Hello
We have two male boars, Barney and Moe. We adopted them from a rehoming shelter separately on the pretence that we could bond them but were happy to have them separate. Barney had been brought twice back by another owner because he wouldn’t bond with pigs that the owner had. Moe was separated at 4 weeks from his Mother and siblings as he had ringworm. When he was better, he was too old to go back in with the babies and therefore was placed in a rehoming shelter.
We have tried to bond them before, we use a big open neutral space and only put hay and other treats for them to nibble. To begin with there was a lot of rumbling and strutting from Barney. However Moe just sits in a corner looking terrified making the high pitch noises. There are periods of time where they would settle down together and sleep or would eat. But then these are followed by periods of Barney rumbling and strutting and chasing Moe around the pen. I’ve attached a photo so people can see the size of the pen we use.
We also were advised to give them a bath before to get rid of there scent. We also used bedding and towels which neither of them have had in their cages before.
They never fight or have displayed aggression, we usually separate them because it feels like Moe just gets too distressed.
We know they are supposed to live in pairs and therefore considered getting a sow for them to bond with. However, after speaking to someone, they said that we would have to get at least one of the pigs in a pair neutered which is risky. Also, there is no guarantee that the boars and sows will get on together and we could end up with 4 guinea pigs who can’t bond. We therefore want to try (potentially) one last attempt.
Someone did say we can take them to a residential place to get them bonded but we aren’t really keen about strangers having our pigs.
Please can I just have as much advice on bonding them. Anything would be appreciated. (I’ve already looked at the bonding information on this forum already)
Thank you
We have two male boars, Barney and Moe. We adopted them from a rehoming shelter separately on the pretence that we could bond them but were happy to have them separate. Barney had been brought twice back by another owner because he wouldn’t bond with pigs that the owner had. Moe was separated at 4 weeks from his Mother and siblings as he had ringworm. When he was better, he was too old to go back in with the babies and therefore was placed in a rehoming shelter.
We have tried to bond them before, we use a big open neutral space and only put hay and other treats for them to nibble. To begin with there was a lot of rumbling and strutting from Barney. However Moe just sits in a corner looking terrified making the high pitch noises. There are periods of time where they would settle down together and sleep or would eat. But then these are followed by periods of Barney rumbling and strutting and chasing Moe around the pen. I’ve attached a photo so people can see the size of the pen we use.
We also were advised to give them a bath before to get rid of there scent. We also used bedding and towels which neither of them have had in their cages before.
They never fight or have displayed aggression, we usually separate them because it feels like Moe just gets too distressed.
We know they are supposed to live in pairs and therefore considered getting a sow for them to bond with. However, after speaking to someone, they said that we would have to get at least one of the pigs in a pair neutered which is risky. Also, there is no guarantee that the boars and sows will get on together and we could end up with 4 guinea pigs who can’t bond. We therefore want to try (potentially) one last attempt.
Someone did say we can take them to a residential place to get them bonded but we aren’t really keen about strangers having our pigs.
Please can I just have as much advice on bonding them. Anything would be appreciated. (I’ve already looked at the bonding information on this forum already)
Thank you
