Bonding Two Pairs

[Guineagirl56]

hi everyone
I have a established pair of an 6 year sow and a 2 and a half year old neutered boar who I got from a rescue centre to replace the sow’s first companion - another sow. I have just impulse rescued from a neglectful home - not a centre - 2 one year old sows with the idea of putting them together. Having now read that this can break the original bond pairing I am worried about trying it. I do not want my own pair to be upset in any way. It seems that if I try and it fails and a piggies gets left out there’s no going back to the original bonding. Is that true? At the moment they are in correx cages near each other. My piggies have the run of the room during the day and are really enjoying the excitement. Especially the male! I have left a little gap so they can see each other and there’s been a lot of nose touching mostly friendly but a couple of more threatening behaviours once or twice from the more dominant sow in the new pair. Any advice would be very welcome.

 

[Cavy Kung-Fu]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

It might be an idea to move the cages apart for now, I would always recommend quarantining any new piggies for 3-4 weeks, particularly as you rescued them from a neglectful home. That way you can make sure nothing gets passed on to your original pair

I think you should be fine introducing your piggies eventually, I introduced 2 new sows to my first 2 and it took a little while but they really loved having another pair of piggies living with them. They seemed a lot happier being in a bigger group, I also think it made my original sisters' bond stronger

For now I would watch out for any signs of illness from your new girls, it might be best to pop to a cavy savvy vet for a full health check in the next few days too. Then once you're happy that no illness has appeared in a few weeks you can have a look at the bonding guides on here and give it a go! Neutral territory and a nice new big cage (I think a 2x7 should be okay for 4?) and I think it'll be great for you all!

 

[Guineagirl56]

Thank you. That is very helpful and encouraging. I do think mine seem happier with more pigs around - even though I spend s lot of time with them it’s obviously not the same as other pigs.

 

[Cavy Kung-Fu]

Thank you. That is very helpful and encouraging. I do think mine seem happier with more pigs around - even though I spend s lot of time with them it’s obviously not the same as other pigs.

That's very true! Not a lot of people realise that

I was so surprised at my first 2 girls when they started living with 2 more. I never thought they were missing anything before but seeing their new behaviours and how happy they were when they became a small herd made all the bonding worries worthwhile