Bonding a sow and a bonded pair

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Tillica26

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Hi,
I sadly lost one of my piggies this week meaning that I have 1 sow living alone in her cage. She does live next door to a bonded sow and neutered boar pair, and she talks to them through the bars and has lots of interactions with them.

I am not in a rush to do anything- they all seem happy and we are recovering from losing our much loved pig.
I was hoping people could share their views on bonding my single sow with this bonded pair. I know trios can be tricky, but can this combination be successful?
Would it be better to bond the sows and the re-introduce the boar or would that be too confusing?
At the moment, I am swapping bedding and feeding them together through the bars. Is there anything else I could be doing to prepare for bonding if I choose to go ahead?

Thank you in advance!
 
Hello and welcome to the forum. I’m so sorry for your loss.

How old are our piggies? I’ve never had sows and boars but I’ve heard three piggies can sometimes lead to having an odd piggy out. All you can do is try them together and see if they want to be together. Good luck.
 
I’m sorry for your loss.

All you can do is try. Adding a sow to a bonded pair can be difficult - a closely bonded pair can refuse to let a third piggy in their bonding but then even if they do, it can lead to an outside situation.
As long as you are prepared for her to go back to a cage beside them then there is no harm in trying.

When bonding you need to add all three of them at same time. They need to form a unit as a trio.

We don’t recommend scent swapping - it can be detrimental and cause stress. Her scent does not belong to the pairing and having her scent in their cage prior to bonding can mean she will be seen as a territory invader.

Wiebke

Thread 'Reacting to group or territorial changes: Dominance and group establishment/re-establishment'

- What can trigger a new hierarchy sort-out?
- What can I do to mitigate the impact?

With an average life span of only around 3 years and a hostile environment, wild guinea pig social life is much more fluid and eventful, whether that is losses, births, regular leadership changes, new boars being accepted or changes to the territory due to climate extremes, infectious illnesses, predation and the waxing and waning of group fortunes and the amount of territory they can claim around their denning areas.


What can trigger...
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Wiebke

Thread 'Adding More Guinea Pigs Or Merging Pairs – What Works And What Not?'

1 Singles and Pairs
Singles: Challenges and solutions for different singles situations (link)
Pairs: A closer look all possible pairings (link)
2 Trios and More by Gender
Boars
- Trios and quartets - Why better avoided
- Large Groups...
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Wiebke

Thread 'Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics'

1 Introduction
2 Pre-bonding
- Quarantine and sexing
- The need for a plan B
- The rule-breaker: Youngsters under 4 months (sub-teenage)
3 Setting up an introduction
- Getting to know each other
- ‘Buddy baths’ – why not
- Scent swapping - why not
- Setting up a neutral bonding area
- How to start the bonding
4 Acceptance phase: Do we like...
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