Questions on adding a female for a solo boar kicked out from boar triple

[spp]

Hi,

Relatively new owner here looking for some advice.
We were sold three male guinea pigs in April, when they were only about 6 weeks old. We were told that because they were brothers they would be fine together...
We later discovered this was not a good plan, and we ended up having to separate one of them in July, as he was being ganged up on and had a number of scratches.
Definitely agree with the advice not to get three boars now.

So we put him into another hutch, and got him neutered (6 weeks ago), with the plan to get a female guinea pig to keep him company. This seemed like the best way to end up with a stable pair - we really don't want another falling out! And he'll get to be a happy little husboar...

Now we have a few questions:

• He has seemed quite lonely, and at points we have put the two cages near each other, but this leads to the other two rumblestrutting and humping each other, at least initially. It also tends to involve particularly our solo piggy gnawing on the bars between them a lot, so we haven't done it too much. Should we worry about this, if they seem to settle down after a few hours? We don't want to upset the hierarchy of the two boys that are still in together, or cause too much distress.
• We can't see any guinea pig rescue centres near us (East Staffordshire) that have females for adoption that we could date with, so we are looking at buying from a local garden centre (not the place where we got the others from!). How likely is it that a female guinea pig will not get on with our male guinea pig? Is the chemistry from a young guinea pig going to work better?
• Should we just get one female, or two? We already have three guinea pigs - just one seems more manageable but we could add two with the size of cage we have (Omelet hutch + 1m Omelet run with a tube attached 1.5m x 1m pen).
• Do we need to keep the stable pair of males away from the cage containing the female(s)? If so, how far away do they need to be? I saw a posts talking about the presence of a female being destabilising in adjacent cage. Our garden is ~15 metres wide, so we can have them either end of that if necessary.

What we really don't want is to end up with needing a third cage and still not have a companion for our pushed out male!

Thanks for your help and suggestions.

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m sorry you were given bad information regarding a boar trio.

A single piggy must be kept side by side with the pair 24/7. He is likely to be lonely if he doesn’t have that constant interaction through the bars.

If you mean you have an omlet eglu house and run, then I’m sorry to say they are entirely unsuitable as housing in all aspects. The omlet eglu hutches don’t come anywhere near the size requirements piggies need to be able to be locked into (and they need to be locked in at night and during the whole of winter - hence the importance of housing being appropriate and meeting welfare size requirements).
The runs cannot be used year round and as such they do not provide the right type of housing for guinea pigs.
You need a proper wooden single level hutch which is big enough, and fully insulated and protected.
Runs need to be separate and can only be used during the summer months. Piggies cannot be put on grass from now until spring (won’t be able to go back out until around April/May time).

Two boys need a 6x2ft wooden hutch in a single level.
The neutered boar with one female, need a 5 foot single level hutch. If he had two sows with him, then it needs to be a 6 foot single level hutch.
The upper levels of double storey hutches do not count towards the cage size. In some cases the ramp can cause territorial issues particularly with young boar pairs.

The other consideration is that moving a young piggy who has only been used to living indoors (ie in the pet shop) outside at this time is year is not recommended. To be outdoor piggies they ideally need to be acclimated to outdoor conditions throughout the summer so that they are already out as the weather cools. Being suddenly put outside at this time of year where night times are already below 15 degrees is going to be a struggle for a young piggy.
You are in a bit of a tricky situation given he needs a friend though.
Make sure you are providing fully protected and insulated wooden hutches, along with thermal/waterproof covers, along with heatpads and lots of hay inside the hutches.

The two boys should ideally be kept away from the boar/sow group. You don’t really want a boar pair seeing or smelling a sow(s) as it can cause issues between the two boys.

While neutered boar/sow pairings are the most stable, it does still come down to character compatibility. The sow needs the accept the boar. Any on spec bonding does have the potential for failure if the two piggies don’t like each other.
With that said, a young sow and young boar are likely to get on well but you do need to be prepared your boar will likely react very strongly (ie he won’t be thinking with his head!) being bonded with a sow.

Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
A Closer Look At Pairs (Boars - Sows - Mixed)

A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars
Sows: Behaviour and female health problems (including ovarian cysts)

 

[Bill & Ted]

Welcome to the forum
The above advice is really good, hope you can now move forward x