Do you put a limit on the number of piggies you have at one time?

We used to have a limit of 2 but decided to increase it to 3 so we wouldn't get left a lone piggy when one passes away. Hubby used to just have 2 boars all the time before we met. Now we have 2 girls and a neutered boar. I want more to be honest but the reality of it is we couldn't handle more. We have a big space for them, they roam freely in our living room. But the vet fees and the boarding fees whenever we travel overseas are something we have to take into consideration. Hubby also told me I would just keep on complaining about the amount of cleaning I will do. :lol!:
 
2 of my own and 2 foster pigs. My reasoning is:
Space - my house is very small and so is my fridge
Vet bills - We all have a limit on money
Illness - I could only successfully look after one pig at a time

And most importantly the pigs wellbeing. I want to spend time with them and if I have too many then they run the risk of lack of attention. I just wouldn't have time to spend a good amount of time with each one.
 
This is such an interesting and thought provoking thread. It shows how different we all are in balancing our lives and the care of our piggies. I don’t think the considerations are purely numerical but depend on a number of factors, And it shows how when circumstances change (either ours or the piggies) the impact this can have on us and our piggies. Certainly when we get requests from owners to take theirmpiggies into rescue it is usually prompted by a chance in circumstances often beyond their control (ill health, homelessness, loss of job etc).

At my highest number I had a combination of 11 piggies including my own and my fosters (including babies born to the fosters). I had a cracking routine going of feeding, checking, cleaning etc. It all fitted in alongside work, home etc. But space was very limited. But just one piggy needing prolonged vet treatment and separating from the others caused chaos and tipped the balance in terms of time, energy and space. There was no slack in the system and I quickly felt overwhelmed and realised I couldn’t go that high again.

Another time I had 6 piggies - my own 5 piggies in 2 c and c cages (one trio, one pair ) and one solo foster in a separate cage. It was fine until one of the sows required a spay (Mabel) and during her recovery her cage mate (Mollie) decided to try to kill her so I had to set up a 4th cage as well as dealing with all the syringe feeding, medicating etc. Numerically it worked but a small change caused chaos.

My set up for my own piggies is flexible. It’s a 7 x 2 C and c and I have a removable upper level. It will comfortably hold 5 piggies. And it did, until I lost both Sylvia and Mabel last summer. Now I am down to 3 of my own. And that’s where I think I’ll stay for the time being.

There is a temptation to think I could add up to 2 more but both Holly and Poppy are middle aged now and have had health issues. (I’ve been top up syringe feeding and bathing Poppy for 3 weeks and it’s draining). The vets bills have been high recently and my personal and financial circumstances have changed. Taking into account time, vets bills, boarding costs etc. I think keeping to 3 is the sensible thing for me to do at present. But if the mix changes at some point in the future I would consider perhaps increasing to a maximum of 4.
 
It's very interesting reading people's comments. This is something l have struggled with for sometime (and still am to some extent)
The most piggies l have had here was 29 when l took in 5 pregnant sows. It was a wonderful time but basically l was working 16 hour days, thankfully l am retired from 'real' work. I was exhausted and l vowed never to be in that situation again.
I have largely stopped taking in piggies for the rescue but still do the occasional rehome, or take back ex BARC piggies if necessary. Currently l have 13 long stay pigs in 5 groups, and 1 piggy waiting for a home.
It's the number of cages that l find most challenging, if l could get down to 4 groups it would be a lot easier. Floor time and cleaning is on a Rota basis.
My worst time is holiday cover, getting adequate cover for the piggies with health needs is challenging. I have a team of 3 people that l use, 2 professional pet sitters and a piggy knowledgeable friend. I also have 5 rabbits to care for.
I dread the thought of getting ill or injured, we could cope short term but longer term would be difficult. Another reason to reduce numbers!
I spend a lot of money at the vets but l don't really spend it on anything else!
It is difficult if several piggies are unwell at once, drawing up medication can take 20 minutes morning and evening, never mind syringe feeding...
But l love it and wouldn't be without my little furry friends. I can't ever imagine not having any but my ideal would be one group of piggies and one group of rabbits. Then l might actually have a relatively normal life!
 
Like you, I have only two guinea pigs. they are male. For this reason, I can never get a "third" male because obviously a trio of male guinea pigs can result in major problems, so this crushes my temptations to ever get a third pig. Also, If I did get another pair of boars or females, I'd have to get another cage and I don't have time/room for that as I have 4 other pets (3 dogs and a cat) and they dominant most of the house. At one point I had the guinea pigs along with five dogs which was ALOT of pets but I made it work until some of my doggies passed. Guinea pigs also can be costly (I pay a lot for hay+food+toys/accessories) per month and honestly, I really can't imagine the cost with four or more pigs. These are pretty much my reasons for only having two. I really do enjoy my boys and they are the first guinea pigs I have ever had, so I would continue on having pairs after them. The fun about having only two piggies is that I think you can spend a lot more individual time with them (hold them and cuddle more, I would find that hard to spend 40 minutes of cuddle time with four or even six pigs).
 
