Bonding spayed females & boar

M

marthaw765

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Apr 19, 2026
Messages
2
Reaction score
4
Points
35
Location
England
Hi,

My unneutered boar, Fudge (3.5 years) lost his best friend boar Snowy a few weeks ago. He didn’t seem like his usual self so I decided to look for a friend. I spoke to lots of local rescues and went with one that has spayed females as I thought this would be the best option for him as he isn’t neutered. Turns out I decided to get two bonded girls both 2.5 years old! Double the love I say.

Yesterday afternoon, he went to the rescue to bond with the girls. The rescue said it went really well and they were together overnight and absolutely fine, so I picked them all up this evening. They are in the cage together and it’s been VERY noisy 😂 Fudge is very humpy and one of them tells him off straight away and the other girl is a bit more shy. When will the humping stop and when should I intervene? They are not fighting but there is a lot of rumbling and teeth chattering going on. As i’m writing this, though, they’ve worn themselves out so it’s gone quiet so hopefully they will sleep now!
 
marthaw765 said:
Hi,

My unneutered boar, Fudge (3.5 years) lost his best friend boar Snowy a few weeks ago. He didn’t seem like his usual self so I decided to look for a friend. I spoke to lots of local rescues and went with one that has spayed females as I thought this would be the best option for him as he isn’t neutered. Turns out I decided to get two bonded girls both 2.5 years old! Double the love I say.

Yesterday afternoon, he went to the rescue to bond with the girls. The rescue said it went really well and they were together overnight and absolutely fine, so I picked them all up this evening. They are in the cage together and it’s been VERY noisy 😂 Fudge is very humpy and one of them tells him off straight away and the other girl is a bit more shy. When will the humping stop and when should I intervene? They are not fighting but there is a lot of rumbling and teeth chattering going on. As i’m writing this, though, they’ve worn themselves out so it’s gone quiet so hopefully they will sleep now!
Click to expand...

Hi

It is normal for boars meeting sows for the first time for the gonads to take over and losing the 'on' switch to their brain as the female pheromones trigger a huge testosterone flare. The hormone spike should calm down in a day or two.

Sows can be very vocal around boars (usually in protest but also at the onset and during a season) with a special whine) but as long as it is just vocal protest and there is no physical aggression, just let them get on with it and over it as they establish their new group in their new territory. Any outright screaming is submission screaming - and it is usually pretty effective at that. But it can really throw any new owner.

The shy sow is the one who comes bottom while your boy has the top spot and it making his new position clear against the more dominant sow, who is ranked immediately below him.
The hierarchy is established from top down to the bottom rung by rung between adjoining piggies. Any non-involved piggies will stay out until (or after) their ranking has been established. This all follows an instinctive protocol and it sounds very much like it is on track.

What you won't get with spayed sows is seasons so the coming roughly two weeks should get gradually and noticeably calmer after the first couple of days but dominance behaviour will happen until all piggies feel settled and the full bonding process is finished. Most people assume that bonding is just a short introduction whereas the whole process takes a lot longer, has clear stages and not just a hierarchical but also a territorial component.

Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated Bonding Dynamics and Behaviours
Reacting to group or territorial changes: Dominance and group establishment/re-establishment
 
Hello and welcome to the forum. I hope they all settle down soon.
 
Great advice from Wiebke. Bonding always takes a couple of weeks to settle down as they work out the living arrangements. Hopefully it will all settle down soon.
 
Welcome to the forum
You have the joys of a boar and sows group - it can be a lot of fun
When Micah first joined his ladies he was so excited he didn’t know whether to hump them, rumble at them or strut his stuff so he tried to do all three at the same time

He was the recipient of a lot of pee spraying through his life.

We would love pictures of your little group
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top