Bonding a sow and boar

[Pigglemama]

I wanted to ask some advice please to all you knowledgeable piggy owners. As some of you know we lost our precious Percy and he has left behind Gerald age one. They never bonded but they were neighbours. We have reserved and paid for a little 5 month old sow from a rescue and I really want her to have a successful bonding with Gerald as I feel he would thrive from a lovely pal that he can share his space with.
I know that I need to bond in neutral territory but do I need to clean out Gerald’s existing home before I put them together ( bonding success permitting)
Also if I take the divide down that separated Percy and Gerald that gives an area of 8x4 (CC grids) is this too big do you think? More than happy just to put them in a smaller area.
I really want this to work!
Thank you in advance!

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m sorry for your loss

When they move into their permanent cage (post neutral territory bonding), you have two options, the cage either:
- needs to smell of no piggy at all. So you do a total clean out.
- or it needs to smell of BOTH Gerald and the new sow. it cannot smell of just Gerald, as it runs the risk of him then still seeing it as his territory and refusing her access.
So in this case you would have to transfer scent onto fleece from both piggies, such as rubbing the fleece on the piggies plus using fleece in the bonding pen and then moving those fleeces into the permanent cage.

I think it’s easier to just fully clean everything out so the permanent cage is also completely neutral!

You can leave it as an 8x4 if that is the size you want them to have.
I think I would make the cage a bit smaller though for ease of taking care of it! A boar/sow pair need a 4x2 so you could still go 6x2 or 6x3 so they’ve got more than recommended size if you’ve got the space for that

Fingers crossed for the bonding!

 

[Pigglemama]

I’m sorry for your loss

When they move into their permanent cage (post neutral territory bonding), you have two options, the cage either:
- needs to smell of no piggy at all. So you do a total clean out.
- or it needs to smell of BOTH Gerald and the new sow. it cannot smell of just Gerald, as it runs the risk of him then still seeing it as his territory and refusing her access.
So in this case you would have to transfer scent onto fleece from both piggies, such as rubbing the fleece on the piggies plus using fleece in the bonding pen and then moving those fleeces into the permanent cage.

I think it’s easier to just fully clean everything out so the permanent cage is also completely neutral!

You can leave it as an 8x4 if that is the size you want them to have.
I think I would make the cage a bit smaller though for ease of taking care of it!

Fingers crossed for the bonding!

Thank you this is really helpful. I think I’ll make it a little smaller as I could do with more storage for hay! I’ll definitely do a full clean - won’t his hideys smell of him though? They’re wooden ( a castle and a flexible twig one- hard to clean! )Or am I getting a bit carried away? X

 

[Piggies&buns]

You can rub her with a small towel and then rub that onto the wooden hides to be doubly sure her scent is there

Don’t forget you don’t put hides in the bonding pen. Don’t rush their time in the bonding pen - they can stay in there all day and night if necessary.
Only add the hides once they happy in the main cage and make sure all hides have two exits

 

[Pigglemama]

You can rub her with a small towel and then rub that onto the wooden hides to be doubly sure her scent is there

Don’t forget you don’t put hides in the bonding pen. Don’t rush their time in the bonding pen - they can stay in there all day and night if necessary.
Only add the hides once they happy in the main cage and make sure all hides have two exits

That’s a good idea. We are getting her at 5.15pm so I won’t have much time to bond before night time and my worry is Gerald is a climber and escape the bonding pen ( I’ll be using a small metal surround) I’m hoping 5 or so hours will be enough!

 

[Piggies&buns]

Given she is 5 months and not a tiny baby needing immediate companionship, Can you leave the side by side for the night and then bond the next day so you have all day to do it? The thing is, if you move them too soon then they end up going into a second rush of dominance once they are back in the cage and then you won’t be able to monitor them without staying up
It’ll give her chance to settle in and for them to get acquainted through the bars.
If he has never been with a sow before then he could go overboard and if she is on edge from the journey and being in a new home he may be quite a lot for her initially

 

[Pigglemama]

Given she is 5 months and not a tiny baby needing immediate companionship, Can you leave the side by side for the night and then bond the next day so you have all day to do it? The thing is, if you move them too soon then they end up going into a second rush of dominance once they are back in the cage and then you won’t be able to monitor them without staying up
It’ll give her chance to settle in and for them to get acquainted through the bars.
If he has never been with a sow before then he could go overboard and if she is on edge from the journey and being in a new home he may be quite a lot for her initially

Brilliant idea. I am home all day the folllowing day so that would work really well. I did consider that but was worried she was too tiny to leave alone. She has been with her two sisters up until now so I hope she’ll be ok!

 

[Piggies&buns]

If she was any younger I wouldn’t be suggesting it but she should be ok for one night, and she has him beside her - just make sure he doesn’t get in with her, double the grid height if necessary.

If she is really struggling then of course you should do the bonding tonight, but giving her some time to settle and making sure you have the hours needed for them to bond and for you to monitor is beneficial

 

[Wiebke]

I wanted to ask some advice please to all you knowledgeable piggy owners. As some of you know we lost our precious Percy and he has left behind Gerald age one. They never bonded but they were neighbours. We have reserved and paid for a little 5 month old sow from a rescue and I really want her to have a successful bonding with Gerald as I feel he would thrive from a lovely pal that he can share his space with.
I know that I need to bond in neutral territory but do I need to clean out Gerald’s existing home before I put them together ( bonding success permitting)
Also if I take the divide down that separated Percy and Gerald that gives an area of 8x4 (CC grids) is this too big do you think? More than happy just to put them in a smaller area.
I really want this to work!
Thank you in advance!

Hi

I prefer to give my mixed gender piggies some days with a divider so the first pheromone rush/hormone surge/over-excitement from the boy is over, the new arrival has time to get their bearing and is less stressed out (less risk of a fear-aggressive initial over-reaction).

If you can, please take all day in the bonding pen so they can really work through the roughest part of the hierarchy/group establishment which makes for noticeably less dominance in the new shared and freshly cleaned home.

By that more advanced stage they are also bonded enough that the scent question is pretty moot; they have decided to stay together by then and are well into the small print - especially as the social wiring is very different. Sow groups choose the boar they want to come and live with them to make the next generation of babies so once acceptance has happened a boar (or sow) is welcome to move in.
A cross gender bond is in fact a status rise for both, as they are founding a new territorial group together but with different roles in that group. One of them will still be the overall leader and not every piggy is necessarily willing to accept every boar but as your girl is still very young and has all her biological and social urges behind her, the likely acceptance rate is very high.

It is different with same gender bonding although much stronger with boars who are living together in much more informal pairings than sows who are wired to live in (generally related) groups.

The invader reflex only comes into play when you put an unknown piggy into the territory of and expect them to get on.

I second that you need less territory for a cross gender pair or sows. However, please make sure that there is a firm divider between the cage and any hay storage, in case the hay topples over and comes within reach of piggy mouths (plastic!) that they cannot chew through. Just so you can prevent a common problem and panic moment.

I hope that this helps you?
Here is some practical information you may find helpful and interesting:
- A Closer Look At Pairs (Boars - Sows - Mixed)
- Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated Bonding Dynamics and Behaviours
- The Herd, the Group and I: Investigating Guinea Pig Identity and Society