Help advice needed for introducing 2 pairs of boars.

[CegsD]

Hi there, I'm new to owning guinea pigs. We've got 2 boars ages 18 weeks and another pair of brothers aged 9 weeks in a seperate cage at opposite side of the room. I tried introducing them in neutral territory the other day after a week of owning the babies. The 1st Introduction was for 5 mins, which went ok but the following day 8 mins introduction was intense, one was mounting the babies and I didn't like it. I'm not sure if I did it too soon so halted the process. I read a thread on here just now saying a quartet is practically impossible! I'm nervous now I've done the wrong thing buying 4 males. The Pet store didn't seem to think it would be an issue though. Am I tackling the impossible? Advice welcome x

 

[exia]

I have four boys living as two couples. Why? I was told that a trio would work. I didnt really believe it, but I didnt have the heart to leave one of the boys alone...

It worked for two months. They were about 14-15 weeks when I hade to give Up and split the trio. Now I can look back and be happy that my boys didnt fight, the smallest one was just unhappy and was so much more calm in his own cage. We got him a friend and they have been living side by side for 1,5 year. I wouldnt try to bond the four of them together in the same cage, just becuse I dont want to wreck their bonds.

So, I think its very hard to have four boys in the same cage. I think that the few ones that has three or more boys in the same "herd" has very mutch space and time to spend and monitor their heard, and react fast. Boars doesnt stop challenge each other just becuse they passed the teenage.

But happy boars are funny and if they get a strong bond, they will love each other in the sweetest way. And play, and make noises and do tricks until your crazy!

 

[Black piggies]

It's so annoying that pet shops continue to give such bad advice

 

[Wiebke]

Hi there, I'm new to owning guinea pigs. We've got 2 boars ages 18 weeks and another pair of brothers aged 9 weeks in a seperate cage at opposite side of the room. I tried introducing them in neutral territory the other day after a week of owning the babies. The 1st Introduction was for 5 mins, which went ok but the following day 8 mins introduction was intense, one was mounting the babies and I didn't like it. I'm not sure if I did it too soon so halted the process. I read a thread on here just now saying a quartet is practically impossible! I'm nervous now I've done the wrong thing buying 4 males. The Pet store didn't seem to think it would be an issue though. Am I tackling the impossible? Advice welcome x

Hi and welcome!
I am very sorry that you are another pet shop ignorance victim! Pet shops are mainly interested in sales, first and foremost. Species needs and animal welfare are not their first consideration.

Not personality matched sub-adult boar quartets in a standard cage setting have pretty much a near 100% fall-out rate once they hit the teenage months. As experiences on here over the years have shown, you are most likely to end up with one functional pair and two singles but you can end up at the worst with four boys that do not want to go back together; we've seen a few of them.
For a boar quartet to work, you would need LOTS of space, exactly the right personality mix and luck. They are by far the most difficult boar constellation to get right.

Not personality matched pairs have a much better rate of making it through (over 50%) although it all depends on how they balance when the big hormone spikes hit.
I would strongly recommend that you keep it to two pairs. You would need a very big cage for a quartet and still not have any guarantee that they would work out; just giving them the space for an amicable divorce instead of keeping them crammed together and forcing them to fight.

Please take the time to read our information guides on boars and constellations. You will find them very helpful so you can make the best of your current situation and know what you can do and need to look out for.
The recommended size for a boar pair cage is around 160x60 cm (minimum 140x60 cm) or ideally 5-6x2 C&C grids.
Adding More Guinea Pigs Or Merging Pairs – What Works And What Not?
Cage Size Guide

A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?

Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs

Getting Started - New Owners' Most Helpful Guides (this one is for bookmarking, browsing, reading and re-reading at need - lots of really helpful practical tips and information on all the little and large things new owners come up against)

 

[fournakedpigs]

To echo what others have said, please do not try to rebond all four males. It’s nearly impossible to last long-term, and the dynamics are likely to upset any established bonds between pairs.

We are a household of four boars who are all housed separately. (We keep rescuing feisty pigs who need companionship but not cage mates, so here we are. ) Trust me, this is not an ideal situation, as it’s four large CC cages to clean and four testosterone-y boars always marking everything. Save your boar pairs and keep them in pairs.

 

[weepweeps]

I agree with everyone. I ended up having four separate boys too after the pet shop advised taking 4 boys! This was a while ago though. I’m surprised they are still advising this .

Keep them as two pairs.

