3 boars living together...

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Amysguineapigs

Amysguineapigs

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As you probably know i'm doing a Animal Management course at college. The college have 3 beautiful white boars living together, they are all from the same litter.

I've read that more than 2 boars can't live together. Is this still the case if their from the same litter?

They look very healthy and happy together, were currently trying to get them more handleable:D
 
I think it can be done but it isn't advisable. Do you know how old they are? They could fall out when they hit the hormonal stage whether they are from the same litter or not.
 
Amysguineapigs said:
As you probably know i'm doing a Animal Management course at college. The college have 3 beautiful white boars living together, they are all from the same litter.

I've read that more than 2 boars can't live together. Is this still the case if their from the same litter?

They look very healthy and happy together, were currently trying to get them more handleable:D
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My own personal opinion/ thoughts:

I don't think there are any rules we can apply to all Guinea pigs- but there are general patterns we can look at (oh god look at me trying to sound all proper :))). I think more than two boys can definatly work and there are quite a few examples, but your always playing with a fairly big risk that there will be a falling out (and then obviously falling out bring it's own problems) and it's this risk that personally would stop me from trying it. Boars naturally aren't made to live in big groups together- they have one aim in life and that is to get as many little ladies pregnant as he can, but if someone else has already planted that seed he obviously can't- so living with other males (his competitors) just wouldn't be practical. But nature doesn't always like to follow rules so chances are every now and then a trio (or more) will work out- the characters work well together and everyone will live happily together. I don't know if I'm applying too much human psychology but I would have thought same litter would increase chances of staying together happier, definatly not a guarantee but I think it would slightly increase chances. Growing up with someone you form a bond and to me it's this bond that makes us a lot more tolerant to the other peson's actions or possibly you grow around each other- your happy for someone else to take lead than yourself.

In short (without all the blabber i seem to feel the need to put in all my writing :(|)) more than two boars can live happily together (litter mates or no litter mates) but it does bring a significant risk to even try it. Before anyone jumps on me I do want to stress this is just my personal view/ ideas- feel free to poke any holes in my logic :(|).
 
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It very much depends on the character mix - if you have three boys with exactly the right combination of laid back and not too dominant, then you can count yourself lucky! Being litter mates doesn't make any difference whatsoever.

Most stable trios are actually fully or mostly hormonally settled adults, usually with an age difference, which additionally helps to keep the dominance settled.

Generally, trios where all boys are right in the stroppy months together tend to be the most volatile and unstable, for obvious reasons; that is why we do not recommend them - the fall out rate is much higher than success rate.
 
missM said:
i have 3 boys .... 2 7week old babies and a 2 1/2 boy..they seem to be doing very well together....so far :))
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keep a good eye on them, i had a similar pairing, with two younger boars around the same age and an older third boar

eventually, though everything SEEMED fine, but it became apparent that the two younger boars were bullying the third, older one - keeping him away from the food bowl etc.
he lost a lot of weight, but soon gained it again when taken out of the trio and housed alone (he was then bonded with another of my boars when he had recovered)

with the right mix of characters a group of more than 2 boars can work out well, but in my experience it has been rare.

my college had 2 groups of boars, about 7 or 8 living together in each group.
in the older group, everything was hunky dory.
in the younger group though, they were all fine, but then one of them decided "i want to be the boss" all but one of them ended up with furless bums and covered in bite marks. (the one without was the one causing the aggro - you'd see him grab hold of another piggy and not let go)
all fell out and developed mites from the stress, which then took months to clear as they were given a very weak ivermectin spot on grrrr
 
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