Adding rescue boar to 2 bonded females

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Pigmeister

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Hi we have 2 young female piggies, one around 1 uear, one about 6 or 7 months old, who are bonded well.
I saw a local rescue that specializes in more scaly creatures like lizards has recently gotten a 1 year old male guinea.

Considering offering him a home but worried about the potential bonding etc.

What kind of things do we need to think about when considering adding a boar to our ladies?

What kind of plan Bs are there apart from keeping him separate and finding him another friend?

Thanks
 
Do you know if he is neutered?
How big is your cage?

Adding a neutered boar to young sows generally goes well.

But your plan b would be to keep him separate but alongside them.
If you were to need to find him a boar friend then a consideration would be keeping the boar pair away from sow pheromones as much as possible. It’s adding sows into the same room where a bonded boar pair already live which can cause a problem, however, even in your situation it can be a good idea to stack cages and keep the sows at the bottom so a boar pair cannot see or smell the girls

Adding More Guinea Pigs Or Merging Pairs – What Works And What Not?
 
Good luck with the bonding 8f you decide to take him on, do make sure he has been neutered firstly though 🤞
 
Yeah if we take him on we'd get him neutered and save the rescue doing it. They're not pig savvy anyway by the sounds of it.

Ideally we'd be able to bond and have the 3 together. But If we can't I'll find hiom a friend and they can live in my office room and help me get through the work days :)

Our cage is a funny shape: square meter wise it's big enough for 3, but part of it is narrow as we've made it to fit the shape of our room and it could be a bit of a log jam.

Anyway wanted to make sure I was thinking about all the angles thanks for the replies.
 
I adopted a lone boar, had him neutered and bonding him with my 3 sows was so easy.
He had lived beside them for a time until he was safe and his excitement level went into overdrive when he was finally allowed to join them.
Hope all goes well for you too.
 
Hi

What you can do to promote your chances of acceptance is to keep the boy in an adjoining cage with interaction through the grid but no chance for him to getting through them or over them in any way during the op, recovery and the 6 weeks post-op wait. It means that they are familiar with each other and the bonding will hopefully that bit less over the top than a date although brace yourself for some drama when boy meets girls for the first time. The piggies are all at an age where their biological urges are towards accepting each other but there is never a full guarantee for a match.

Your plan B would be in the longer term to find your boy a little wifey of his own and keep your piggies in two cages either next to each other or above each other.


Here is our neutering information pack: Neutered / De-sexed Boars And Neutering Operations: Myths, Facts and Post-op Care

Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics

The chapter about mixed pairs applies basically also to a mixed trio. The sows should be good friends; otherwise your boy will in the long term side with one of them and you can end up with an outsider situation. If the girls get on well, then a mixed trio or quartet is great. The other challenges are usually the same.
A Closer Look At Pairs (Boars - Sows - Mixed)

After Tegeirian's sudden loss a few weeks ago I have currently got 5 mixed trios (and one sows-only trio) but sadly no longer a mixed quartet.
My young teenager Baeddan at the height of his hormone output at around 6 months was sadly too pushy with either sow trio he was introduced to and now lives with his 6 weeks older half-sister Blodyn as my plan C. They get on well since she is not dominant.
His litter brother Brangwyn however was happily accepted by his neighbouring middle-aged sow pair who saw him growing up through the bars with a minimum of fuss - this was plan A going off perfectly. The younger of the two sows is a bit of an iffy bonder so little Bran will hopefully see out 3 years old Beti without the need of any more adoptions. Brangwyn is a bit of a teenage pest especially with Begw at times but the bond is stable.

I hope that this will help you. Crucial for a successful neutering operation is to find a good vet and nursing team.
 
Thanks for all the inpit on here. Looks like the little guy has gotten a home already (At least I hope it's that!) but we've been thinking of adding ot the girls anyway so this is all really helpful.

We did try adding another girl maybe 4 or 5 months ago and after only a couple of minutes the new pig had a big clump of hair from one of the others in it's mouth! I think we migth have bene too fast to introduce with this one. She was only 2 months old so I think we tried sooner because we were worried about her being lonely as a youngster. But looking back I think maybe she was still a bit stressed with the new environment and obviously not a good space for introducing.
 
Pigmeister said:
Thanks for all the inpit on here. Looks like the little guy has gotten a home already (At least I hope it's that!) but we've been thinking of adding ot the girls anyway so this is all really helpful.

We did try adding another girl maybe 4 or 5 months ago and after only a couple of minutes the new pig had a big clump of hair from one of the others in it's mouth! I think we migth have bene too fast to introduce with this one. She was only 2 months old so I think we tried sooner because we were worried about her being lonely as a youngster. But looking back I think maybe she was still a bit stressed with the new environment and obviously not a good space for introducing.
Click to expand...

Depending on where you live in Yorkshire, could you get to either Cavy Corner in Doncaster, Milhaven GPR in Keighley or Tees Valley GPR in Middlesbrough for an already neutered boar?
Guinea-pig-forum-recommended-rescues
 
Yeah we probably could do that and would definitely love to get a piggie from Cavy Corner. Not as familiar with the others but will take a look.

With one of the pigs having a bit of a bladder issue maybe when we resolve that we can think about another one.
 
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