Bonding a pair of boars

[MoonBurger]

Hi,

I posted some time ago about three young boars I had living together. There was bullying of one pig and then tensions rose at the hormone peak of 3/4 months and the other pair were teeth chattering and circling each other and I was so worried about them hurting each other I separated all three. So… now I have three CnC cages all next to each other taking over a whole room…

I want to bond a pair from this trio as I don’t have the space to live this way for the next 7/8 years. I contacted Wheek & Squeek for some advice and they said to try a more subservient pig with a more dominant one… but I feel so unsure about which two to try and there is (I feel) so much at stake as I love them all and don’t want to have to choose one to surrender… We can have two separate cages but three is very difficult, we don’t have the space at all. I have been watching lots of bonding videos to try to familiarise myself with behaviours that I may feel concerned about but which are in fact nothing to worry about from a piggy point of view but I still feel very anxious about attempting a bond…. I have read all the advice on this forum and seen the links about boys and bonding… and it is very helpful although sometimes overwhelming… but again probably because I feel there is so much riding on a successful bond happening…

 

[Piggies&buns]

For a bonding to work piggies need to have character compatibility and mutual liking - one needs to be dominant and one submissive. If you try to put two dominant piggies together the bond will fail
However, there is very little you can do to influence any of it and really all you can do in any bonding is try two of them together and see how it goes.

In terms of pairing, the two who were circling should not be tried together again at all. If they didn’t like each other first time, they wont like each other now.

Did the piggy who was bullied get on with one of the other two? If so, then you can try the bullied piggy with that one and see what happens. Do not try to put the bullied piggy with the piggy who was bullying him.
If both the other piggies were bullying him, then it’s unlikely you have any potential pairs. In that case, no bonding should be attempted. Unfortunately this can be a possible outcome from having a boar trio - none of them want to live together ever again.

Where you go if you cannot have a functioning pair out of your current three, obviously needs to be your decision.
If piggies are single, they must remain side by side. If they have a friend, then c&c cages can be stacked, thereby saving floor space. All of this depends on how many piggies you can manage. Neutering them all (having the six week post op wait) and bonding each one with a sow (via dating at a rescue), and then stacking cages means all piggies have a friend and you can save floor space (two stacked cages and one on the floor - so you will only have two cages on the floor). Of course, that means six piggies which may not be an option.

 

[weepweeps]

Good luck with the bonding. Hope it goes well. Keep us posted.