SusieW
Junior Guinea Pig
Hi guys,
I'm at my wits end with my teenage boars. It's a very long story so very sorry in advance!
As a bit of background, I had a happy boar quartet, which then became a happy trio for a long time, then a pair, when my original set of boars died off one by one. Interestingly they were introduced at different times and were different ages at introduction, but they just got on and never were troublesome. I didn't have a clue that this wasn't the thing to do as I never meant to have guinea pigs...I'm a dog person really but ended up taking on one as a rescue initially and it went from there and I fell in love with guinea pigs, but they always had so much space and personalities that matched so I was totally oblivious that it's not the done thing. Really loved having them, but when my favourite boar died last year I was left with a single boar who totally shut down and became extremely depressed alone. He started losing weight and just sat in a hidey all day so I contacted rescues as the vast majority of all my pets have been rescued and much prefer that route and either didn't get a reply from the rescues or they had no suitable pigs (my remaining boar is very dominant and potentially tricky to match). Apparently since all the coronavirus stuff has started people are buying and adopting pets like mad so it's been hard to find any pigs.
He was in such a state at this point that I contacted someone with baby guinea pigs who had an accidental litter (they didn't realise they had a boar with girls apparently) as I felt out of options and didn't feel he would survive on his own for much longer. I decided to have two of them with the intention that when my current pig dies, I won't have to do the bonding process all over again or get more pigs, I picked the most submissive ones after asking the guy about their interactions and watching them for ages as I thought they'd get on best with my pig. My old pig is 4, but he's a very old four if that makes sense...he's gone very grey round his face and seems old.) But I stupidly didn't think about the time it would take for them to be old enough to come home, and all this time my current pig was really struggling and deteriorating. I came across two 2 and a half year old boys in need of rescue, and I thought they'd be nice neighbours for my current pig while he waited (and they have been) and when I went to pick them up the lady asked if I could take a third (and I am a total sucker for pets in need) so I took all three home, and put the baby (the unexpected third pig) in with my old pig, which I genuinely think saved his life as it was like he came alive again and loved looking after him. At this point I probably should have told the guy with the baby pigs I didn't need them now, but didn't feel able to as I'm a total pushover and people pleaser and didn't want him to be angry, so put the other babies in with the rescued baby and my old boar, with the intention of splitting them up into pairs when it became apparent who gets on best, but when they entered the dreaded teenage territory the rescued baby started picking on my old boar leading to the old boar just shutting down again and being terrified of all three babies. There were no fights other than one nasty nip from the baby to my old pig, but every time the babies came near my old pig he'd run away chattering his teeth and he just seemed thoroughly unhappy again. On the other hand, the three babies all absolutely adored each other, slept together, played together etc, so I made the decision to remove my old boar and leave the three babies together (teenage pigs at this point).
So now I was left with my old pig by himself again, which was the point of getting the babies in the first place. I put an advert online for a friend for him and was contacted by a lovely lady with a 4 year old boar needing a friend. Should have just done this in the first place since happily that's worked out perfectly, so I now have a happy pair of 2 and a half year old boars in a 5x3 with a 1x3 hayloft, and my 4 year old pig with his four year old boyfriend who he adores in a 5x4 with a 1x4 hayloft.
And everything was working well with the teenagers (they live in a 5x4 with 1x5 hayloft) but now the last few days they have started to fight. The rescue one who originally picked on my old boar is being beaten up by the runt of the litter, but his actual brother gets on well with both the rescue pig and his brother. The 2 brothers are bite free but the rescue pig has got scabby bites all over his bum, and I noticed a bite on his lip this morning. I weigh everyone weekly and for the first time this week the rescue baby has lost weight instead of consistently gaining and doesn't look great, which worries me. When I got the three rescue pigs the adults had health issues and all 3 had lice, but they've been fine since I got them sorted so it worries me a great deal that he's not looking good now. I handle everyone daily and clean them out daily and check for any issues...the bites weren't noticeable at first until they scabbed over so they aren't deep (he's an alpaca so extra hard to see his skin and his hair is really long) but I'm getting very worried... I was hoping it would just be one squabble but with the face bite today I think I'm kidding myself and that it's escalating.
