I'm Introducing Gp's - When Should They Be Put Together?

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Tinkletoes66

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Hello everyone! Really excited...this is my first thread!

Anyway, 2 weeks ago we got 2 young sows (about 6-8 months old) to introduce to our neutered 6-year-old boar who lost his brother a few months ago.

I'm planning to introduce them tomorrow, but I have a question first...

Basically, the easiest place for us would be the bath since both our run in the shed and outdoor run are both holding the guineas at the moment. I was basically planning to clean it out, put a towel down and food etc. and keep them in it for up to half an hour depending on how it goes, then take them back to their separate accommodation and repeat in a few days then daily. But I've just read the 'Introducing and Reintroducing Guinea Pigs' Resource guide from here and it says that if you keep separating them during the introduction process you're just making the chances of them bonding thinner and thinner.

So what do I do? I can't really leave them in there for a night or longer. Do I have to put them with our boar if they get on well in the first hour or something? Should I clean his cage whilst they're together and then put them together for a night if it goes well? It just all seems so fast! I mean, I was thinking of doing something like a timetable for introducing them (e.g. once a week, a few times a week, daily, twice daily, 1 night etc. like I mentioned)

(I know this is probably an easily answered question, I just wanted to get first-hand advice from people since in all the webpages I've read up on this there has never been anything to do with it mentioned.)

Sorry if I went on too long, please reply as soon as possible! :)
 
Hi! With cross gender dating you should see within half an hour of first interaction whether acceptance has happened. This then segues immediately into the dominance phase where the overall group hierarchy is established.

How the sows react to their new husboar depends on where in the oestrus cycle they are. If they are nowhere near their season, they will a lot less welcoming of any manly advances; if they are close to season, things can be a bit more vocal and dramatic, but it will also help the bonding.

As an old gent, your boy won't be enormously sexed up and I wouldn't expect any big fireworks. My older boys are generally more interested in food mugging than humping, to be honest. The smoothest bonding can be literally the boy moving in with nobody twitching as much a whisker apart from saying hello, followed by a bit of very mild dominance hanky panky on the same day or the day after.

If there are no signs of major aggression, you can put them in their cleaned cage after about an hour or two. I would recommend to remove any hideys with just one exit for a day or two until things have settled down. Make sure that you have got at least an hour to observe them there to make sure that they are OK with each other.

Only separate if they get into a tussle, if the tension level is suddenly escalating or if it is generally staying very high and things are not moving on. In the latter case, a night apart can help to cool down emotions - you can separate with sows in the mix, but do it only if really necessary in order to not hinder more than help. The trick is to intervene as little as possible and let them work through their bonding manual. It is not easy on the nerves of the human bystander, especially as we class many behaviours as "mean" in these days of political correctness, but unlike us, they usually know what they are doing and have to spell everything our in bold letters where we humans can get by with a shoulder shrug or the twitch of an eyebrow or the lips. Sows in company of boars have a special whine that says "I'm not ready - YET"; of course the boars hear mostly the "yet"...

Have they met each other through the bars already? I find this very useful as a run up to a formal intro.

Best of luck! Have a heap of grass or hay at the ready for the start.
 
Wiebke said:
Hi! With cross gender dating you should see within half an hour of first interaction whether acceptance has happened. This then segues immediately into the dominance phase where the overall group hierarchy is established.

How the sows react to their new husboar depends on where in the oestrus cycle they are. If they are nowhere near their season, they will a lot less welcoming of any manly advances; if they are close to season, things can be a bit more vocal and dramatic, but it will also help the bonding.

As an old gent, your boy won't be enormously sexed up and I wouldn't expect any big fireworks. My older boys are generally more interested in food mugging than humping, to be honest. The smoothest bonding can be literally the boy moving in with nobody twitching as much a whisker apart from saying hello, followed by a bit of very mild dominance hanky panky on the same day or the day after.

If there are no signs of major aggression, you can put them in their cleaned cage after about an hour or two. I would recommend to remove any hideys with just one exit for a day or two until things have settled down. Make sure that you have got at least an hour to observe them there to make sure that they are OK with each other.

Only separate if they get into a tussle, if the tension level is suddenly escalating or if it is generally staying very high and things are not moving on. In the latter case, a night apart can help to cool down emotions - you can separate with sows in the mix, but do it only if really necessary in order to not hinder more than help. The trick is to intervene as little as possible and let them work through their bonding manual. It is not easy on the nerves of the human bystander, especially as we class many behaviours as "mean" in these days of political correctness, but unlike us, they usually know what they are doing and have to spell everything our in bold letters where we humans can get by with a shoulder shrug or the twitch of an eyebrow or the lips. Sows in company of boars have a special whine that says "I'm not ready - YET"; of course the boars hear mostly the "yet"...

Have they met each other through the bars already? I find this very useful as a run up to a formal intro.

Best of luck! Have a heap of grass or hay at the ready for the start.
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Thanks for the reply...

No they haven't seen each other through the bars yet as our boar was in his outdoor run and the girls in there's in the shed; we wanted to create a divide using mesh so that he could see them and stay there but unfortunately we ran out of mesh and don't really have the money to be buying another roll of it yet.

Would you suggest maybe just carrying our boar into see them for a few times before we introduce them? I know its not ideal but at the moment it's the best we can do.

Thanks again!
 
If you can get some C & C grids I would make up a run with a bit divided up so he can see/smell them but not touch for a few days, then clean it all out & remove the divider if the signs look promising :)
 
Poppy'sMum said:
If you can get some C & C grids I would make up a run with a bit divided up so he can see/smell them but not touch for a few days, then clean it all out & remove the divider if the signs look promising :)
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It turns out that a few days ago (I completely forgot about this till it came) we ordered a hamster play pen which we are now using as a divider in their indoor run in the shed which the girls have been in. (We thoroughly cleaned the boar (Merlin's) part out so it didn't smell of them). So when we put Merlin in his section of the cage he must of smelt the girls because he started popcorning! Right now they are all out eating and talking to each other on both sides so everything looks promising! How long should we leave them until they can go together properly? (Their sections are a little small so we want to get them in their outdoor run as soon as poss.)

Thanks again for all the advice, hopefully they will get along!
 
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