Largest number of males together?

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makeeachdaycount

makeeachdaycount

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Hi all, I was just wondering what is the largest amount of males anyone has living together?

I know everyone says males should be kept in pairs and anymore than that will fall out but I just noticed that a few people who have rescues and things seem to have pens or areas, one for the boys and one for the girls with more than two in. If they have a large amount of space, can you have more than 2?

I ask because I have two boys, but after being on here I love the idea of having a 'tribe' over time by offering homes to needy free ads pigs which seems easy if you have girls but not boys. I'm about to convert my garage into a room for my piggies so I would be able to build a really pig pen so they'd have plenty of space and hopefully all live together. Also, its kind of already started! My next door neighbour came to see me, she has a piggy who they bought for the children but the kids aren't interested anymore, he lives on his own in the shed and doesn't really get the attention he desrves and is just left in there. She's asked if I want him. I have to work on my OH as he made me promise 'no more animals' after the two boys but I thiink I can make him change his mind! So even if I don't get a huge tribe, I'd def like to try boding this little guy with my two.

So back to my original question, does anyone out there have more than two males living happily together?
 
I have heard of one or two groups of twenty boars - but they have oodles of space. On German forums people recommend that you count 1sq metre per boar to make it work - but if personalities clash, even that won't help!

Boars seem to work best in either pairs, occasionally trios and then only in large groups again. I have yet to see a stable quartet over any length of time!

You may find this thread interesting:
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=47027
 
makeeachdaycount said:
Thank Wiebke, thats really helpful. I'm going to keep researching and tread very carefully!
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I would recommend that you do get more experience first!

I have grown up with guinea pigs and, as an adult, had to keep to a couple for five years before the time was right for me to go large. After one spectacular failure early on, I was also very careful in which guinea pigs I added to my group. It is not the right setting for every girl, however deserving!

You have to learn to know what are your limitations and what are your strengths, and build on that.

Perhaps you might like to think about fostering for a rescue near you? That might help to get your OH used to the idea of more piggies around! That way, you get to know different characters and relationships and get to see a range of behaviours while doing something good.
 
I've thought about it and would love to foster. And have told the OH this (Its a case of love me, love my animals! and as much as he tries to be all hard, he's a big softy really!). Although my concern is I work full time so I wouldn't be able to help sickly pigs that need feeding very 2 hours. I know that I could give some unwanted pigs a lovely caring home though. I too grew up with guineas and rabbits so I have quite a bit of experience with them. Just never had them in large groups. We had them in pairs and threes. I have plenty of space - we're converting the grage to a guinea-pig room so its not a problem keeping them separate. Just thought it would be great to set up a huge pen and have them together.
 
I would think that having a chat about it with KingBoris and Christina might help (you can pm as soon as mod enables you after you've reached 50 posts).

If you try something like that, you will have to think about being able to accommodate a number of separate cages/small pens in case you are having fall outs. You also have to think about who can look after your boys when you are away.

Not all foster pigs need round the clock care; there are quite a few ex-pets coming into rescue for various reasons which would enjoy a more homelike setting.
 
I have 3 boys together and I really did take a risk! Luckily they are ok and tolerate each other, they all sleep in seperate corners of the cage though and we have the occasional chatter and bum dance matches.
 
I've heard of a few people with groups of four boys getting along fine. And I have three boys living together happily. Two are only about 6 months old, so hopefully they won't start fights as they get older. They have a lot of space though, so I'd recommend a really big pen. And it's meant to be really risky having too many boys together. There's always stories on here about boys having to be split up, even when they were just in pairs.

But you hear about people who have free ranging guinea pigs, or ones in huge enclosures, that have large groups of males. So it is possible, just difficult and could end in a lot of trouble.

You could always have your two boys in one place, and then get a group of girls? Or you could just try having three boys, that might work out, or might not.
 
I've had a couple of trios that worked - one trio was a father with his 2 sons together all their lives. The other was a trio of single older males that bonded very well, all three were over 2 years old when they met and very chilled out pigs - though Hamish, a lovely tricolour aby, did hump Desmond DEW every day - if he could get away with it. As you can see they were quite happy with each other.

P6080099.JPG


Though I am in the fortunate position of running a rescue so have a lot of boys to choose the right personalities from.

Suzy x
 
in my experience, i kept two together when our first set bred and we were left with 2 boys. They loved each other to bits, and hated being apart, they used to have outside cage time with the dad but the dad got a bit frisky with them thinking they were girls and that started a little fight, so we had to keep an eye. My current boys i have are seperated as origionally we thought bubbles was a girl, so patch already had his own cage, so they have seperate cages, but do really well together in out of cage time, having cuddles and stuff, although if they dont have much space (I put them in a box to transport them upstairs to give them a bath) and Patch got a bit feisty and tried nibbling Bubbles' ear!

So if they have alot of space and they know each other from a young age, its sometimes easier, but thats just what ive experienced :)
 
DJ KT said:
in my experience, i kept two together when our first set bred and we were left with 2 boys. They loved each other to bits, and hated being apart, they used to have outside cage time with the dad but the dad got a bit frisky with them thinking they were girls and that started a little fight, so we had to keep an eye. My current boys i have are seperated as origionally we thought bubbles was a girl, so patch already had his own cage, so they have seperate cages, but do really well together in out of cage time, having cuddles and stuff, although if they dont have much space (I put them in a box to transport them upstairs to give them a bath) and Patch got a bit feisty and tried nibbling Bubbles' ear!

So if they have alot of space and they know each other from a young age, its sometimes easier, but thats just what ive experienced :)
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I agree ,lots of space and being together from young.
 
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