Adding a neut'd boar to pair of females?

hannahs26

hannahs26

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We are relatively new GP owners, having adopted 2 beautiful girls from our local rescue center nearly 6 months ago. We love them dearly, and they have become friendly and loving to us, with lots of cuddles and lap time each day.
I've seen that another rescue center near us has got a neutered male, 6 to 12months in for adoption, and we're wondering whether he may be able to fit in to our family or not. Our girls are: a 2.5yr old teddy, quieter and more timid than her friend, and always bossed around by the other; the other is a 4.5yr old abbysinian, more confident generally, quite bossy, and always first for veggies! They don't seem fussed about being very near each other, and only really cwtch up with each other if they're frightened or spooked about something.
The reason I'm thinking of adding another GP is knowing that the older girl will at some point in the future likely pass away, and the younger one would then still have a friend. But then I think, the same thing would then happen later again, leaving the youngest alone, so is there any point to adding another....
I've read lots about different group possibilities, and a neutered male with 2 females sounds ok, but I'd like to hear from anyone else whose introduced a young male to two females who've been together for a few years. Was it stressful for your girls? Did it work out well? Are boys trickier to care for at all? Would you stick with the pair you have and just enjoy them?
Thank you. 🙂
 
I added a neutered boar to one older sow and it went a smooth as can be. That's all I can say really 👍
 
hannahs26 said:
We are relatively new GP owners, having adopted 2 beautiful girls from our local rescue center nearly 6 months ago. We love them dearly, and they have become friendly and loving to us, with lots of cuddles and lap time each day.
I've seen that another rescue center near us has got a neutered male, 6 to 12months in for adoption, and we're wondering whether he may be able to fit in to our family or not. Our girls are: a 2.5yr old teddy, quieter and more timid than her friend, and always bossed around by the other; the other is a 4.5yr old abbysinian, more confident generally, quite bossy, and always first for veggies! They don't seem fussed about being very near each other, and only really cwtch up with each other if they're frightened or spooked about something.
The reason I'm thinking of adding another GP is knowing that the older girl will at some point in the future likely pass away, and the younger one would then still have a friend. But then I think, the same thing would then happen later again, leaving the youngest alone, so is there any point to adding another....
I've read lots about different group possibilities, and a neutered male with 2 females sounds ok, but I'd like to hear from anyone else whose introduced a young male to two females who've been together for a few years. Was it stressful for your girls? Did it work out well? Are boys trickier to care for at all? Would you stick with the pair you have and just enjoy them?
Thank you. 🙂
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Hi!

It all stands and falls whether your girls accept the boy. That is by no means a given.
Key to any happy piggy bond is mutual liking and character compatibility long before age and gender.

Ideally you rescue date your girls before adoption or only adopt with the proviso that the boar reverts to the rescue if the bonding doesn't come off.
Too many rescue people, especially people not particularly experienced with guinea pigs, sadly still seem think that cross gender bonding is a 100% successful doddle of an affair! As a goodly number of experienced longer term forum owners and any number of rescue people offering rescue dating/residential bonding can tell you, it can be anything but... :yikes:

While most younger sows will accept a neutered boar, sows past ideal pup bearing age are generally much less keen in my own rather ample experience with trying to find male companionship for my own sows.
I have currently got 8 husboars living with 1-2 sows after my old larger groups have gradually dwindled away due to old age and me adopting more piggies with social issues. My biggest group had 13 sows with a patriarch at its peak.
But I have also got several 'husboar-proof' sow pairs or single sows that won't accept even a submissive young boy who is not oversexed... and not for lack of trying on my behalf!

The other aspect you need to be aware of is that your two girls need to be good friends; otherwise you will end up with an outsider situation as your boy will inevitably side with one of the girls sooner or later.

If conditions are right and personalities balance out, then mixed gender trios are great!
 
Hi Wiebke,

Thank you, that's a big help :-)

"Ideally you rescue date your girls before adoption or only adopt with the proviso that the boar reverts to the rescue if the bonding doesn't come off.
Too many rescue people, especially people not particularly experienced with guinea pigs, sadly still seem think that cross gender bonding is a 100% successful doddle of an affair! As a goodly number of experienced longer term forum owners and any number of rescue people offering rescue dating/residential bonding can tell you, it can be anything but... :yikes:"

I would definitely be asking the rescue place if we could have a date with the male before any adoption happened - and if it wasn't possible, I'd not go ahead, as I feel it would be too risky.

"The other aspect you need to be aware of is that your two girls need to be good friends; otherwise you will end up with an outsider situation as your boy will inevitably side with one of the girls sooner or later."

I wondered about this, thank you. This sounds like it could be quite upsetting for one of the girls down the line, which isn't what we want. If it did work well though, I would love to think of our younger, quieter one, having a closer relationship, and a better friend, as long as the older one wasn't upset by it....