 

[CegsD]

Sorry its taken me a while to respond, I didn't see the email saying confirm your email
Thanks all for your wise advice from your personal experience on keeping them as two pairs. Yes I've done 9 consecutive days of introductions before seeing these posts and it's gone OK but yesterday I witnessed my baby abbersinian piggies have a little fight and I didn't like that as they never fight being brothers. I built my main cage and it is about 153cm x 77cm and I'm adding a elevated hutch to the side of it soon for additional loft space.
I can see I'm going to have to sell some furniture, and buy a big 2 floor hutch for the babies and get them out of the Ferplast large cage!
I feel silly now getting 2 more males, I got sucked in by watching YouTube videos where people had heard of them living together .
I gave my sons long haired piggy a good cut today too and it amazed me seeing how much happier he was after. I found about 3 tufts in his hair and general tough dirty hair at the ends. He seemed to stop annoying Tango the American Piggy, I'm hoping that's a step in the right direction going forward.

 

[Swissgreys]

Sorry its taken me a while to respond, I didn't see the email saying confirm your email
Thanks all for your wise advice from your personal experience on keeping them as two pairs. Yes I've done 9 consecutive days of introductions before seeing these posts and it's gone OK but yesterday I witnessed my baby abbersinian piggies have a little fight and I didn't like that as they never fight being brothers. I built my main cage and it is about 153cm x 77cm and I'm adding a elevated hutch to the side of it soon for additional loft space.
I can see I'm going to have to sell some furniture, and buy a big 2 floor hutch for the babies and get them out of the Ferplast large cage!
I feel silly now getting 2 more males, I got sucked in by watching YouTube videos where people had heard of them living together .
I gave my sons long haired piggy a good cut today too and it amazed me seeing how much happier he was after. I found about 3 tufts in his hair and general tough dirty hair at the ends. He seemed to stop annoying Tango the American Piggy, I'm hoping that's a step in the right direction going forward.

The problem with 4 boars is that without a huge amount of space they will eventually fall out.
Your current cage size is about the minimum recommended for a pair, so will never work for 4 boars.
Additionally each introduction is stressful for all four of them. Doing them repeatedly is only adding to their stress levels.

Please accept that you can still have 2 happy and fully functioning pairs, and work on making a great cage for each pair.
And don't beat yourself up about it.
We have all seen You Tube videos of perfect herds, bondings and large groups. The secret is to accept your own situation and move forward in a positive way with the pigs you have.

 

[My Piggies]

I've had 4 boys living together 24/7 before, and even 6 boys together, no fights. The easiest way to introduce them, I've found, is to just have their cages right up against one another for a few days before finally putting them together.
**Note** Little baby boys will still smell like their mum so the older boys will think they've just got girls. It takes a while after the pups have been weaned before they develop a smell of their own.

You must have had extremely laid back boars to pull that off. Boar trios rarely work, but quartets and a group of six are bound to end in disaster unfortunately. It's best to keep boars in pairs to avoid any problems or injuries.

 

[Piggies&buns]

I've had 4 boys living together 24/7 before, and even 6 boys together, no fights. The easiest way to introduce them, I've found, is to just have their cages right up against one another for a few days before finally putting them together.
**Note** Little baby boys will still smell like their mum so the older boys will think they've just got girls. It takes a while after the pups have been weaned before they develop a smell of their own.

You have been incredibly lucky. This is rather the exception, not the rule though.
Large groups of boars can work provided they want to be together, have at least one square metre of territory each, but it is generally only with large numbers - ie 10 boars as it helps diffuse tensions. Boar trios and quartets are the most unstable, particularly with teen and young adult piggies, and are one of the most common bond failures we are contacted about.

 

[CegsD]

I've had 4 boys living together 24/7 before, and even 6 boys together, no fights. The easiest way to introduce them, I've found, is to just have their cages right up against one another for a few days before finally putting them together.
**Note** Little baby boys will still smell like their mum so the older boys will think they've just got girls. It takes a while after the pups have been weaned before they develop a smell of their own.

That's a really interesting fact about the babies smell and the fact the older ones probably think they are girls as yes they constantly lick the babies behinds. Thank you and good job on keeping so many males together. I don't think our house will have that success as its far too noisy here! X

 

[CegsD]

It's so annoying that pet shops continue to give such bad advice

Yes not great at all, they should of given far more advice. What really annoyed me was not informing us on cage sizes, we bought the large Ferplast and no warning on how small that actually would be for them. I think if a store can't house hutches etc due to lack of space in a store then they should at least have posters up with size guides. So many piggies must be living in tiny cramped cages.