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Herds - Poll

Mixed herd or all sow

  • All Sows

    Votes: 12 46.2%

  • Mixed Sow and Neutered Male

    Votes: 14 53.8%
  • Total voters
    26
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BecklenGPRescue

BecklenGPRescue

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Just wondering those with guinea pig herds how many of you have all sow herds or have a neutered male included, I'd also like to know your reasons why you included a neutered male and if you think it was thr right choice :)

Thank you
Becky
xx
 
Interesting poll Becky. I have a right old mixture here, four (soon to be five) separate groups. One group is a pair of intact boars. One is a pair of sows. The remaining three of those five are neutered boar/sow groups.

Dexter lives with five sows. He's a total softie, adores his women. He was neutered at 6 months old and has lived with a sow since he was 7.5 months (he is now almost 3 years).

Franklyn lives with one sow. He would love more, he gets on with other girls. However, his lady won't share him - she has a serious issue with any other pig, particularly sows.

The third group are as yet unnamed, both are yet to arrive here! The sow is currently known as Baggy, coming from Vikki at GPRN. She's has two potential suitors lined up at Walsall RSPCA, provided I pass a homecheck. Baggy is recently bereaved after living with a neutered male, and temperament-wise she is just like Franklyn's Mrs. - won't share her man and has issues with other sows.

The neutered boar with 1 or more sows is a wonderful grouping, in my experience. I have problems with girls not getting along, there are often problems with boys not getting along. From everything I have experienced and heard from others, once a neutered boar is settled with a group of girls (once his realises that being "amorous" will probably get him peed on!) then they seem to live a very contented existance.
 
2 trios of boys, 1 pair of boys and a herd of 13 girls who live with 1 neutered boy. Thanks to Becklen I have my neutered boy and he has been a very easy addition to the herd. The girls took to him with no problems and he seems a very happy boy. Why did I get him - I always wondered would a neutered boy create a more natural herd and diffuse some of the cattiness a big group of girls can have. In saying that I've been very lucky that the bigger my girl group became the happier they seemed to become.
 
I have all sows. The tosh I hear about sows being grumpy or moody annoys me! I have groups of up to 10 sows living together and of course they bicker but there has never been any fighting. I too tried to introduce a neutered boar, who immediately tried to mount my pigs..they weren't happy!
 
Hi I have 7 guineas,

a group of 3 sows, mum and her two pups, who are now 4 months old.

a group of 2 boars, dad and son.

and two seperate rescued boars in connected C&C, hoping to introduce them properly at some point.

All are in connected C&Cs so can see hear and smell each other.
 
Tracy, the majority of sows do get along I'm sure. Maybe it is just me who picks the extremely feisty, independent ones! I have had four with that temperament.

Most of the time it is down to personalities, but as I implied in my post I've personally had difficulties between girls, and no trouble between neutered boars and sows.
 
I have two trios of girls. Poppy wouldn't accept any other pigs not even a neutered boy or a baby girl into her group. Charlotte ended up on her own and the only friends I could find for her were two girls. Maybe the younger trio will expand in the future but Poppy won't accept anyone else into the older group.
 
I have a group of 4 sows. They get along fine, my newest one Tinsel was a bit of a drama queen when she first arrived, bossing everyone about, but then the pecking order was established and it's blissful now.
 
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I've got a pair of boars, and two herds which consist of two sows and a neutered boar.

The only experience I've had of an entirely sow herd was Annie and Ruby - and they were not entirely harmonious! Annie(under a year) is just too bouncy for Ruby (2-3 years) but when I introduced my boy Squeeky everything seemed to settle down - as now Annie can't spend all her time bothering just one pig! She is throughly in love with Squeeky who seems to enjoy the company. And Ruby can nap now without being bothered, although gets to retain her queen pig spot.

I got Squeeky neutered when his cage mate Patches died - as I did not have the space for another boar couple, and while Squeeky enjoyed his holiday with Teadragons boys, I had the gut feeling he would never accept another single boar as a friend as quietly and happily as he was with Patches. The two of them used to snuggle up together and drink from the water bottle at pratically the same time.

