Piggies2023
Teenage Guinea Pig
Has anyone found their girls much happier with a neutered boar? I have two girls. Both have had hormonal issues & IC and it has been suggested to me that adding a boar may help.
Adding a neutered boar
- Thread starter Piggies2023
- Start date
You absolutely can add a neutered boar it won’t change things between your girls.
Their hormonal issues and IC are still going to be there
Adding More Guinea Pigs Or Merging Pairs – What Works And What Not?
Their hormonal issues and IC are still going to be there
Adding More Guinea Pigs Or Merging Pairs – What Works And What Not?
Hi
How old are your sows? Are they hormonal teenagers around 6 months or adult sows typically between 2-4 years?
I have had lots of neutered 'husboars' with 1 to up to 13 wives at some point over the years.
Please be aware that a 'husboar' won't cure any existing rifts between sows (he is bound to side with one of them sooner or later and will create an outsider situation) and he will also not make cystic ovarian hormone problems go away - for the latter you need a vet.
What you can never guarantee is acceptance, especially with cystic and/or older sows because they are getting past their natural pup bearing age without the hormone output or the ability to fall pregnant reducing but the biological urge is fading.
I have successfully bonded/rebonded 5-7 year old but I have also had some spectacular fails with 1 year old sows, so you can never tell.
The best way is dating; if you adopt on spec you really need to have a plan B if all goes haywire. You can never guarantee a successful outcome. But when it works, a mixed trio is great. I currently have three of them (just lost a boar two days ago, or it would have been four).
For every successful bond I have at least one fail where it didn't work out in the end for a wide range of reasons - and I have done coming up to 200 bondings or so over the last two decades, most of the cross gender pair or group bondings.
You may want to read these links here for more background information on the points I have raised:
Adding More Guinea Pigs Or Merging Pairs – What Works And What Not?
A Closer Look At Pairs (Boars - Sows - Mixed) (the 'mixed' chapter also applies to a bonded pair of sows)
Sows: Behaviour and female health problems (including ovarian cysts)
When Sows Experience A Strong Season (videos)
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
Piggies2023
Teenage Guinea Pig
Thank you. They are both 3. I would speak to my local rescue if I decided to go ahead, they do bonding.
They both have presented as having IC. Nancy has had one ovary out which has made a massive difference to her pain levels- despite it being a tiny ovarian cyst. Pumpkin has now started squeaking in pain too, maybe hormones having an impact again. My vet has seen adding a boar helping previously. I do wonder if the stress of them just tolerating each other doesn't help. They put up with each other rather than like each other.
It is generally small growing cysts that cause the hormonal issues; these are most active during the age your girls are now. Later in life, the large silent fluid filled ones will come to dominate - they generally don't cause hormonal issues but they can cause problems with their size. An estimated 70-80% of sows will present with ovarian cysts but the majority of them will go unnoticed and only a rather small number will turn cancerous - less than 5%.
The squeaking is sterile IC flare related and not hormone related. Ovarian cysts don't cause squeaking pain.