advice needed please

[kevncaz]

Hi all , after last nights near world war with our un-neutered 2 boars ( see our post "help there fighting" ) we have now got to keep our boys seperate,
What we would like to know is will they get lonely ?
We are calling the vets this morning and arranging for them to be neutered , we believe from what we have read on this great forum that it would be in there best interest to get them each a girlfriend after they are neutered ,
can someone please tell us how we would introduce them
If we are to get 2 sows , we would like to rescue rather than buy , especially from a certain pet shop (after the lack of knowledge of there staff ), could some one please tell us how to go about rescuing piggies and what the rescues look for .
we never intended to get more than 2 piggies but circumstances now dictate we think we need some company for our soon to be neutered boys

we would love to be able to offer 2 more piggies the chance of a better quality , more loved , veg filled life .

x kev n caz x

 

[slackalice2k]

I've just caught up with your other thread and think you may of been a bit hasty in seperating them, I've been having some problems with a pair of my boys, but have perservered and they're still together, they had 2 really bad days, after putting them into a new hutch and they still have the occasional spat, but I'm finding that for them to reach a stalemate they have to be together, there's no point seperating them and putting them back together to start their dominance issues from the start again. There hasn't been any blood drawn but lots of aggresive chasing and yawning and chattering. Then they're too tired and have a sleep, but then that lasted about 48hrs then they settled back down again.

I like the fact that you're considering neutering and getting wives for them, however neutering is not without risks, it's something I considered but with 3 pairs of entire boys it would cause more trouble than it's worth to bring in girlies.pow-powpow-powpow-powpow-pow

I found with my battling pair that if there was plenty of hay they were distracted, and also run time was an all day affair, because it gave my less dominant boy plenty of space to get away. I found I'm increasingly treating them like a pair of toddlers and 2 of everything is a must.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[kevncaz]

Hi many thanks for the quick reply and advice , we were to say the least , panicked when our 2 boys descended into a blur of rolling fur , dont know how they did not draw blood anywhere !

 

[slackalice2k]

Oh they can be nasty little pasties when they get going, had you just cleaned them out, or put something new their cage? It could just be that they were feeling a little hormonal if they're hitting the terrible teens together.

I would try today to introduce them in a neutral area, I saw the bath was mentioned in the other thread but I think I would prefer to use the kitchen floor, with a large plate of different veggies and a big pile of hay and see how they get on. You could always leave a bowl of water for them too, though they'll get a lot of water content from veggies.

I spoke last week to my vet about neutering and she said to try and keep them together would be best, neutering would be my last resort.


Once again good luck, I have to rush to work now, knew it was a bad idea to come on here before I set off.|)

 

[boureki]

A "rolling ball of fur" is not good, you did the right thing in separating! Bite wounds are quite hard to locate sometimes as well. If you feel like giving it another go, then this is a good page: http://www.cavyspirit.com/sociallife.htm#Introductions

If you decide to go down the neutering route, then I would recommend finding an experienced cavy vet and don't be afraid to ask lots of questions. This is a great site about boars in general and included some useful info about what to ask potential vets: http://www.susieandpigs.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/vets.htm

If you decide to give a home to two more pigs, RSPCA Walsall is in your area There are some more here: http://www.guineapigrehome.org.uk/gp/centres.asp

Best of luck.