The other mixed herd is Father, Mother and Daughter. Getting Humbug neutered was the only option - he's very other boar aggressive, and simply adores Emily! They came into rescue as a breeding pair, and it seemed a shame to break them up (and keep Emily preggers!) so when HUmbug was seperated pending the babies arrival, he got the chop. By the time babies were born and weaned, he was ready to move in with his wife and daughter.

While he was single he was a grumpy, miserable, difficult pig! He used to trash his cage, bite everytime you went to pick him up.... Now living with his family he is so much more chilled out. Once upon a time I tried introducing Ruby to this group - no dice! Emily would just not have another lady making eyes at her man! A lot like your lady Laura - I think Allsorts is allowed to live there as she's never been apart from mum!

I do love my bachelor boars though - they're messy, smelly (boar glue everywhere! D=) they're so boisterous and certainly sleep less than the contented married men ;)
 
I'm not sure what counts as a herd. I have three girls and a neutered boy. The rescue said it's a natural way for them to live. There's a fair bit of humping -by both sexes...

My boy lived as one of a pair before but once he was handed back into the rescue again they didn't get along any more and couldn't find a home so the rescue neutered him. I think it's all about the personality of the pigs! I know Bo gets my girls going. Two would be content with lying in a cozy all day if they didn't have him :)
 
I have a group of 10 - 12 piggies (it varies, I don't mean I don't know how many are in it!) sows with one neutered boar. When my last neutered boar died, all hell broke loose in the sow pen and it was handbags at dawn... so Allan kindly let me offer a home to Paddington, and order was restored!

I find neutered boars are worth their weight in gold when it comes to keeping larger groups of sows -I wouldn't be without one

Sophie
x
 
I wouldn't have built such a large group (6 sows, 7 from next week) as I have without a neutered boar at the core of it. He is a real peacekeeper!

In my observation, it is easier building up a mixed group if you add a male sooner than trying to introduce a neutered boar into a well established group of sows as an afterthought.

On the German and Swiss forums I've had a peek into, there is a real emphasis on having a neutered boar with a group of 2-4 sows as the ideal way of keeping guinea pigs. Neutering is a far more acceptable practice than over here.
 
Paddy is great - he copes with all the women, and I can just put a new sow straight in and it's as if they've always been there! The group is always in flux, he's the only stable one!

Sophie
x
 
I have a trio - 2 sows and one boar. They get on great and it has stopped a bit of bickering between the two sows, not all of it but a bit.

I also have a herd of all girls - 6 of them. They get along great and it's been very very easy. Again they have the odd spat but very few and very mild. I have a boar who is being neutered next week who will eventually go in with them. I didn't plan on doing it but he needed to be rescued asap and i didn't have anyone else to put him with and not having any more cages / groups.

Both types of herds have worked well for me.
 
I have a neutered boar with two girls but it is a new thing so can't really comment on any behaviour changes... the reason i got jive neutered was i fell in love with him but already had 2 girls and bf was not up for another 2 pigs, plus housing a group of boys next to girls might me more problematic!
 
I have a neutered boar with 5 sows. I had him neutered to live with a single older girl (both were on their own) but she didn't like living WITH him so i adopted him a pair of girls & then added 3 more. This & doubling the size of their hutch caused a bit of friction between them all but they calmed down & are really happy :)
 
I have a group of 4 girls and a newly neutered male living next to them (waiting for 5 weeks before he is fully sterile).

I have always had groups of girls and found that they are all different. All of my sows bicker but nothing major - they have a very strong hierachy that I find fascinating.

It's been interesting to see their behaviour since the boar has been next to them. They are certainly more lively, they go up to see him all the time, they popcorn more and generally seem happier. The top sow seems very taken with him and they sleep next to eachother through the bars. I have seen a lot of dominant behaviour especially between the youngest sow and the boar - she keeps yawning at him showing her big teeth! :(|)

I'm hopefully going to keep a bit of a diary when I introduce them all and post it on the forum if it's of any interest to people considering it! :)
 
I currently have a group of four sows together, and a lone boar. We're hoping to get him done and getting them altogether! We've had the girls in their run and let Sonny out free on the lawn and he's just taken to the ladies really well. They all chatter and they'll get on so well, I'm sure!
 
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