Hmm, thank you. Lots to think about. I will sleep on it before deciding anything....

Cheers :-)
 
I offered my 2 sows a neutered boar and they all lived happily for 3 years until he passed. Of the 2 sisters, one is bossy and the other one I think definitely liked having extra company. I'd really like to get another boar.

One of the girls will probably need spayed and I think her sister will be very anxious left alone for the first time. Having 3 they were never alone if one needed vet treatment. 3 worked really well for us.

There was never 2 ganging up on 1. Maybe that was lucky, I don't know how typical that is. Good luck deciding.
 
hannahs26 said:
Hi Wiebke,

Thank you, that's a big help :-)

"Ideally you rescue date your girls before adoption or only adopt with the proviso that the boar reverts to the rescue if the bonding doesn't come off.
Too many rescue people, especially people not particularly experienced with guinea pigs, sadly still seem think that cross gender bonding is a 100% successful doddle of an affair! As a goodly number of experienced longer term forum owners and any number of rescue people offering rescue dating/residential bonding can tell you, it can be anything but... :yikes:"

I would definitely be asking the rescue place if we could have a date with the male before any adoption happened - and if it wasn't possible, I'd not go ahead, as I feel it would be too risky.

"The other aspect you need to be aware of is that your two girls need to be good friends; otherwise you will end up with an outsider situation as your boy will inevitably side with one of the girls sooner or later."

I wondered about this, thank you. This sounds like it could be quite upsetting for one of the girls down the line, which isn't what we want. If it did work well though, I would love to think of our younger, quieter one, having a closer relationship, and a better friend, as long as the older one wasn't upset by it....

Hmm, thank you. Lots to think about. I will sleep on it before deciding anything....

Cheers :-)
Click to expand...

All you can ever do is give it a try.

I have had bondings that have looked perfect on the paper turning out to be an outright fail within minutes of coming face to face and have had some rather unexpected bondings work out extremely well.

What adding another piggy won't do is heal an existing rift in a bond. If you have squabbling sisters, then adding a boar will most definitely not turn them into bosom friends! Nor will a boar turn a very hormonal sow with strong seasons into a pussy cat...

IMG_1211_edited-1.jpg
Nye with two larger wives, mother Hyfryd and daugher Hirael during a cage clean just this week. Nye used to live next to them with his partner Nosgan (who was not into sows) for several months. The two sows have refused to accept any boar, but they had made good friends with my cheerful cheeky chappy through the bars so he was allowed in after Nosgan's death. Hirael is somewhat less enchanted than her mother; but they get all on.

IMG_5269_edited-4.jpg
My two newly bonded cataract sows Tegyd and Taffy with their freshly dated husboar Terfel on the left in 2011. Tegyd had massive fear-aggression issues and could not cope with the big Tribe group in the end. However nearly blind Taffy had welcomed her with a kiss on her own bad cataract eye, so I split the two sows off and took them dating at my then closest rescue. While bonding Tegyd with my dominant Tribe patriarch had not been for the faint-hearted and had only just worked out over a number of sessions, Tegyd took an instant shine to Terfel... The three (later joined by another older unbondable bereaved cataract sow) have been one of my stablest and happiest groups.
Just as an example of how key finding Mr Right is and - if you have no time constraint - it really pays taking the time for finding him!

Boars, sows or mixed pairs; babies or adults?
 
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I introduced my neutered boy Merry to my existing sow pair Beatrice and Pepper and I am so pleased I did. They are all really happy together so for us it worked out great. He was in a cage next to them for a week then I introduced them in a big pen on the floor for hours before finally putting them in their cage all together. Poor old Merry thought it was going to be a trip on the love bus 24/7 but he has had to change his expectations as the girls are definitely in charge! But they all get on fine and are happy together. So for us it turned out just fine (left to right...Beatrice, Pepper and Merry with his flashy white quiff) 20200221_151736.webp
 
Zanzan said:
I introduced my neutered boy Merry to my existing sow pair Beatrice and Pepper and I am so pleased I did. They are all really happy together so for us it worked out great. He was in a cage next to them for a week then I introduced them in a big pen on the floor for hours before finally putting them in their cage all together. Poor old Merry thought it was going to be a trip on the love bus 24/7 but he has had to change his expectations as the girls are definitely in charge! But they all get on fine and are happy together. So for us it turned out just fine (left to right...Beatrice, Pepper and Merry with his flashy white quiff) View attachment 134676
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How lovely :-) Thanks for sharing :-)
 
Wiebke said:
All you can ever do is give it a try.

I have had bondings that have looked perfect on the paper turning out to be an outright fail within minutes of coming face to face and have had some rather unexpected bondings work out extremely well.

