Expanding my herd!

[Lissa101]

Firstly I wanted to say hi, I'm new here but this seems like a great forum. I absolutely love guinea pigs, so I imagine I'll be here a lot!

So I have two male piggies who I got from a rescue centre. I don't know much about them at all other than that they were found abandoned in a box and riddled with mites. I don't know their age, and I'm only assuming that they're brothers because they're pretty much identical!

I'm hoping at some point in the future to expand my group with more rescued piggies, and I had a few questions!

Because I've got two boys (who get along well), would it be safe to introduce other boars? This would be a boar only group. Do boars tend to fight when there are no sows present?

If I added sows and had my males neutered, would the males be likely to fight? They get on so well now, but I'm no expert in what might happen if I added girls to the mix!

I'm not keen on splitting my boys up, they really love each other, and have been through a lot together already! Just looking for any ideas on what might work best

Thanks everyone!

 

[lissie]

You can try to introduce them in neutral territory. The key to having multiple boars together is lots and lots of space. Wider cages will help too. If you have C&C, 3x cages work better than 2x cages since they are wider.

Also multiple food dishes and water bottles. Any hideys should have multiple doors so nobody can get trapped. You'll also need one hidey per pig plus an extra one so they don't fight for the hidey.

See this for information for boars intros.
http://www.guinealynx.info/forums/viewtopic.php?t=46468

 

[Lissa101]

Thanks for the reply! I was thinking of keeping the boars in separate cages (except for the ones used to each other), but then mixing them when it's playtime? We've got this huge outdoor inclosure which used to have cats in, so more than enough room for loads of piggies!

 

[salapples]

Hello and welcome to the forum. Hope you don't mind me asking - which rescue did your boys come from? Bet they're so glad to be with you now after their shaky start.
As your boys are so well-bonded, adding to them could easily spell problems. Boys can happily live in pairs, but it is very unusual for a larger herd of all boys to live happily together as dominance issues will occur and they can turn on each other. There has been a number of examples on here where people have trios and two of the trio turn on the third.
I have 2 pairs of boys (2 cages, 2 runs etc) and wouldn't want to upset the relationships each couple has by adding to them - if I want more piggies (I do!) then it means another cage.
Hope that helps.

 

[salapples]

Thanks for the reply! I was thinking of keeping the boars in separate cages (except for the ones used to each other), but then mixing them when it's playtime? We've got this huge outdoor inclosure which used to have cats in, so more than enough room for loads of piggies!

Not a good idea - this could upset the pigs that are bonded with each other, so you could then end up with lots of single boys. Fights between the boys could also very easily break out during 'play' time. Not worth it, in my opinion.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi and welcome!

I would strongly recommend keeping any boys in couples; trios fail more often than not (regularly if all three boars are subadult) and quartets are even more unstable. Please don't put a stable boar bond at risk by trying to introduce a third piggy - at worst, you can end up with three single boars that won't go back together.

There are big groups of boars that work, but they need loads (and I mean loads!) of space - unlike you happen to have a whole outbuilding and half a garden...

You may find out boar guide helpful; it also contains further links.
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=76162

 

[Lissa101]

Thanks for the help everyone If I rescue more I'll just let them into the big outdoor enclosure at different times. As I said, I don't want to upset the bond between my two boys!