Bonding a sow and boar .... What's success?

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spannerCole

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Hi all,
Firstly this is my first time in a forum, everything I have learnt about Guinea pigs has been YouTube or Google searches, but I need more specific answers to my questions so I am hoping someone here will put my mind at rest.

I started with two boars, Bob and Bubbles. I got them as babies and 2 years later they started fighting, eventually it got so bad that blood was drawn and I had to separate them. At the time I only had room for 1 cage so my mum offered to house the other. It took a year but I finally got both back with me in big cages and my plan is to neuter and bond both boys with sows. The first one was done last month and during his recovery I was asked by my vets nurse if I would take her sow that was alone (after loosing her friend) and I agreed.
I made a large bonding area with everything fresh and started the bonding. There was humping/rumbling/head butting and teeth chattering but no full fights or blood drawn and eventually they were eating and resting fine. So I washed down the cage with white vinegar and cleaned everything thoroughly I purchased new houses and toys and put them in the cage together. However I now feel my boar is starting to bully the sow. He rumble struts and mounts her constantly, she is submissive and lets him do it but then she has enough and head buts him. Sometimes they are completely calm but other times I feel like I need to stand over the cage with a towel especially when I hear them both teeth chattering!
It's been over 24 hours but in another 24 I will be at work and I am terrified something will happen while I am gone 😞 Nights are fine, they are both calm and quiet and I don't hear a thing but day time I feel like the boar is walking the perimeter and every time he passed her he rumble struts at her. This is my first bond so I may be over sensitive but I am both scared that she is being bullied or one may eventually attack and I won't be here to intervene.

Help, guidance and advice is desperately needed! Do I persevere? Is it too risky?

I have a rescue lined up for my second boar next month, I have to take my time to spread the cost of vet bills, but it's worth it for them all to be happy 😊
 

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I had all of the things you describe trying to bond a boar with sows, it was manic as he wanted sexy time with all of them. After a day or two of the sows telling him no, he settled down, have a look at my old topic, I had to go through it a couple of times. Our members have been through it many times and will be able to help you with any further queries. 👍
Delilah
 
Welcome to the forum

First, you say he was neutered ‘last month’.
Can you confirm that it has been 6 weeks or more.
If less than 6 weeks, please separate them immediately and put the sow on pregnancy watch for the next 10 weeks.

If it has been 6 weeks or more, then they can continue with their bonding.
Their bonding sounds fine. He will be over excited to meet a sow so his behaviour may be over the top for a few days. It will calm when but it takes around two weeks for their bond to be fully formed.

Bullying is a set of sustained behaviours which can see the bullied piggy lose weight through not being allowed to eat or being too upset to eat, become withdrawn and depressed.
 
Welcome to the forum

This sounds fairly normal to me. He is obviously trying very hard to impress her, rumbling is perfectly normal, boars always rumble and strut their stuff! They will settle down into a routine. She will put him in his place and he will learn some manners, he is just a little over enthusiastic at the moment. It takes around two weeks for a pair to fully bond but I would leave them to it. Weigh them weekly and check them over as normal.
Bullying is when one pig is preventing another to move around freely and not eat. It may look a bit like bullying to you but what you are seeing is a bond being made between the two of them
 
Piggies&buns said:
Welcome to the forum

First, you say he was neutered ‘last month’.
Can you confirm that it has been 6 weeks or more.
If less than 6 weeks, please separate them immediately and put the sow on pregnancy watch for the next 10 weeks.

If it has been 6 weeks or more, then they can continue with their bonding.
Their bonding sounds fine. He will be over excited to meet a sow so his behaviour may be over the top for a few days. It will calm when but it takes around two weeks for their bond to be fully formed.

Bullying is a set of sustained behaviours which can see the bullied piggy lose weight through not being allowed to eat or being too upset to eat, become withdrawn and depressed.
Click to expand...
Yes it's been 6 weeks it was the last week in May he was done.
She is eating, not as much as my boys but she is eating.
 
Bill & Ted said:
Welcome to the forum

This sounds fairly normal to me. He is obviously trying very hard to impress her, rumbling is perfectly normal, boars always rumble and strut their stuff! They will settle down into a routine. She will put him in his place and he will learn some manners, he is just a little over enthusiastic at the moment. It takes around two weeks for a pair to fully bond but I would leave them to it. Weigh them weekly and check them over as normal.
Bullying is when one pig is preventing another to move around freely and not eat. It may look a bit like bullying to you but what you are seeing is a bond being made between the two of them
Click to expand...
Thank you.
He does stand in front of the exists of her house but she gets past if she wants, she just seems to prefer staying in there to stay away from him. He goes back and forth to both exits waiting for her to come out .

I literally haven't left the room apart from going to the loo since Friday as I am so worried he might hurt her 😢
 
spannerCole said:
Thank you.
He does stand in front of the exists of her house but she gets past if she wants, she just seems to prefer staying in there to stay away from him. He goes back and forth to both exits waiting for her to come out .

I literally haven't left the room apart from going to the loo since Friday as I am so worried he might hurt her 😢
Click to expand...

You should make sure all hides have two exits to prevent blocking

Edit - just re-read that it has two.
 
BossHogg said:
I had all of the things you describe trying to bond a boar with sows, it was manic as he wanted sexy time with all of them. After a day or two of the sows telling him no, he settled down, have a look at my old topic, I had to go through it a couple of times. Our members have been through it many times and will be able to help you with any further queries. 👍
Delilah
Click to expand...
Thank you will check that out now
 
spannerCole said:
Yes both hides have two exits, he wonders between the two exits of the hide she is in and just waits.
Click to expand...

Yes I saw that but after - my eye managed to skip that bit first time.

He won’t hurt her. Acceptance seems to have occurred. He sounds to just be being an overexcited boy. He should calm down in time.
Make sure you keep up with her (although both of their) routine weight checks just to be sure she is eating while they are settling into married life!
Put hay in hides, if you haven’t already, so she can eat without being pestered
 
Hay in hides is a good idea! It has got better in the last 24hours. It's just so scary at first because it's the first time I have done this, its hard to know what's right.
I weigh my guinea pigs weekly however........ My boys have always been between the 1150g-1230g range (I know this is larger than they should be and I have limited pellets to half an egg cup to stop over eating) However the new sow however is a whopping 1298g! She will probably loose weight in the feeding regime I have, plus she has a 2x6 space to run around but I may come back here for more advice should her weight really start to plummet! Oh god so much to consider, thank you for all your advice 😊
 
The number on the scales is not an indicator of what is healthy for them - you need to check their heft to find that out. The adult weight varies so much and there is no range as such.
I have four boys the biggest of which was 1550g in his prime - perfectly healthy and not overweight at all. His cage mate was around 1250g in his prime, again, perfectly fine for him.

Weight Monitoring and Management
 
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