I don't know what to do. I just want everyone to be happy and hate the thought of letting them down. I know you'll all probably think I'm really dumb for having three boars together and maybe I am.
Should I separate the rescue boar from the brothers? I'm really struggling with this as they don't fight constantly by any means or anything, they eat together, and both the troublesome two like to hang out with the other one so it's hard to split them. They'll all sit in the hayloft together and eat. The rescue pig loves the nice one of the brothers so much that I feel really upset thinking about splitting him off. My only option if I do split them is to split their current 5x4 with the 1x5 hayloft in half so they have 5x2 plus hayloft each as I can't build any more enclosures, I live at home with my parents and have already given the pigs my bedroom and my brother's old room and can't take over any more of my parents' house!) (or i could split it so that the single pig has 2x4 plus half the hayloft, leaving the pair with the rest of the space, but I really don't want anyone to be alone. Is there a chance they are figuring out who is boss or am I just an idiot? Is there no chance for them? I feel so upset as if I do this I'll be left with a single pig which is the whole reason I got them in the first place to avoid that situation for my old pig. I never intended to have seven pigs but they are all well cared for, I'm just aware it sounds like a lot!
I guess I could adopt another friend for him as i suppose a 5x2 would be adequate for a pair of boars but it would definitely have to be a submissive adult pig as I quite honestly will never get another baby again, I can't stand the stress and the potential that it won't work out. And it seems like submissive boars aren't exactly ten a penny. I feel sick all the time worrying about them and have had to put aside my fear of everyone thinking I'm an idiot to ask for help!
Would really appreciate any advice, I love my pigs (well, I love my four adult boars, am rapidly going off the babies
) and just want for them all to be happy. I work really hard to keep their homes nice and clean and everything and try to do the right thing by them (to the extent I don't exactly have a bedroom anymore, it's basically just a giant guinea pig enclosure!:/) But since my favourite ever pig died last year it just seems like I've made mistake after mistake and am failing horribly so could really do with some expert opinions or help.
I'm so sorry once again that this is so long, and if anyone has read this far I'm very grateful!
I'm at my wits end with my teenage boars. It's a very long story so very sorry in advance!
As a bit of background, I had a happy boar quartet, which then became a happy trio for a long time, then a pair, when my original set of boars died off one by one. Interestingly they were introduced at different times and were different ages at introduction, but they just got on and never were troublesome. I didn't have a clue that this wasn't the thing to do as I never meant to have guinea pigs...I'm a dog person really but ended up taking on one as a rescue initially and it went from there and I fell in love with guinea pigs, but they always had so much space and personalities that matched so I was totally oblivious that it's not the done thing. Really loved having them, but when my favourite boar died last year I was left with a single boar who totally shut down and became extremely depressed alone. He started losing weight and just sat in a hidey all day so I contacted rescues as the vast majority of all my pets have been rescued and much prefer that route and either didn't get a reply from the rescues or they had no suitable pigs (my remaining boar is very dominant and potentially tricky to match). Apparently since all the coronavirus stuff has started people are buying and adopting pets like mad so it's been hard to find any pigs.
He was in such a state at this point that I contacted someone with baby guinea pigs who had an accidental litter (they didn't realise they had a boar with girls apparently) as I felt out of options and didn't feel he would survive on his own for much longer. I decided to have two of them with the intention that when my current pig dies, I won't have to do the bonding process all over again or get more pigs, I picked the most submissive ones after asking the guy about their interactions and watching them for ages as I thought they'd get on best with my pig. My old pig is 4, but he's a very old four if that makes sense...he's gone very grey round his face and seems old.) But I stupidly didn't think about the time it would take for them to be old enough to come home, and all this time my current pig was really struggling and deteriorating. I came across two 2 and a half year old boys in need of rescue, and I thought they'd be nice neighbours for my current pig while he waited (and they have been) and when I went to pick them up the lady asked if I could take a third (and I am a total sucker for pets in need) so I took all three home, and put the baby (the unexpected third pig) in with my old pig, which I genuinely think saved his life as it was like he came alive again and loved looking after him. At this point I probably should have told the guy with the baby pigs I didn't need them now, but didn't feel able to as I'm a total pushover and people pleaser and didn't want him to be angry, so put the other babies in with the rescued baby and my old boar, with the intention of splitting them up into pairs when it became apparent who gets on best, but when they entered the dreaded teenage territory the rescued baby started picking on my old boar leading to the old boar just shutting down again and being terrified of all three babies. There were no fights other than one nasty nip from the baby to my old pig, but every time the babies came near my old pig he'd run away chattering his teeth and he just seemed thoroughly unhappy again. On the other hand, the three babies all absolutely adored each other, slept together, played together etc, so I made the decision to remove my old boar and leave the three babies together (teenage pigs at this point).
