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Groups Of Boars Success Stories?

SusieW

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hello!

I was just wondering if anyone has any success stories regarding groups of boars?

I now have four boars and they get on great together. We sometimes have rumblestrutting and the occasional teeth chatter, and the usual dominance behaviours when they were introduced, but mostly they love to spend time with each other, and they often sleep in a row! They can often be found chilling out in different combinations of pigs- it's like they rotate who they sit with!- but as far as I can tell they all get on and no one seems to get left out.

We have a definite leader- had a few problems when the one year old we've had from a baby was very hormonal and wanted to be boss, but the oldest put him in his place and we're fine now!

I was just wondering if anyone has any success stories of boar- trios or groups? I've seen a lot of negativity about groups of boars and would really love to hear about some happy groups of boys.

Also I'd be interested to know if there's any common denominators of successful groups? We have lots of food bowls, water bottles and hay areas and a fair bit of space (we think 45 square feet floorspace plus 22ft of tubes for running and to connect the levels) I think different levels really helps too so they can get away from each other if they are irritating each other!

Anyway, would love to hear about happy boars!
 
Hello!

I was just wondering if anyone has any success stories regarding groups of boars?

I now have four boars and they get on great together. We sometimes have rumblestrutting and the occasional teeth chatter, and the usual dominance behaviours when they were introduced, but mostly they love to spend time with each other, and they often sleep in a row! They can often be found chilling out in different combinations of pigs- it's like they rotate who they sit with!- but as far as I can tell they all get on and no one seems to get left out.

We have a definite leader- had a few problems when the one year old we've had from a baby was very hormonal and wanted to be boss, but the oldest put him in his place and we're fine now!

I was just wondering if anyone has any success stories of boar- trios or groups? I've seen a lot of negativity about groups of boars and would really love to hear about some happy groups of boys.

Also I'd be interested to know if there's any common denominators of successful groups? We have lots of food bowls, water bottles and hay areas and a fair bit of space (we think 45 square feet floorspace plus 22ft of tubes for running and to connect the levels) I think different levels really helps too so they can get away from each other if they are irritating each other!

Anyway, would love to hear about happy boars!

We do not see many success stories because the most important element - LOTS of space to get away from each other is usually the hardest to provide. Most people do not have a whole room or half a room to allow each boy to get away from any others and have enough room left to himself in order to avoid confrontations and fights.
Most people also expect their piggies to live in a closely knit group, not hanging out in different areas. Food hogging or possessiveness over bottles, hay access or hideys are also space related issues - if there are enough and they are well spaced away from each other, then they can no longer be controlled and claimed by the dominant boar.

Same/similar age is the second most common reason for failure: most trios and quartets are baby boars/sub-adult and that is a usually a recipe for disaster when they all hit puberty together. Which is what we are usually dealing with on this forum - a new owner thrilled with their baby pair or with three or four children is adding one or two more or starting out with a baby group and is then amazed when things suddenly go haywire as soon as their cute little babies turn into hormonal teenagers.

The third key feature when it comes to guinea pigs is that if they are allowed to choose each other, there are no hard and fast rules - anything goes as long as the piggies in question get on and like each other, but as soon as we humans choose who to bond with who and expect our choice of personalities to get on things can go wrong very quickly. Character compatibility is key for any pair and small group, whether that is sows, sows with a neutered boar or a boar quartet. As soon as you get two dominant personalities where neither is willing to back down, you have had it! That goes for any combination...

I have seen successful boar trios where the boars were the ones that decided on their own that they wanted to be together; often it was a bereaved boar moving in with and being accepted by his neighbours; sometimes they have done it by their own volition. But those cases are generally adult/older boars. Sometimes an adult boar pair will accept a youngster, but not always and we have seen it end up with the bonded boars falling out with each other more than once.

