Any issues with 2 bonded pairs m/m f/f living in a divided cage?

[gavshaky]

Hi everybody! My first post here
Just a question. I currently have 2 girls and was planning to look after my friend's pair of boars while they're on holiday. Would there be any potential issues with them living together in a divided cage for a couple of weeks? My girls have an 8x2.5 C&C cage so I can divide it with some grids to make 2 decent sized living areas still, so size isn't an issue (although my girls might be unhappy with getting downsized for a bit!)

 

[Piggies&buns]

Welcome to the forum

Please don’t!
The risk of problems is significant.

The boars would be highly likely to have a huge reaction to being anywhere near your girls. It would be very likely to cause them to fight with each other and consequently permanently ruin their bond.

Please make sure you keep your friends boys in a completely separate room from your girls for the duration of their stay. Two boys need a 5x2 c&c or 180x60cm cage (150x60cm at absolute minimum but depending on the pair this can sometimes be too small). You can’t risk the boys even smelling the girls at all. This means you also need to make sure you feed and handle the boys first so that you do not risk transferring sow scents to the boys via your hands and clothes.

Your friend would be advised to provide soiled/scent marked bedding for the cage while they are at your house. Changing environment will cause them to Reestablish their hierarchy (which can take two weeks) so using already scent marked bedding when they are moved can help minimise the disruption changing to a new environment can cause.

I’ve added some guides below about this and about generally dealing with boars

Reacting to group or territorial changes: Dominance and group establishment/re-establishment

A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars

 

[Truffolo]

Guinea potatoes can jump over partitions with surprising ease in both directions so a lid(s) are a good precaution

 

[Wiebke]

Hi

You can have bonded pairs of all the same gender (i.e. all boys or all girls) as well as mixed gender pairs with one de-sexed piggy living next to each other without problems.

However, introducing bonded boars to a sow pheromone environment is very much a straight recipe for fall-outs even in laid back boar pairs. Sows will in turn react very strongly to the introduction of boar pheromones, so the result is generally a super-season and a pee and stink fest with lots of humping, chasing and rumbling in both cages.

Boars that have grown up around sow pheromones develop a calming compound and won't be as over-sexed when meeting sows but - as I know from my own experiences doesn't say anything about them not being able to not get on or not fall-out when nearly all the sows in a big room coming into season over the course of 3-4 days in a kind of mega-season event. (I have generally mixed gender or sow groups who can all live next to each other. All boars are neutered; or in the case they are born here to already pregnant sows, neutered as soon as they are old enough - hence the odd baby or teenage boar mayhem).

If you can, please keep the boys in a different room or as far away and higher than the sows (i.e. as much out of the reach of female pheromones as possible.

 

[weepweeps]

Hello and welcome to the forum

 

[gavshaky]

Thanks for the advice. I read a recent post about a bonded pair of males falling out after a stay at a piggie boarding place and it rang an alarm bell, so I'm glad I asked. We've pulled the plug on the idea. One of my girls has been very rumbley and humpy in the past day too, so that probably wouldn't have helped matters!