How many?

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Furry_Friend

Hi!

I was just wondering people's thoughts on the size of Guinea pig groups.

I have 3 sows and a neutered boar living together and am looking to get some more girls (possibly 4) Would a group of 8 piggies be too much? Would I be better off having 2 gropus of 4?

How many do some of you have in a group?
 
Furry_Friend said:
Hi!

I was just wondering people's thoughts on the size of Guinea pig groups.

I have 3 sows and a neutered boar living together and am looking to get some more girls (possibly 4) Would a group of 8 piggies be too much? Would I be better off having 2 gropus of 4?

How many do some of you have in a group?
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the more the merrier in my opinion. but make sure their housing is big enough to house as many as you'll have in the cage!
 
I think you 4 sows and a boar is a good number, you dont want to be over-run, in some ways i dont like having 7 pigs as it means i cant always give them the attention they want or deserve. :(
 
CharlottiesPiggies said:
I think you 4 sows and a boar is a good number, you dont want to be over-run, in some ways i dont like having 7 pigs as it means i cant always give them the attention they want or deserve. :(
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but they dont need as much as they're giving it to each other!
 
Mine end up in groups of 4 because of the size of my hutches, but also if I try and put them in larger groups in runs they don't seem to get on - but I've got some quite bossy sows, so I guess it depends on the characters of your pigs!

If your existing 4 are happy, I wouldn't rock the boat and would probably make two groups, depending on space

Sophie
x
 
I have 7 girls in a group and I'm hoping to get a rescue boar neutered when he arrives to live with them. As long as the cage is big enough. Mine live in a 9x2 C&C but it will be 10x2 once Jasper is neutered.

:)
 
SunshineAndTwinkle said:
I have 7 girls in a group and I'm hoping to get a rescue boar neutered when he arrives to live with them. As long as the cage is big enough. Mine live in a 9x2 C&C but it will be 10x2 once Jasper is neutered.

:)
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Do the girls get on well?

Have they always been together or have you introduced them over time?

My 3 sows are sisters so have always been together.
 
I once had a herd of 21 and they got on very well,, I have always had large herds and i believe this is why my pigs are so chilled,, one on sentry duty the others foraging and chilling, has always worked for me,,

Having a large herd is fun and the social front is also fun to watch, sometimes its like they are in a circle dancing round their handbags:))

But food will increase!
 
I adopted 2 Sows Flora and Fleur from Sokel then 6 months later got Pearl and Amber from Hels as Fleur wanted the role of mum and was bullying Flora a little even though they are sisters.

This really helped Fleur as Amber and Pearl were babes. I took a chance with Elora, Leia and Lyra. Hayley on the forum here was rehoming her pigs and she brought them up. We put them in a neutral area on the garden and they were fine. A bit of nipping but nothing major and now they are all chilled out. :)
 
It all depends on the size of the cage/area you have the piggies in. Depending on hutch size you might be a bit restricted and have to keep them at four per hutch, but if you have a nice area like a shed enclosed in then you could have more running around in that.
I know of a lady on a farm and she has a shed full of piggies....last count she had 92 sows running together and the 30 boys were in the other shed. The food cost is enormous, as you can imagine.

I have five girls living together after they've been in a three and two situation. All works well...the girls are easy to get along - they all met in the run on the grass and went home into a big cleaned out hutch - new territory for all of them. No squabbles!
 
If you have the space and time and money to take care of an additional 4 pigs, then great, go for it.

However something to bear in mind would be how much more difficult rescues seem to find rehoming boars than sows - if I was in your place, I would probably not look to add four more sows to your existing, happy group, I would instead have a second group, like the first with one boar and three sows. So you can give another boar a home, who might have otherwise sat in a rescue for way longer than the sows...
 
Thank you all for your replies...you have given me a lot to think about.

I do like the idea of homing some boars as there are a lot of lone ones out there (just like my Bertie was!)

I only thought of the girls as I am looking at taking Piggybakers girls as she needs to find a home from them.

Outdoor space is not really a problem as I have found hutches that you can attach together side by side. You can also attach one on top of the other but I have a 2 tiered hutch at the mo and the little ones don't seem to like the ramp :(

Hmmm...I don't know what to do now :(
 
stargrrlclaire said:
or you maybe could look for a bonded pair of boars. good point abnoba!
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which might be difficult - I have heard from people who tried to keep boar groups near mixed groups, and the smell of a sow in season was enough to make them fall out with each other.

