Dividing my piggies

  • Thread starter Thread starter celticpiggiewoman
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
C

celticpiggiewoman

Hi all

I have a dilemma that I would appreciate some advice with.
I currently have 17 piggies - 9 girls and 8 neutered boars.
At the moment the girlies live in an enclosure with 1 of the boars, they have two double and two smaller hutches to go into which are permanently open and a large area inbetween to run around in.
The other 7 boys all live seperately, 6 originally lived in pairs but fell out over a period of time, with torn ears and bad cuts to the face. I did seperate and then try to reintroduce but the same thing kept happening, I also tried to re-match which I had a short-term success with one pair before they also fell out.
This is my dilemma:
a) will the girlies miss the amount of freedom they currently have
b)can I just pair them up or should I try them together first - it was easy with the current boy as he'd lived with girls before and they just accepted him - they were all originally living together
c)Will the girlies miss each other, all but 1 girl is part of a family

The alternative to dividing them into small groups is to keep the groups larger and rehome a couple of my lovely boys ^). They all live inside at the mo and go out when the weather's nice.

Sorry this is so longwinded, but any advice would be gratefully received.

Thanks :)p
 
Hi! Welcome to the forum!

Sorry - are your boys neutered or not?
 
I'm sure you will get some very useful help I'm afraid I've nothing to offer other than wishing you luck in sorting out this situation so all the piggies are happy and yourself of course.
 
OK - better check first that they are neutered!

Cross gender pairings are usually a very stable pairings, but you need lots of space if you want to keep more than one boar with a group of girls! I think it would be worth trying to match them up in pairs, but as I only have gone from one mixed pair to a bigger herd and not the other way I am not an authority!

I would expect some upsets during a transitional period and you may have to switch the odd pairing. Giving each pairing a trial run on introduction, you proabably get a good idea on how they will get on together. You do not have to do it all once.

Introductions on neutral ground etc...
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38562
 
Last edited:
I had 7 of the boars neutered last October and the one that lives with the girls was neutered before he came to me.
We can provide more space if we go for larger groups, I suppose I'm just worried that the girls will miss each other - they're a pretty sedate bunch with only the odd squabble Scoob has to intervene with - god I'm a wooss mallethead. I'm probably completely overthinking things but I want them all to stay happy :... x
 
Well it would make sense to find each boar a 'wife', it's just a matter of match-making. I find it helps to write lists - have a look at the boars, their personalities and whether they're pushy or laid back.. and try to match them with their ideal sow!

Must have cost you a fortune to have them all neutered, given that you could pair them each up with a sow and keep them all, I would think this is your best bet

Sophie
x
 
sophiew said:
Well it would make sense to find each boar a 'wife', it's just a matter of match-making. I find it helps to write lists - have a look at the boars, their personalities and whether they're pushy or laid back.. and try to match them with their ideal sow!

Must have cost you a fortune to have them all neutered, given that you could pair them each up with a sow and keep them all, I would think this is your best bet

Sophie
x
Click to expand...

Thanks Sophie. I did originally think I might have to rehome some of my boys last year and I thought it would be best to get them neutered so they would stand a better chance of bonding with girls instead of trying to pair them with more boys and fights etc that's mainly why I did it. Fortunately I got a good job and all was saved (it would have broken my heart to have had to part with them) but also I was quite lucky that my vet did me a bit of a deal but they were worth it.
6 of the boars are about a year old and most of the girls are 18months/2yrs do you think that matters? Sorry to ask so many questions but I really want to do the best for them all xx
 
Ages shouldn't matter - we don't know how old my neutered boar is but his sows are anything from a few months to 5 years old... it's not really important.

It's true that neutered boars would be easier to home - in fact, we usually have a waiting list for them here! But it would be lovely if you could match them up, 'married couples' are lovely!

Sophie
x
 
My 3 1/2 year old sow chose her own young swain (12 months) herself at the rescue out of a selection of three available neutered boars. They were very devoted to each other for the rest of her life.

