Two males in one cage

Question
Hi

I bought a baby male guinea pig about a month and a half ago. My kids thought maybe it would be a good idea to get another one so he would not be lonely. So I bought another male baby guinea pig. I am unsure if these two are getting along.
At times they seem fine and my older one lets the new one eat and drink with no problem, but they do fight. One will strutt around and make sexual purring noises and try to jump on top of the other. They will try to lick each other, sniff each others behinds and occasionally nip at each other.
There have been a couple of harsher fights as well, where they will actually bite each other (no blood) and they do some teeth chattering.
I am nervous, the pet shop owner told me I could bring the new guinea pig back if it does not work out.
Is this a time issue? Or will the fights get worse? I do not want either one to end up getting hurt.

Answer
Gabriele,

Your two Guinea Pigs are acting out normal behavior and nothing really to worry about. Guinea Pig in the wild are group animals and as with all group animals there is an alpha pair, one male and one female and the rest in the group comes in order after them. In captivity they are usually in groups of the same sex, so there can only be one alpha. That is what your boys are trying to figure out, which one will be the alpha of their little group.

All of this their fighting is normal, the purring, the jumping on top of each other, the nipping, teeth chattering, and biting is all normal and no they won't hurt each other. As they are both pretty close in age, if they where older and the ages further apart there might be something for you to worry about. But as they are close in age there is nothing to worry about, just keep an eye on them to make sure no blood is drawn. Things will calm down and they will get along fine after this little spat in a few days, maybe a little over a week or so. It just depends on how stubborn they both are.

This is not a issue, and the fighting will not get worse. As I said before it will all calm down before to long. Just make sure that one of them doesn't bit to hard and cause the other to bleed that is always a concern as one can get to rowdy and bit to hard. But other then that every thing will be find and calm down soon.

Good Luck to you,
       Take Care Now,
                  Jules