Which is why I thought of another mixed group.
 
If I had 2 mixed groups, would they be able to interect in a large run?

How would 2 neutered boars cope with each other?

Sorry for all the questions I just want to do the right thing :(
 
Everything I've read suggests that neutering doesn't alter boar behaviour so bonding two adults in the company of sows would be hit or miss I imagine.
 
I personally doubt that two boars and several sows would go well. Yes, there might be some lucky ones where it has worked, but more often it will not. Hence suggesting two groups.

About floortime / gardentime in the run: why not let group A run for a couple of hours, then group B afterwards? rather than trying to divide the running space.
 
I personally wouldn't chance having two neutered boars with a group of sows, I'm sure it works for some but I couldn't be doing with it!

Anyway, if you're looking at taking piggybakers 4 sows and want to know if sows can live in a group together, the answer is yes :)

I have a group of 5 sows and another group of 5 sows and a boar. The boar does keep them in check quite well, but then the group of 5 do well without one, so it's not always necessary.
 
Abnoba said:
which might be difficult - I have heard from people who tried to keep boar groups near mixed groups, and the smell of a sow in season was enough to make them fall out with each other.

Which is why I thought of another mixed group.
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I agree I have 2 boars together and i have to keep them well away from the sows when they are in the run otherwise they can argue, think 1 castrated boar and a group of sows is great.
 
I have 4 girls and a neturerd boar together, 2 boys in another cage and 2 more in another and a boar (neutured) and a sow in together.
 
I am so pleased that you have considered me i am sure these girls will settle down fine in your herd
 
I have to admit that I have never kept a group as large as eight together, mainly because my hutches would not have housed that many. So therefore I can't comment on 8 together.

I do think another herd of 4 would be good though. It would give a neutered, rescued boar a chance of a very happy life with a group of sows.
 
Goldie said:
I have to admit that I have never kept a group as large as eight together, mainly because my hutches would not have housed that many. So therefore I can't comment on 8 together.

I do think another herd of 4 would be good though. It would give a neutered, rescued boar a chance of a very happy life with a group of sows.
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I think I will go for another herd so that I can rehome a lone neutered boar. I was so happy when I gave Bertie a home as he had a very lonely start in life. It would be nice to do the same for another.

Thanks guys :)
 
Good luck and I hope all goes well on whatever you decide.
Do keep us posted as it would be great to know how things go.
 
I think that is the best decision. :) I am all for rehoming boars as they are usually forgotten about and I am a complete boar lover but I think doing another herd with a neutered boar is great.

If you go for the girls from Emma I would guarantee they are lovely. I have the 3 girls from Hayley on here and Emma has the other 4. The girls have settled in nicely. Emma's Lola and my Elora are sisters. Sadly if I would have known that I would have taken her as well but she seems to be ok with her other sister Lyra. :)

Good luck with it, can't wait for news. x
 
I have a lot of guinea pigs that include two groups of eight sows. They are all of different ages and personalities, yet they all get along fantastically too. I admit there's the odd nip, usually at feeding time, from the dominant sows of the groups, as they always want to get there first, but I can go out any other time of the day and they'll be lying in the sunshine together. But then if it's a case of two boars with several sows I'd say your chances of getting them to get along well are pretty slim, so smaller groups would be a better idea.
 
Furry_Friend said:
If I had 2 mixed groups, would they be able to interect in a large run?

How would 2 neutered boars cope with each other?

Sorry for all the questions I just want to do the right thing :(
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Last summer i had 2 neutered boars with 6 sows in a run together, all were supervised by me & apart from a couple of tiffs between one of my neutered boars & a sow, who lived with other sows & didn't like any boar all was fine :)
 
I have Merlin and his 13 ladies in one group and have boars (pairs and singles too) i did have another boar and 3 sows next to Merlin &co and they where fine but when i tried to put them as one big group i
the other boar went loopy and started attacking the sows and Merlin just hid bless him! Two neutered Boars and sows rarely work as one boar has to be very submssive But big groups work well as they do entertain each other and their seems to be less bullying and shy/quiet sows do seem to be more confident in the large group
Good luck with your 2nd group thou x
 
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