Does anyone have expereince with boars castrated very young?

Swissgreys

Swissgreys

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I was wondering if anyone else has any expereince with boars who were castrated prior to sexual maturity?
In Switzerland it is common practice for all boars to be castrated at between 2 - 3 weeks old, so there are never any accidental litters (hence rescue animals are very rare).

This does alter their behavior - far less 'boarly' stuff happens, but I wondered how this would affect their ability to live together.
Here boars are usually seen as the easier pairing than females, but I am thinking about trying to bond Eddi with Harry and Lucy.
I know that normally 2 boys and a girl would be a recipe for disaster, but would it make a difference that they were never 'full' boars (please don't told Eddi I said that :))).

They currently live side by side and have contact through the grids, and Eddi used to live with Lucy (whom he adores).
Harry often comes to the grids and 'shouts' for Eddi, and the two of them are also happy to lay side by side after a good old rumble strut.
The good news is that if I could make it work the three of them would have a 10 x 2 C&C with lofts, so space wouldn't be an issue.

But has anyone else ever had a similar situation and made it work?
 
I know that @Betsy and @BertisKing both have 2 neutered boars living in harmony with their sows but they both have more than one sow in their herd.
As we all know, some piggies are exceptions to the rule.
 
I know there's a girl on line who has a herd with 2 boars, and I believe they were neutered young. I think the best way to find out is to try and see what happens. I'd be very interested in your experiment. Good luck.
 
Dennis and Christian are brothers who fortunately decided they liked each other early on and I didn't have much of a problem with them through the turbulant teens and were well bonded. They were neutered at around 4 months old. The three girls Velvet (DA BOSS), Betsy and Meg were also well bonded.

With a bit of trepidation, I introduced Velvet to the boys first and once she had accepted them I then introduced the Betsy first and then Meg last (Meg was and still is bottom of the hierarchy). After much wee spray, humping running away but not much teeth chattering, they all got on famously. Velvet is Boss Piggy and nobody challenged this (they didn't dare!) then it was Betsy, Christian (dominant boar), Dennis and then finally shy little Meg. Betsy and Christian have now swapped places in the hierarchy as Betsy is developing cataracts. Dennis doesn't mind that Betsy is slightly higher than him in the rankings and she is the love of his life. Meg is still more than happy living as the under sow.

I know I am very lucky that everypig gets on so well. I have never had a problem with any of them apart from the odd bicker but Velvet soon sorts that out. I do have a Plan B in case I need to split them up.

The only thing I can say is give it a go it may work and if it doesn't you're not going to be any worse off. Everybody told me it wouldn't work and it did for me!
 
I think I would give it a go, if you do I wish you all the luck in the world. There are exceptions to every rule, and maybe the rule is different in early neutured boars. Early neutering is so rare here it would be lovely to know if it does make a difference, it's an interesting idea.
 
Thanks for all of the support and advice.
I plan to try them on Sunday (when I have lots of time to observe) so I will update and let you know how we get on.
Eddi adores Lucy, so no worries on that front, but Harry is currently being a bit of an obnoxious teen (constant pointless rubmble strutting anyone) so we will see how the boys get on without a grid between them.
 
Swissgreys said:
Thanks for all of the support and advice.
I plan to try them on Sunday (when I have lots of time to observe) so I will update and let you know how we get on.
Eddi adores Lucy, so no worries on that front, but Harry is currently being a bit of an obnoxious teen (constant pointless rubmble strutting anyone) so we will see how the boys get on without a grid between them.
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I wish you the best and hope everypig gets on with one another. Let us know how you get on.
 
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