Adding a baby to two males, one intact 5 year old and one neutered 15 month old, terrible idea?

[is3acrowd]

Hi all, long time lurker first time poster!

Bit of background, until Christmas last year we had three four year old male siblings living together mostly in harmony. Sadly two of them passed within a month of each other, leaving the gentlest/most docile on his own. To keep him company we then got a similarly laid back six month old male rescue whom we had neutered to make future pairing easier (since the baby was highly likely to outlive the older boy).

They get along fine together but the older boy is definitely slowing down and not really very interested in the younger one, and the younger one has turned out to be particularly inquisitive and sociable. We try to keep him entertained as far as possible but the fact is that in spite of our efforts he really seems like he could do with someone closer to his age to bond and play with. We were wondering about the possibility of introducing a baby male? I know it's usually not advised to have more than two males together but would the ages and the fact that both the existing boys are really laid back (and we would work with the rescue to find a similar third) impact things at all?

 

[Piggies&buns]

Welcome to the forum

We would not advise it.
Your younger boy is at one of the worst ages to attempt it - boar trios can work if all three boars involved are very elderly (Carer/disabled groupings for example older boars tend to just want companionship and aren’t interested in dominance) but we would never advise it when it involves any babies, teens or younger adults or being added to an existing pair.
He may be laid back with your older boar, but that’s because their hierarchy it settled and not contested in any way. Adding a third could well change all of that. The most common outcome of attempting to add a third is fights and broken bonds. There is no guarantee you would even be able to make a pair out of a failed attempt - ending up with three single piggies who all refuse to live together can also happen - thus needing three separate cages.

You were lucky to have had a functioning trio previously. Being siblings doesn’t guarantee success as a trio but they all obviously chose to stay together and that is why they worked. It doesn’t happen often but when it does it’s a blessing!
Adding an additional boar to already bonded pair is an entirely different kettle of fish and is much less likely to be successful.

Most Knowledgeable and reputable rescues would be unwilling to assist in a boar trio in this circumstance due to the known issues trios face.

We would actually advise bonding an older boar with a younger boar ie the exact pairing you already have as it tends to be a rather stable pairing. So if your pair are happy, then we would say to leave them as they are.
If you really don’t feel your youngest is happy then splitting your boys up and finding them each a new friend would be better and less risky than attempting a trio

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