assume you didn't just plop them in together? Introductions need to be taken much more slowly.

Read here for some excellent information and tips: http://www.cavyspirit.com/sociallife.htm...

Answer 6

don't put males together! UNLESS THEY ARE BROTHERS I DON'T THINK IT WILL WORK! SORRY