What adding another piggy won't do is heal an existing rift in a bond. If you have squabbling sisters, then adding a boar will most definitely not turn them into bosom friends! Nor will a boar turn a very hormonal sow with strong seasons into a pussy cat...

View attachment 134674
Nye with two larger wives, mother Hyfryd and daugher Hirael during a cage clean just this week. Nye used to live next to them with his partner Nosgan (who was not into sows) for several months. The two sows have refused to accept any boar, but they had made good friends with my cheerful cheeky chappy through the bars so he was allowed in after Nosgan's death. Hirael is somewhat less enchanted than her mother; but they get all on.

View attachment 134675
My two newly bonded cataract sows Tegyd and Taffy with their freshly dated husboar Terfel on the left in 2011. Tegyd had massive fear-aggression issues and could not cope with the big Tribe group in the end. However nearly blind Taffy had welcomed her with a kiss on her own bad cataract eye, so I split the two sows off and took them dating at my then closest rescue. While bonding Tegyd with my dominant Tribe patriarch had not been for the faint-hearted and had only just worked out over a number of sessions, Tegyd took an instant shine to Terfel... The three (later joined by another older unbondable bereaved cataract sow) have been one of my stablest and happiest groups.
Just as an example of how key finding Mr Right is and - if you have no time constraint - it really pays taking the time for finding him!

Boars, sows or mixed pairs; babies or adults?
Click to expand...
Thank you :-) It does sound very tempting to give it a go :-) Your advice is appreciated, thank you again :-)
 
My two rescue sows, Jingle and Mistletoe lived next door to my young neutered boar Cufflinks for 6 weeks afyer his neuter. They would often lie close to the barrier and I would out hay by the barrier so that they could all eat together.

I introduced them in a neutralised area of the sows cage and it was as if they had always been together.

I also added a couple of elderly sows to the mix, Primrose and Tanni (both now deceased) and two baby sows, Rosie and Cherry blossom at the same time, so 3 became 7 and once again it was plain sailing.

It does very much depend on their personalities but guinea pigs are herd animals and watching them all together is amazing. Lots mor nails to cut and poo to pick but lots more interactions and cuteness too!
 
I had a neutered boar (so the opposite situation) and he was given the opportunity to choose his ladies at the rescue over a few days. I dropped my boy off and came home with 6 - including a wife who rarely leaves his side. I wouldn't have achieved that without the rescue so if you do have that option- I am a massive advocate! The dynamic of a herd is amazing to watch. All the best x
 
I think the girls ages may be a consideration, but this probably depends on all the individual personalities! We introduced 2 pairs of ladies to each other, one younger and one older- then added a young 6 month old neutered boar. Both younger girls willingly accepted a new husband, but the older 2 (aged 2-3 years) considered him an annoying little brother, boss lady Clover is his boss, and eccentric maiden aunt Jezzy floof is his aunty. They accepted him but on the condition that he leaves their bums alone and does as he's told! Theo is a submissive and friendly little soul who just wanted some sort of company and he is ok with that, but possibly a more dominant younger boar who wants to be the boss and have lots of love action might struggle to be accepted by older ladies!
Best of luck anyway I'm a big fan of neutered little boars who get a chance at happiness, but living with ladies is a steep learning curve for any male of any sociable species I think :)
 
PigglePuggle said:
I think the girls ages may be a consideration, but this probably depends on all the individual personalities! We introduced 2 pairs of ladies to each other, one younger and one older- then added a young 6 month old neutered boar. Both younger girls willingly accepted a new husband, but the older 2 (aged 2-3 years) considered him an annoying little brother, boss lady Clover is his boss, and eccentric maiden aunt Jezzy floof is his aunty. They accepted him but on the condition that he leaves their bums alone and does as he's told! Theo is a submissive and friendly little soul who just wanted some sort of company and he is ok with that, but possibly a more dominant younger boar who wants to be the boss and have lots of love action might struggle to be accepted by older ladies!
Best of luck anyway I'm a big fan of neutered little boars who get a chance at happiness, but living with ladies is a steep learning curve for any male of any sociable species I think :)
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Thank you! I've read that this boar is 3.5 months old, and was picked on badly by his confident brother, so was separated. He is said to be a bit shy and timid compared to his brother and father, so may well work with my quiet girl and more confident 'boss' one, if he was to stay fairly shy.
 
A lonely bullied little boar can be a great choice for a neutered husboar to live with ladies, both our Theo and @Merab's Slave 's Micah were little lonely bullied boys and have flourished into very happy husbands! No guarantees but if he is lonely and submissive what a fantastic thing to happen for him if suddenly he gets some lady friends, really hope it works out x
 
I remember giving Ollie some pointers on being a successful husboar when he married Tallulah...
Basically it boils down to, lick her ears and face, talk to her nicely, then let her steal your dinner, before you try to hump her!
Many males of many species would benefit from this advice I think :)
 
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