Would you say even numbers is better?

[Logiebear]

Reading another thread about "3's a crowd" has gotten me thinking. Would it be best to keep them in even numbers then or would 4 still be 3 close and 1 left out.

I have 3 girls and am getting Vinnie the guinea from rspca west suffolk branch so I am just wondering would that be ok?

 

[Wiebke]

I think with a careful introduction, you should be!

There will be some jostling at first as they have to sort out the hierarchy afresh. There is always the chance that you can end up with one outsider, but it gets the smaller with a bigger the crowd. It's a bit like humans - you get the big pals and then you get the ones that have problems fitting in...

 

[Niki]

I've had a trio & 2 did seem to couple off leaving one alone & so i made the decision to add 1 more to the group, it didn't quite work out & 1 addition became 3 but 6 living together everyone has a friend

 

[Laura-CCC4]

This is something I thought about at times. I prefer three piggies to two - simply because when one dies, at least the two in a trio will still have each other, whereas the surviving pig of a pair is left alone. I don't mind odd or even numbers above 3.

I have a group of 6, and three pairs - alas, no other way of grouping the pairs. One group is 2 intact males, so must be kept alone together. My neutered boar and sow pairing is great, except the sow will not accept any other pig...at all! I could keep trying to pop my pair of sows in with the big group of 6, but I have some very strong characters and one of the sow pair is quite elderly, I don't want to risk upsetting her at this stage.

 

[benjer]

when it comes to boars 2's definitely company and anymore is a crowd, as far as I have read with sows they are generally fine as long as the intros are done well in 3s 4s 5s etc

 

[teadragon]

I think what you read is referring to the opinion of boars in trios. It's not impossible but is supposed to me more difficult to house three boars together as opposed to, say, three sows.

While you have the "three's a crowd" mantra, which as a girl who has three boars living together doesn't half get under my finger nails* you also have "pair and a spare" which refers to the idea of having a spare pig in case one dies.

In most cases, a trio of boars often doesn't work out because three boars need a lot of room for each boar to be happy and a stable - or steady - dominance hierarchy which can be maintained. Many people underestimate (seriously) or cannot provide this amount of room for their boars. In saying that - some people report that where 3 boars won't work, having 5 boars together, or 6 boars, will. The theory is that each boar is overwhelmed with the number of boars sharing their (HUGE) cage that they stop being jerks.

*I hate mantras like "three's a crowd" because they tend to make people pretty narrow minded and unwilling to try and willing to give up. Same grr goes toward the idea of "lone pigs"