How many boars is too many

[Sillypigs]

Hi, this is my first post and I joined as I am relatively new to keeping guinea pigs. My family and I were gifted 2 6 month old bonded males. An American Short haired (Geoff) an English crested (Boris) and we have just successfully introduced a new long haired 12 week old male (Gizmo) Geoff and Boris are very tamed now and definitely bonded and even though Geoff is dominant Boris and Gizmo get on well. It’s been about a week now and I have the bug, so I was thinking of introducing a Rosette male to the herd, but a lot of sellers are telling me that it’s not a good idea as boys fight. We wanted to stay with boys so we don’t have to get them neutered with females, but maybe that’s wrong. Can you guys share your experience with a) having a boat herd and b) how long to wait before we introduce another pig to the herd. Thanks

 

[piggieminder]

Adding More Guinea Pigs Or Merging Pairs – What Works And What Not?

You can have as many boars as you like as long as they are only in pairs in separate cages. Keeping more than 2 boars together is very unlikely once they hit the hormonal stage (3-4 months).

 

[Free Ranger]

Aaah, a trio of boars...

Enjoy your trio for now as more experienced members will tell you that as everyone gets older hormones kick in and things may well get more 'lively' and usually you end up in a two and one situation which requires splitting... and if that happens you'll probably be looking for a fourth anyway to make up two pairs!

So I suppose if you pace yourself it's win-win? If you want to look at it that way!

 

[Piggies&buns]

As above. This is unlikely to work out for the long term, particularly as you’ve put three teens together. Most boar trips require splitting up before they reach adulthood
Adding a fourth will make it even more likely to fail.

boars require more room than sows, even more so when attempting to keep more than two boars together - ensure
you’ve got a cage measuring at least one square metre per piggy, and the ability to split them up.

 

[hrsrdr]

Adding More Guinea Pigs Or Merging Pairs – What Works And What Not?

You can have as many boars as you like as long as they are only in pairs in separate cages. Keeping more than 2 boars together is very unlikely once they hit the hormonal stage (3-4 months).

This is true. Having too many together, especially when they begin to grow older, and when they're getting more hormonal is not likely to work out. Around 3-4 months, the piggies start to get territorial, and having two usually works out, but having three is risky, because if one isn't fighting the other two are. THis is the same reason you can only have one boar for each group of females. They begin to fight too much, except over the sows, and it's risky to put other piggies in the middle of their fighting.