So now I was left with my old pig by himself again, which was the point of getting the babies in the first place. I put an advert online for a friend for him and was contacted by a lovely lady with a 4 year old boar needing a friend. Should have just done this in the first place since happily that's worked out perfectly, so I now have a happy pair of 2 and a half year old boars in a 5x3 with a 1x3 hayloft, and my 4 year old pig with his four year old boyfriend who he adores in a 5x4 with a 1x4 hayloft.
And everything was working well with the teenagers (they live in a 5x4 with 1x5 hayloft) but now the last few days they have started to fight. The rescue one who originally picked on my old boar is being beaten up by the runt of the litter, but his actual brother gets on well with both the rescue pig and his brother. The 2 brothers are bite free but the rescue pig has got scabby bites all over his bum, and I noticed a bite on his lip this morning. I weigh everyone weekly and for the first time this week the rescue baby has lost weight instead of consistently gaining and doesn't look great, which worries me. When I got the three rescue pigs the adults had health issues and all 3 had lice, but they've been fine since I got them sorted so it worries me a great deal that he's not looking good now. I handle everyone daily and clean them out daily and check for any issues...the bites weren't noticeable at first until they scabbed over so they aren't deep (he's an alpaca so extra hard to see his skin and his hair is really long) but I'm getting very worried... I was hoping it would just be one squabble but with the face bite today I think I'm kidding myself and that it's escalating.
I don't know what to do. I just want everyone to be happy and hate the thought of letting them down. I know you'll all probably think I'm really dumb for having three boars together and maybe I am.
Should I separate the rescue boar from the brothers? I'm really struggling with this as they don't fight constantly by any means or anything, they eat together, and both the troublesome two like to hang out with the other one so it's hard to split them. They'll all sit in the hayloft together and eat. The rescue pig loves the nice one of the brothers so much that I feel really upset thinking about splitting him off. My only option if I do split them is to split their current 5x4 with the 1x5 hayloft in half so they have 5x2 plus hayloft each as I can't build any more enclosures, I live at home with my parents and have already given the pigs my bedroom and my brother's old room and can't take over any more of my parents' house!) (or i could split it so that the single pig has 2x4 plus half the hayloft, leaving the pair with the rest of the space, but I really don't want anyone to be alone. Is there a chance they are figuring out who is boss or am I just an idiot? Is there no chance for them? I feel so upset as if I do this I'll be left with a single pig which is the whole reason I got them in the first place to avoid that situation for my old pig. I never intended to have seven pigs but they are all well cared for, I'm just aware it sounds like a lot!
I guess I could adopt another friend for him as i suppose a 5x2 would be adequate for a pair of boars but it would definitely have to be a submissive adult pig as I quite honestly will never get another baby again, I can't stand the stress and the potential that it won't work out. And it seems like submissive boars aren't exactly ten a penny. I feel sick all the time worrying about them and have had to put aside my fear of everyone thinking I'm an idiot to ask for help!
Would really appreciate any advice, I love my pigs (well, I love my four adult boars, am rapidly going off the babies
) and just want for them all to be happy. I work really hard to keep their homes nice and clean and everything and try to do the right thing by them (to the extent I don't exactly have a bedroom anymore, it's basically just a giant guinea pig enclosure!:/) But since my favourite ever pig died last year it just seems like I've made mistake after mistake and am failing horribly so could really do with some expert opinions or help.I'm so sorry once again that this is so long, and if anyone has read this far I'm very grateful!
