Male Guinea Pigs together - is the relationship going to work?

Question
Hi,
I have two male pigs, the first is about 3, and his friends are two adult rabbits. I wanted to get him another pig friend and adopted a young male, a sweet and gentle boy to put with him. I did introduce them in a neutral area - grassy exercise area, and so far it's been really touch and go. (It's been about 3 weeks)I thought things were going well, but as I observed there's a lot of chattering between the two,sizing each other up and last night they got into a  pretty good fight that I had to stop. Have I made a mistake in getting the second male? Should I have gotten a baby boar? I really want two, and I do have a home for the new addition if it doesn't work. The new pig seems more nervous now, and has a couple of small scabs which are healing and fine (not infected) from his encounters with the fist pig. I feel bad that I'm putting him through this. Should I try to bath their bottoms, hutch etc to rid the scent and start over? (Neither are neutered Thank you for your advice!

Answer
I'm afraid you made a mistake by bringing in another grown boar. A baby would have been a better choice. Your resident boar is going to defend his territory and will probably not leave the 'intruder' alone. The fact that the new guy has scabs indicates that #1 has made his intentions clear and will seriously hurt #2. Bites like that are also susceptible to infection and abscessing, making the injury even worse. Both will end up with serious defensive wounds and you may wake up to a pig with his ears having been chewed off.

With a baby boar the older pig is not threatened. He may rumblestrut and try to mount the baby for the first few hours of introduction, but will quickly learn it's useless and stop that behavior. A baby is no threat to his territory, so the instinctual hormonal drive to defend to the death is not there. The baby gradually grows into adulthood thinking of the senior pig as the boss and won't challenge him.

Bathing will not stop the scent of manhood that is natural to boars. When a boar has reached adulthood even neutering doesn't always change that instinct. The best move now is to set up another cage and keep them separated.