Help/advice for recently bereaved boar

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Chokito

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Greetings all from Australia - thanks for this incredibly informative and well supported forum.

We have several guinea pigs in our care, as follows:
2 x American guinea pig boars approx 5 years old (housed separately, had to be separated due fighting a couple of years ago) - one is desexed, one is not
1 x Abyssinian guinea pig boar approx 3 years old (recently bereaved, had been housed with his brother until ) - not desexed
2 x new guinea pig boars approx 8 weeks old (brothers, housed together) - not desexed

I have a bit of a challenge with a recently bereaved Abyssinian guinea pig boar, is a very dominant character who about a month ago lost his much smaller, submissive brother to illness. Vet has checked him out and considers him to be very healthy, although he does drink an unusually large amount of water. He is almost 3 years old.

I'm not sure of the best approach to give him companionship and restore his quality of life going forward.

He shows a lot of interest in bonding with a pair of 8 week old brother boars which we have caged adjacent to him, but when introducing them he relentlessly humps them, which I understand is normal dominance behaviour - one of the boars (the larger of the little brothers) seems to react unfavourably to the humping, and is showing signs that he'll challenge the big Abyssinian as he gets older.

We have tried a couple of long bonding sessions with these guys on neutral territory and have found that the young boars play well with the older American guinea pig boars, who have mellowed to the point where they are look like very good potential 'uncles' for the young guys. It looks like we could create some workable bonding pairs with these.

However, I'm worried about the Abyssinian - he doesn't get on well with either of the American guinea pig boars, but popcorns and gets excited around the little guys. But as they are housed together, creating a trio with these three seems risky.

I feel bad for the Abyssinian & don't want him to be lonely - he looks out of his cage very longingly at the new little guys, seems sad and lonely at times. Not really sure what to do.
 
Welcome to the forum and I am sorry for your loss.

You need to keep boars in pairs.
Keep the Americans as neighbours
Keep the 8 week olds together as a pair

Please don’t try to keep more than two boars together.
It’s best to never rock the boat when it comes to boar pairs - if they are working as they are, then leave them as they are.

The single aby will either need his own new live in friend ideally via boar dating at a rescue centre if you are near one, or to be left single and kept as a neighbour with the others for interaction through the bars. A single piggy will need his cage next to others - that way they are not lonely.

Adding More Guinea Pigs Or Merging Pairs – What Works And What Not?
A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars
 
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Hello. I’m sorry for your loss.

I’d keep the youngsters together and definitely not try and make a trio. As said above this hardly ever works out. As the two Americans are living separately maybe you could try bonding him with one of those? Pick the most submissive one and see if it works out. If not the three older piggies living separately will still be ok as they can have interaction through the bars. Good luck.
 
Thanks for your kind words and your advice.

The single aby fights with the Americans unfortunately whenever they share outside time on the grass, so I'm not confident about bonding him with either of them.

He communicates energetically and excitedly with the youngsters.

If we had the single aby desexed, how problematic would be introducing a female to bond with him? Is this likely to cause the other boars to go a bit nuts if they can smell her, even if they are caged separately?
 
Yes, smelling a sow can cause problems for your young boar pair. It won’t make any difference to the separated Americans as they cannot fight with each other, but having a sow in the room with bonded boars, particularly given they will soon be teenagers, has the potential to cause them problems. However, if your Americans are not neutered, then having a sow in the room, while it would not cause them to fight, boars can be quite determined to escape cages to get with a sow, so you would need to be careful that their cages were lidded and secure. its recommended to not add sows to a boar only room. If your aby boar had a sow, then they would need ideally to be kept in a separate room to the boar pair.
 
Please forgive my ignorance - would it be a bad thing to bond the youngsters with the Americans (i.e. a youngster with each American)

They seem to quite like each other - or is this likely to end in difficulty as the little guys mature, or is it better to keep them together as they are brothers?
 
