When Boys Fight

Learning the hard Way & Things We Wish We Knew

A few days ago, Tangent and Meander decided to become mortal enemies. We can only assume that raging hormones caused them to get into a tornado fight that ended with both piggies injured: Meander with a number of bite wounds, and Tangent who bit so hard he actually broke his tooth off which had to be extracted and may have caused sinus cavity problems. Meander did manage to get in one small bite as retribution, so we’re giving him a tiny high five for self-defense. Both piggies are now on antibiotics and pain meds and are recovering. We are super grateful we started a relationship with a wonderful vet - it’s one of the biggest things we did right.

A couple of the bites inflicted on poor Meander.

Now that they are home from the vet, any hope of reconciliation is dwindling fast. We initially assumed we could have them live side-by-side with a divider so they could at least still see and talk to each other. We tried setting them up like that when we got home, and Tangent started throwing himself up the divider trying to get over the wall to attack with his one remaining tooth. We had to find some slippery panels to mount to the divider so that Tangent wouldn’t be able to launch himself over the wall, and so neither of them could see the other. Just today, we set up two playpens about a foot apart so we could clean the enclosure… and even that was enough to trigger fighting behaviors in both of them, teeth chattering, yawning at each other, rumbling, the works. It’s not good. If they can’t live happily side-by-side, then it seems wrong to keep them both.

So where did things go wrong? Those of you who have read our Meet The Piggies page might know that Tangent is actually Tangent 2, or T2 for short. Lesson learned there - never again name a red-eyed rodent after the Terminator! A friend insists we should name our next piggie “Docile”, and we think she’s onto something. All humor aside, It’s incredibly disappointing as new piggie parents to have our first two attempts at bonding be such failures. Things never escalated to blood being drawn with Tangent 1 - they were just clearly incompatible and T1 would bully Meander constantly. Things seemed really good for a couple of months between T2 and Meander though, but obviously something went wrong.

We think we did everything as right as we could. We researched and watched lots of YouTube videos. We adopted the boys from a rescue, we put them in a 2×5 c&c style enclosure. We provided two of everything - water bottles, hay trays, pellet bowls. And lots of hideys that all had multiple exits. In the last few weeks we noticed they were having some hormonal shifts, so we set up a huge playpen area for them every day so they could burn off energy. They genuinely seemed ok. And just like that, they weren’t.

So where do we go from here? First and foremost, we want to give everything a few weeks. Both piggies are on a course of medications for their injuries, and we want to make sure they are both well and get lots of love while they recover. We have contacted the rescue, and the current plan - assuming they can’t learn to get along through the partition - is to return Tangent so he can find a happier home, and then to find Meander a girlfriend after he is neutered. We also have ordered parts to enlarge our habitat size to 112” x 28” (a c&c size 2×8). If by some miraculous turn of events, they both seem happy enough co-existing side-by-side, we may consider letting them stay that way. It’s ultimately up to them which path we take, though it seems likely rehoming Tangent will be the answer. Time will tell.

Last of all, the veterinarian gave us the tooth chunk they extracted. Such a tiny little thing can do so much damage! If that grosses you out, stop scrolling here, otherwise, here’s how tiny a guinea pig tooth is!