Adding another sow to my trio?

[pinklizzy]

Hi,
As I am fast becoming known as 'the crazy guinea pig lady',I have been told of two separate piggies needing new homes in the last week or so and although I'd love to add to our piggie family I'm really concerned about causing a big falling out between my piggies or the risk of them being injured etc.
I currently have a neutered boar who is around 5 and two sisters who are nearly 7 months old. They live in a C and C cage which is 2x6 grids as a single level, although we could poss add an upper level I know that isn't counted in terms of space.
One of the girls needing a new home is 15 months and is now on her own after her sister passed away and the other is a 6 week old baby from an accidental pregnancy, I would dearly love to have them both but I know we don't currently have enough room and wouldn't be able to easily expand the current cage.
Then my heart tells me to see if we could take on the older girlie as although she's not really very old, she might be harder to rehome than a baby? I'm
just worried that she may also be more difficult to integrate than a tiny pig.
I know that a lot of it will depend on the individual pigs but if any of you more experienced owners can see any big potential difficulties that I'm missing I'd be really grateful for any advice.
I almost wish I didn't know anything about either of them needing new homes, as although I really want to help them and can't bear to think of lonely pigs in need of new homes, it'd be great to have the support of a knowledgeable rescue behind me when we add any more to our family, which was my original plan!

 

[christine]

Ha ha my grand children call me Granny Guineapigs!

 

[piggyfan]

Sadly a 2 by 6 would not be enough space. If you could extend your c and c then it would be fine to introduce another sow. Personally I would take both. I have four sows and a neutered boar

 

[pinklizzy]

What size would I need to extend to in order to have either one or both of them do you think? The older girlie may possibly have found a home now and it would take me a bit of time to make any extensions as it's somehow got so close to Christmas, don't know where the time goes!

 

[piggyfan]

I have an 8 by 3 and it is a nice space for five. Mine have plenty of room.

 

[Wiebke]

A 2x6 12 in grid cage is enough for 5 piggies as it is about as big as the 2x7 ft RSPCA minimum space required for 5 piggies, but it would be great if you could offer more space in terms of mezzanines or haylofts. Alternatively, if you can offer a sizeable second story like a 2x4 grid space, that will count towards the overall ground space.

15 months is not very old and not usually a problematic age to integrate sows in my own experience; both girls should fit in at the bottom of the existing hierarchy and not cause any major upset. Many people love babies for the cute factor, of course.

If you could extend your C&C to make space for both, that would solve your dilemma very elegantly! You may find that your two new girls will form a subgroup.

 

[pinklizzy]

Well, I can definitely extend to make upper layers, it's more the cage base itself as it's on a specially made table at the moment which has raised edges so that it can't move around too much. Will have to have a look at how we could make some alterations!
I'd love to be able to have them both, when I introduced the girls to my lone boy they were still tiny and had been able to see him for 3ish weeks while they were separated (post his castration). I introduced them on neutral territory in the garden run as it was summer, I assume I'd need to do similar now but indoors?!

 

[pinklizzy]

Well, it looks like we will be adding another girlie as the older piggie is still on her own and looking for a home. She's currently outdoors in a hutch but I want to be able to bring her in and have ordered a small indoor cage for her to be in initially, which will also come in handy as a hospital cage etc in the future.
I think I'll be here looking for lots of advice though as I'm very nervous (as well as excited!) about doing more introductions!