I have 3, I think space wise this is my limit, I like everything about my trio and adding another would scare me in case it rocks the boat. In the future I might possibly have 4. But that is definitely my limit 😂 unless I win the lottery in which case I could imagine that number would grow 😂
 
As others have said, very interesting and thought provoking question! I would say a single herd of 4 is my maximum, one boar and three sows. I just love watching the interaction you get with a herd. If you only have 3, I feel like one pig ends up a loner, hence the 4 where everypig should have a least 1 close friend.

At the moment I have 11 pigs, in 4 groups -- 2 boar/sow pairs, a boar and two sows, and a boar and three sows. I never planned to have this many, originally I only planned to have a boar pair. When they fell out and started pining for in-cage company, I had them both neutered and planned to get them a girl each, for my new "hard maximum" of four pigs. I thought this would allow for a sufficiently high quality of life for both pairs, while still being manageable in terms of time needed to look after them.

A long story later, we have our eleven. I love them all dearly, but as others have said, things aren't how I'd like them to be. Not enough floortime is definitely my biggest issue. It's not so bad when you consider one of the pairs, and the trio, have 2x7 C&C equivalent cages, but for the quad who have the same-sized cage and the pair who have a 2x4 C&C equivalent... Not enough space! If I had one group, a neutered boar and 10 sows, I really think everyone's quality of life would be better, as I'd just have one massive pen.

When even one pig gets ill, it really messes up with my schedule, especially when syringe feeding is involved (around 1.5 hours per day for a REALLY speedy pig, and up to 4.5 hours for a very poorly one). It takes 40 mins a night to spot clean all our pigs, and 2 hours at the weekend to change over the cages. Add on 3 hours once a month for "piggy salon" with thorough health checks, nail clips, and hair cuts. With my mental health, it's really got to the point some days where all I can manage is spot cleaning the pigs. Things would be more manageable if I were able to be a stay-at-home-wife, but myself and partner both work full time. Trying to get 3 loads of pig laundry washed and dried is a feat, as well as at least 4 human loads!

Vet costs are astronomical. We are so lucky we can afford to pay for whatever is needed, but having both Rolo and Flash be very unwell indeed within months of each other really hit our bank account (we're at about £3k this financial year so far on vet bills alone). We also have a number of pigs with complex pre-existing health problems who take up a lot of time and money -- I would never ever begrudge them this, but it does get exhausting.

There are definitely days where I daydream about having fewer pigs and having more time to devote to each individual. I'm being very careful with bereaved pigs, making sure that their partners can slot into the other groups, so I don't fall into the cycle needing to get more pigs. As others have said, I think it's very dependent on the person. It's also scarily easy to exponentially increase your number of pigs in a short time; December 2016 I had 2, March 2017 I had 9 (three due to an unexpected pregnancy from a rescue pig)!

As much as I have highlighted the "bad" points, there are SO MANY good points about owning pigs, too many to mention. Their little faces peering up at me in the morning for veg; the wheeking when they recognise my footstep; watching them snuggle up together; hearing them pootle about; watching them zoom when you freshen their hay... I just wish I had more time to enjoy these parts!
 
This is a really interesting thread.
I have 3 at present but a part of me would love another.
I had 4 at one point last year due to forward planning because of Merab’s age & not wanting Jemimah to be left alone. Sadly Merab died a lot sooner than anticipated so I have a lovely group of 3 which is comfortable in terms of space and costs.
I’m also planning ahead as we will retire in the next 6 - 8 years and my husband wants to spend the winter months somewhere warmer which would be difficult with piggies.
My plan is to allow my 3 to live out their lives (hopefully long) and then foster which will allow us to have piggies but be free in the winter.
However - who knows how the the future will work out
 
I currently have 10 but my shed is set up for 12 in 3 hutches that were supposed to be 5, 5 and 2. At the moment in the big hutches we have a group of 4 in one, and one hutch split into 2 lots of 2 then we have the smaller 2 pig house (and by smaller I mean 14 square feet instead of 33). In the summer I am redesigning the accommodation to hold 4 groups of 4, 4, 2 and 2. More hutches in a different, hopefully easier to clean and access set up but still the same total number of piggles.
 
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