Was Getting My Boar A Friend A Bad Decision?

[Veilla]

Hi all! I am hoping that you might be able to help me out with my piggy concerns. I adopted a guinea pig boar about a year ago and due to mixed opinions on whether to find him a friend, I have only recently adopted a 3 month old boar.

I completed the quarantine and bonding steps, but I have found that the new baby pig is mounting the older pig and chasing him, which sounds like it should be the other way around?

The pigs are now sharing a custom cage (thankfully no fighting), but now my older pig looks disheveled and sad. He is still eating etc. , but otherwise just laying in the middle of the cage. Please let me know your thoughts on whether I should give them some more time, or whether it might be better to separate them.

Thank you in advance!

 

[Wiebke]

Hi all! I am hoping that you might be able to help me out with my piggy concerns. I adopted a guinea pig boar about a year ago and due to mixed opinions on whether to find him a friend, I have only recently adopted a 3 month old boar.

I completed the quarantine and bonding steps, but I have found that the new baby pig is mounting the older pig and chasing him, which sounds like it should be the other way around?

The pigs are now sharing a custom cage (thankfully no fighting), but now my older pig looks disheveled and sad. He is still eating etc. , but otherwise just laying in the middle of the cage. Please let me know your thoughts on whether I should give them some more time, or whether it might be better to separate them.

Thank you in advance!

Hi and welcome!

Give them some more time; you are still in the dominance phase. Your youngster has probably hit the teenage hormones a little bit earlier because of the bonding. Boars (even neutered boars when they meet sows) can get overexcited and lost the 'on' switch for their brain, but it generally dies down within a day or day two.

You should abort the the bonding if the mounting is truly so incessant that your boy cannot eat, drink or sleep in peace, or if he is making it very clear that he has had enough. Unless there is either nonstop mounting or fighting, you have to sit it out as much as you dislike it. Bonding is not quite for the faint-hearted and not necessarily what you expect!
Please read our very detailed bonding guide that covers the whole period.
Bonding: Illustrated Dominance Behaviours And Dynamics

Key to any boar bond (and indeed piggy bond) is mutual liking and character compatibility. When buying a boar withut letting your piggy have a say in who he wants to get on with (boar dating at a rescue), you always run a roughly 50% risk that the bond may not work out, irrespective of the age. Babies are easier to bond, but whether the relationship works will only show during the teenage months.
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?

 

[Veilla]

Hi and welcome!

Give them some more time; you are still in the dominance phase. Your youngster has probably hit the teenage hormones a little bit earlier because of the bonding. Boars (even neutered boars when they meet sows) can get overexcited and lost the 'on' switch for their brain, but it generally dies down within a day or day two.

You should abort the the bonding if the mounting is truly so incessant that your boy cannot eat, drink or sleep in peace, or if he is making it very clear that he has had enough. Unless there is either nonstop mounting or fighting, you have to sit it out as much as you dislike it. Bonding is not quite for the faint-hearted and not necessarily what you expect!
Please read our very detailed bonding guide that covers the whole period.
Bonding: Illustrated Dominance Behaviours And Dynamics

Key to any boar bond (and indeed piggy bond) is mutual liking and character compatibility. When buying a boar withut letting your piggy have a say in who he wants to get on with (boar dating at a rescue), you always run a roughly 50% risk that the bond may not work out, irrespective of the age. Babies are easier to bond, but whether the relationship works will only show during the teenage months.
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?

Hi Wiebke,

Thank you very much for your response, I am much less worried now! The boys have settled down today and the young boar just follows the older one around now.

 

[ElizaCavies]

Maybe spend quality time with your older boar, cuddle time to make him feel more valued

 

[Wiebke]

Hi Wiebke,

Thank you very much for your response, I am much less worried now! The boys have settled down today and the young boar just follows the older one around now.

All the best! I hope that they are going to be happy together.