A bond comes down to character compatibility so it is impossible to say whether they will be better together or with one of the Americans - once they get hormonal and hit their teens will be the time you know their character and at that point further decisions may or may not need to be made. You need one dominant and one submissive in each pair for a bond to work. It may be that you already have that and the two youngsters will be fine together for life but equally if they both want to be dominant, it is at around 16 weeks to 14 months that any incompatibilities will come to light and separations may be necessary. Being brothers doesn’t mean their bond will be more likely to work but it also doesnt mean it won’t.

If it were me, I would leave things as they are - leave the two youngsters together and see how things go over the coming weeks and months. They have every chance of being absolutely fine together. However, if problems do show up, then you will know them and their characters better and at that point you may be able to pair them up with one of the Americans each (provided you can make a dominant and submissive in each pair).
 
Chokito said:
Thanks for your kind words and your advice.

The single aby fights with the Americans unfortunately whenever they share outside time on the grass, so I'm not confident about bonding him with either of them.

He communicates energetically and excitedly with the youngsters.

If we had the single aby desexed, how problematic would be introducing a female to bond with him? Is this likely to cause the other boars to go a bit nuts if they can smell her, even if they are caged separately?
Click to expand...

Introducing a sow into a boars-ony environment is a big No No. Ideally you would have to keep the mixed pair in another room because the pheromones of a sow in season can really upset boars; but especially teenage boars or young adults. Boars that have grown up around sows and have always been in a room with sows are much less affected because their body chemistry adapts to it and works differently producing higher quantities of a calming compound.
There is a chapter with the specific rules on sows and boars in our boar guide (chapter 3); the guide also contains a chapter on boar companionship options as access to good rescues and piggy savvy vets can vary enormously across the world:. Sadly, I haven't come across about good welfare standard rescues in your state. A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars

Acceptance in young and sub-adult sows is very high; it is a lot lower in adult or older sows past ideal pup-bearing age although there is no menopause for either gender - wild sows needed no biological engineering beyond that point because most of them simply never lived to an old age.

Here is more detailed information on boar neutering. it very much stands and falls with the experience and quality of the operating vet and nursing team. Neutered / De-sexed Boars And Neutering Operations: Myths, Facts and Post-op Care

Please take your time to think things through and do your research. Your bereaved boy should not be acutely pining if he can interact with the younger boar pair through the bars, so you have that crucial time.
 
Just something I picked up on. Piggies that don’t live together shouldn’t have any time together at all - whether in a run or on grass. They need to be on the grass in their pairs with no mixing at all.

I would personally leave the older boars in their pair and leave the youngsters together. They may get on if you formed them into pairs but why disrupt something that works? Try and take your singleton dating so he can choose his own friend. Even when you bond him with one of the youngsters, you will have to find the lone piggy a friend.

Good luck making a decision!
 
Everyone you put them together is a bonding session for them. Doing that then ‘putting them away’ repeatedly interrupts and they have to start again the next time. This is stressful for them and isn’t how they do things. Boars are also a difficult balancing act. It’s not good for you to continuously put your single with the other two boars if they don’t seem to like each other. That and the other reason I’ve given.
 
OK thanks - looks like I will need to build a new home for the two little boar brothers as their existing temporary cage (970mm x 500mm) is not big enough

Other enclosures are:
1180mm x 570mm (Sledgehammer) - this enclosure has an upper deck
1180mm x 570mm (Salty)
1360mm x 640mm (Professor Chocolate)

Do I build them something that will allow for interaction with the other boar neighbours through the bars?
 
Yes the young boars will definitely need something bigger. 97x50cm (970x500mm) is below welfare (120x60cm is the minimum welfare size for a single piggy of either sex or for two sows) but bonded boars need more room - a minimum of 150x60cm but 180x60cm is recommended.

A bonded pair don’t need interaction with the neighbours as they already have each other. Any piggies which are single do need interaction with the neighbours
 
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