The long term successful boar quartets I know of generally consist of old age pensioners where testosterone has long since fizzled out or disabled (often blind/lethal/neurological issues) boars with carer companions, which have different dynamics.
TEAS (The Excellent Adventure Sanctuary for guinea pigs with special needs) has had several quartets and trios that include blind/deaf lethals. The Excellent Adventure Sanctuary (for guinea pigs with extra needs)

Because of the space restriction and the fact that most people tempted to bond boar pairs are inexperienced owners with usually baby or sub-adult boars we strongly recommend not to try. It is no fun for us to sort out the resulting mess with the usually very upset owners who are struggling providing for their fallen-out boars.
The worst case we had to deal with was quartet of same age teenage boars in a too small cage that ended up as 4 singles where none of the boys would go back with any of the others; most often quartet owners end up with one pair and two singles in our over 10 year experience.

Count yourself lucky for having the means to create a suitable habitat to pull off your successful boar group! Bachelor groups generally become more stable the larger they are, but that may take a whole room or outbuilding with suitable outdoors space.
 
We do not see many success stories because the most important element - LOTS of space to get away from each other is usually the hardest to provide. Most people do not have a whole room or half a room to allow each boy to get away and have anough room left to himself in order to avoid confrontations and fights. They also expect their piggies to live in a closely knit group, not getting away from each other. Food hogging or possessiveness over bottles, hay access or hideys are also space related issues - if there are enough that are well spaced away, then they can no longer be control and claimed by the dominant boar.

Same/similar age is the second most common reason for failure: most trios and quartets are baby boars/sub-adult and that is a recipe for disaster when they all hit puberty together. Which is what we are usually dealing with here - a new owner thrilled with their baby pair or with three or four children is adding one or two more or starting out with a baby group and then amazed when things suddenly go haywire as soon as their cute little babies turn into hormonal teenagers.

The third key feature when it comes to guinea pigs is that if they are allowed to choose each other, there are no hard and fast rules, but as soon as we choose who to bond and expect our choice of personalities to get on, things can go wrong very quickly. Character compatibility is key for any pair and small group, whether that is sows, sows with a neutered boar or a boar quartet. As soon as you get two dominant personalities where neither is willing to back down, you have had it! That goes for any combination...
I have seen successful boar trios where the boars were the ones that decided on their own that they wanted to be together; often it was a bereaved boar moving in with and being accepted by his neighbours; sometimes they have done it by their own volition. But those cases are generally adult/older boars.

The long term successful boar quartets I know of generally consist of old age pensioners where testosterone has long since fizzled out or disabled (often blind/lethal/neurological issues) boars with carer companions, which have different dynamics.
TEAS (The Excellent Adventure Sanctuary for guinea pigs with special needs) has had several quartets and trios that include blind/deaf lethals. The Excellent Adventure Sanctuary (for guinea pigs with extra needs)

Because of the space restriction and the fact that most people tempted to bond boar pairs are inexperienced owners with usually baby or sub-adult boars we strongly recommend not to try. It is no fun for us to sort out the resulting mess with the usually very upset owners who are struggling providing for their fallen-out boars.

The worst case we had to deal with was quartet of same age teenage boars in a too small cage that ended up as 4 singles where none of the boys would go back with any of the others; most often quartet owners end up with one pair and two singles in our over 10 year experience.

Count yourself lucky for having the means to create a suitable habitat to pull off your successful boar group! Bachelor groups generally become more stable the larger they are, but that may take a whole room or outbuilding with suitable outdoors space.

Wow, thank you Wiebke for such a detailed reply! That is all really interesting- thank you for sharing such a lot of knowledge with me. :) I feel very lucky indeed to have a successful group of four after reading all that. :D
 
Wow, thank you Wiebke for such a detailed reply! That is all really interesting- thank you for sharing such a lot of knowledge with me. :) I feel very lucky indeed to have a successful group of four after reading all that. :D

I agree. I'm another of those lucky ones who has a (currently) successful trio of boars, and I have the elusive 'tons of space' that @Wiebke talks about (20 square feet, plus loft, plus full run of the living room every few days). I've had them since they were all 2 or 3 months old, and they have been together all their lives - they are now approaching a year old. Don't get me wrong - I still have a plan B, just in case, and there have been a few hairy moments, but they seem fairly settled now. Just the odd bit of chattering and chasing. It is a 90% fail rate, but that means there's a 10% success for a trio, so I'm hoping mine are in the 10% :yahoo:
 
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