Llewelyn is now three years old and the cornerstone of my herd of seven (rangin from 6 -16 months). This weekend I'm going to introduce a four year girl into my tribe. She has been handed into rescue after her sister died.

Thankfully, age is not a factor in cross gender pairings. You will probably find that sows that have been living with boars are quite accepting of a new one. My Taffy certainly was!
 
Furries said:
I recently created a thread about a herd of boars, asking if it could work. Apparently it is possible, so I was wondering if you could try putting all of your boars together (so long as they had a massive space)? Just an alternative suggestion, which you may or may not want to consider.

Here's the thread:

http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=42645
Click to expand...

Thanks for telling me about this thread, it's very interesting and something I hadn't even thought about. I'm not sure if it would work with some of mine as they've already fallen out but very interesting anyway x
 
Wiebke said:
My 3 1/2 year old sow chose her own young swain (12 months) herself at the rescue out of a selection of three available neutered boars. They were very devoted to each other for the rest of her life.

Llewelyn is now three years old and the cornerstone of my herd of seven (rangin from 6 -16 months). This weekend I'm going to introduce a four year girl into my tribe. She has been handed into rescue after her sister died.

Thankfully, age is not a factor in cross gender pairings. You will probably find that sows that have been living with boars are quite accepting of a new one. My Taffy certainly was!
Click to expand...

Your set up sounds very harmonious and lovely, hopefully I'll be able to achieve it with my babies as well. I feel quite excited about sorting things out and working out who goes with who :(|)
 
Furries said:
I recently created a thread about a herd of boars, asking if it could work. Apparently it is possible, so I was wondering if you could try putting all of your boars together (so long as they had a massive space)? Just an alternative suggestion, which you may or may not want to consider.

Here's the thread:

http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=42645
Click to expand...

That is a possibility but its not as simple as just putting them together,it most probably wont work unless the boys are super calm and dont have problems with each other already which tyhese boys seem to.

If you have 8 neutered boars i would make use of that and give them all a girl each,and one boar would have two sows because you have 9 of them.
I think thats the best way to go,boy groups are not easy and if its possible to make more stable pairings then tahts always the better way to go;)
 
celticpiggiewoman said:
Your set up sounds very harmonious and lovely, hopefully I'll be able to achieve it with my babies as well. I feel quite excited about sorting things out and working out who goes with who :(|)
Click to expand...

I hope that you do not have too many sleepless nights, but it probably pays thinking carefully about who you want to pair up with whom - and make a list of the pairings! I also would recommend that you do it in stages, so you can concentrate on each pairing at a time - perhaps start with the more difficult characters first, so you are more flexible in case things don't go to plan. A boy with his first lady can go overboard for a day or two! But generally, any boy will go through hoops to be with a girl - it's her who decides whether she wants him!

Perhaps you can keep one bigger run area for the couples to use in turn, so they can still have some time and space to stretch their legs?
 
Wiebke said:
I hope that you do not have too many sleepless nights, but it probably pays thinking carefully about who you want to pair up with whom - and make a list of the pairings! I also would recommend that you do it in stages, so you can concentrate on each pairing at a time - perhaps start with the more difficult characters first, so you are more flexible in case things don't go to plan. A boy with his first lady can go overboard for a day or two! But generally, any boy will go through hoops to be with a girl - it's her who decides whether she wants him!

Perhaps you can keep one bigger run area for the couples to use in turn, so they can still have some time and space to stretch their legs?
Click to expand...

I've taken all your advice on board and will let the girlies choose their mate and do one pairing at a time. I'll be doing my first on thursday and will put all the girlies into a big indoor run I've go and get the first lucky boar out and see if any are drawn to him. If so they can spend some time togehter and we'll see how it goes.
Will let you all know how it goes. Thanks to everyone for theiir help/advice.

:)p xx
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top