Boar help!

LothianCavies

LothianCavies

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hello, we are new guinea pig owners. After thinking about getting cavies for years I saw someone in our village had babies that required urgent homes due to them moving. I did a bad thing - I acted on impulse and said we would take them. However, when they dropped them off they gave us three boars. I did say I thought they were better in pairs, but they had said it would be fine and I stupidly agreed (I also completely fell for them!). However, I then started reading many a book, and I am now panicking that one or all three are going to get hurt. Is there anything we can do to help prevent this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. They are in a 150cm cage indoors - plans to give them more space in a few months. They are 8 weeks old and utterly gorgeous.

Ps I am in West Lothian, in Scotland.
 
LothianCavies said:
Hello, we are new guinea pig owners. After thinking about getting cavies for years I saw someone in our village had babies that required urgent homes due to them moving. I did a bad thing - I acted on impulse and said we would take them. However, when they dropped them off they gave us three boars. I did say I thought they were better in pairs, but they had said it would be fine and I stupidly agreed (I also completely fell for them!). However, I then started reading many a book, and I am now panicking that one or all three are going to get hurt. Is there anything we can do to help prevent this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. They are in a 150cm cage indoors - plans to give them more space in a few months. They are 8 weeks old and utterly gorgeous.

Ps I am in West Lothian, in Scotland.
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Hi! Keep them together for now, but be prepared that you may have to remove one once the testicles start descending and the hormones strike. He can either live as a neighbour with interaction through the bars, or you can try to find a friend for him (not easy in your area as there are no good piggy savvy rescues). but you will hopefully end up with at least one stable bond. It is kinder to keep them all together right now than have one baby boar all on his own and very lost!

You have about 6-8 weeks until then to learn, research and prepare.

Here is our new owners' guide collection: Getting Started - New Owners' Most Helpful Guides
Here is the complete teenage months guide, from what you can do to avoid the worst flashpoints to a list of options when things have gone wrong.
 
Thank you so much for the speedy response! We will do exactly that
 
Although it's unlikely, it is not unheard of for a trio to work. My three are still doing okay at about 15 months old. I have a plan B, as I know it could go south at any time. I just wanted to say that space is what I believe has helped most (i used all the other advice too, but being able to get well away from each other is a big thing - one sleeps in the loft area). Two of them do have their moments, and there has been a scratched nose (which I didn't witness, so I don't know how bad the tussle was) the third is so laid back as to be horizontal, and he gets on fine with both the other two. What I'm trying to say is, don't separate at the first sign of trouble. You can give them some time out by popping a divider in until the adrenalin calms down. Ultimately you will probably have to separate at some point, but I just wanted to say that it's not completely hopeless.
 
Reenie said:
Although it's unlikely, it is not unheard of for a trio to work. My three are still doing okay at about 15 months old. I have a plan B, as I know it could go south at any time. I just wanted to say that space is what I believe has helped most (i used all the other advice too, but being able to get well away from each other is a big thing - one sleeps in the loft area). Two of them do have their moments, and there has been a scratched nose (which I didn't witness, so I don't know how bad the tussle was) the third is so laid back as to be horizontal, and he gets on fine with both the other two. What I'm trying to say is, don't separate at the first sign of trouble. You can give them some time out by popping a divider in until the adrenalin calms down. Ultimately you will probably have to separate at some point, but I just wanted to say that it's not completely hopeless.
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Thank you Reenie! It would be lovely if they could stay together, and we will give them more space in the hope we can prevent separating them. However, we will factor in a plan b when designing their 'big boy' home! I hope yours continue to get along!
 
Merab's Slave said:
Welcome to the forum
Hope your boys do manage to survive as a trio.
Please let’s see pics of them
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I'm trying to resist photos as they are easily spooked and still settling in - so apologies for these!
 

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PiggyMay1227 said:
I have three grown boars that get along fine, they grew up together.
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Can I ask if yours did the bum swaying thing to each other a lot when they were as young as 8 weeks? Ps lovely to hear of a successful trio!
 
hope all goes well i have a feeling you will be lucky and it will work
 
LothianCavies said:
Can I ask if yours did the bum swaying thing to each other a lot when they were as young as 8 weeks? Ps lovely to hear of a successful trio!
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Bum swaying or rumblestrutting is par for the course for boys - you'll see a lot of that and chin offs - when they see who can get their nose the highest. They are the mildest forms of dominance. A bit of chattering is ok, a lot of incessant chattering and 'yawning' is time to keep a close eye on them, and have the oven gloves and cage divider on stand by. It's all down to personality in the end, so you just have to hope you're lucky and don't have two dominant boys in the mix. They are lovely wee things!
 
LothianCavies said:
Can I ask if yours did the bum swaying thing to each other a lot when they were as young as 8 weeks? Ps lovely to hear of a successful trio!
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My guinea pigs did do the hip swaying, but I guess it's just a stage because they grew out of it. They also attempted to hump each other a few times...
 
Reenie said:
Bum swaying or rumblestrutting is par for the course for boys - you'll see a lot of that and chin offs - when they see who can get their nose the highest. They are the mildest forms of dominance. A bit of chattering is ok, a lot of incessant chattering and 'yawning' is time to keep a close eye on them, and have the oven gloves and cage divider on stand by. It's all down to personality in the end, so you just have to hope you're lucky and don't have two dominant boys in the mix. They are lovely wee things!
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In the beginning, I did have two of my males (Cookie dough, and Reese) who both wanted to be the dominant guinea pig. After a few weeks Reese decided that he would not be the dominant piggy, Cookie dough is the current dominant piggy, and things are working out fine.
 
PiggyMay1227 said:
My guinea pigs did do the hip swaying, but I guess it's just a stage because they grew out of it. They also attempted to hump each other a few times...
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Haha, yes we have had a bit of that already! We even did a triple check of their 'parts' just in case. They were not amused!
 
Reenie said:
Bum swaying or rumblestrutting is par for the course for boys - you'll see a lot of that and chin offs - when they see who can get their nose the highest. They are the mildest forms of dominance. A bit of chattering is ok, a lot of incessant chattering and 'yawning' is time to keep a close eye on them, and have the oven gloves and cage divider on stand by. It's all down to personality in the end, so you just have to hope you're lucky and don't have two dominant boys in the mix. They are lovely wee things!
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Really helpful, thank you Reenie. It's lovely seeing their personalities coming out - I'm fascinated! The chin-offs have happened between the 2 boys I least expected it of. The largest, Spike, just does his own thing and is the most tame. He ia always first out and first to take food, the other two are joined at the hip but also bicker. Fascinating!
 
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