Introducing A Boar To Four Sows

kyliebowers

kyliebowers

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Hi everyone,

I'm hoping for some advice on bonding a boar with four sows.

I have four sows living happily together, and have bonded two pairs to create the four (so I have a bit of experience, and have read all the guides etc)

I recently adopted a neutered boar from the RSPCA who has been living next to them for 11 days.

Today I staged their introduction. It went quite well at first. There was quite a bit of dominance behaviour displayed. My boar did a lot of chattering and rumblestrutting. There was definitely tension between my dominant sow and my boar. They were together for about 2 hours with just some chasing, lunging and chattering (and maybe some nipping?)

Anyway, it all ended quite badly when my daughter decided to run past the pigs :doh:, it really scared them and ended up in a tussle between my dominant sow and boar. Then because tensions were high, an almost-tussle between my dominant sow and another sow :(

I quickly separated them as I didn't want any fights.

So, my question is - is it worth trying again?

Side note: My dominant sow is very wary and on edge all the time. She really hates not having a hidey and never seems to relax, whereas the others were laying down, washing etc...

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions!
 
If there's been no blood I certainly recommend trying again. I have recently bonded 4 sows with a neutered boar myself, it wasn't plain sailing I must say but we got there eventually after a few attempts.

Chaos broke out for my lot several times, sometimes with my boar (Iggy) or other times with some of the girls if one was defending Iggy or trying to ease tensions. I saw some impressive ninja stunts and flying skills from my lot :)) Sometimes you need to give them a break I think, try again another day :)
 
You can start and stop sow/boar introductions. I would definitely try them again once everyone has had a good night’s sleep. If possible try to do it when there is least disturbance possible so that there are no external stressors for them. Loud or sudden noises can cause a change in the dynamics for them. My past neutered boar/sow pair who were well bonded flew for each other when they were out in their run in the garden and a thunderstorm broke out causing them huge panic. I couldn’t have predicted the thunder but it led them to tussle and he bit her snout quite badly. However, they got over it very quickly and spent the rest of their days together.
So my guess is that if everyone else was happy and the tussle was caused by sudden and unexpected noise/vision then there is no reason why the bond won’t work even if it takes several tries.
 
Cavy Kung-Fu said:
If there's been no blood I certainly recommend trying again. I have recently bonded 4 sows with a neutered boar myself, it wasn't plain sailing I must say but we got there eventually after a few attempts.

Chaos broke out for my lot several times, sometimes with my boar (Iggy) or other times with some of the girls if one was defending Iggy or trying to ease tensions. I saw some impressive ninja stunts and flying skills from my lot :)) Sometimes you need to give them a break I think, try again another day :)
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VickiA said:
You can start and stop sow/boar introductions. I would definitely try them again once everyone has had a good night’s sleep. If possible try to do it when there is least disturbance possible so that there are no external stressors for them. Loud or sudden noises can cause a change in the dynamics for them. My past neutered boar/sow pair who were well bonded flew for each other when they were out in their run in the garden and a thunderstorm broke out causing them huge panic. I couldn’t have predicted the thunder but it led them to tussle and he bit her snout quite badly. However, they got over it very quickly and spent the rest of their days together.
So my guess is that if everyone else was happy and the tussle was caused by sudden and unexpected noise/vision then there is no reason why the bond won’t work even if it takes several tries.
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Ah, thank you both so much for your replies. That's great news! So pleased there's still hope for them to live as a herd of five.

I'll try again next week when the little one is at school and can't cause any more trouble!
 
Just wondering... is it a good idea to stage smaller introductions with 2 or 3 pigs at once? So they can get to know one another with a bit less tension?
 
You could try bonding him with the dominant sow first and see how it goes. I had to do this once. I had 4 piggies together, took the underpig out to be paired with another male. When he passed I tried to pop her back but the male was rearing up and lunging at her. I set up a bonding pen in a separate room and put the dominant sow with her (they originally came to me as a pair). Two days later I introduced the other female and after a couple of hours I popped the male in and hey presto no problems whatsoever. It won't always work but if you can get the dominant sow to accept him then I think that would be half of the stress resolved.
 
Try bonding your dominant sow with the boar first and if she accepts them put the others in, in order of hierarchy. That's what I did when I bonded my boars with the sows. It is very rare to have more than one boar with sows and not recommended but my boars (brothers) were extremely well bonded to begin with and my dominant sow won't take any cr*p from anyone. You step out of line you know it! Everyone gets on famously with everyone else. All 5 get on well (2 boars, 3 sows). I am on constant watch though for any sign of a fall out between the boys and over the last 14 months nobody has fallen out. I have a Plan B in just in case!
 
Lady Kelly said:
You could try bonding him with the dominant sow first and see how it goes. I had to do this once. I had 4 piggies together, took the underpig out to be paired with another male. When he passed I tried to pop her back but the male was rearing up and lunging at her. I set up a bonding pen in a separate room and put the dominant sow with her (they originally came to me as a pair). Two days later I introduced the other female and after a couple of hours I popped the male in and hey presto no problems whatsoever. It won't always work but if you can get the dominant sow to accept him then I think that would be half of the stress resolved.
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Betsy said:
Try bonding your dominant sow with the boar first and if she accepts them put the others in, in order of hierarchy. That's what I did when I bonded my boars with the sows. It is very rare to have more than one boar with sows and not recommended but my boars (brothers) were extremely well bonded to begin with and my dominant sow won't take any cr*p from anyone. You step out of line you know it! Everyone gets on famously with everyone else. All 5 get on well (2 boars, 3 sows). I am on constant watch though for any sign of a fall out between the boys and over the last 14 months nobody has fallen out. I have a Plan B in just in case!
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Thank you both. This feels like the right thing to do for my dominant sow. And I'm thinking of covering the whole bonding area with a blanket to ease her tension. She's fine in her cage but hates coming out. Yesterday she was trying to scale the sides of the pen in the direction of their cage!

@Betsy My dominant sow sounds just like yours! :P

Is it true that the hierarchy doesn't include the boars? Or, do they fit into the hierarchy too? I feel like my sow will definitely be the boss but that my boar will take a little while to accept it...
 
Velvet (dominant sow) is boss over everyone. The sows hierarchy is Velvet, Betsy then Meg. The boars is Christian then Dennis. All five together are Velvet, Betsy, Christian, Dennis then Meg. Sometimes Christian gets the better of Betsy but not often. And poor Meg has always been the undersow. If I ever had to split them I would put Dennis and Betsy together as they very close and loving bond and are nearly always together. If Betsy is there you can almost guarantee Dennis will be too and they follow each other around a lot. It is very cute to see.
 
kyliebowers said:
Thank you both. This feels like the right thing to do for my dominant sow. And I'm thinking of covering the whole bonding area with a blanket to ease her tension. She's fine in her cage but hates coming out. Yesterday she was trying to scale the sides of the pen in the direction of their cage!

@Betsy My dominant sow sounds just like yours! :P

Is it true that the hierarchy doesn't include the boars? Or, do they fit into the hierarchy too? I feel like my sow will definitely be the boss but that my boar will take a little while to accept it...
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That is true the boar just kind of slots in and keeps the peace lol
 
Betsy said:
Velvet (dominant sow) is boss over everyone. The sows hierarchy is Velvet, Betsy then Meg. The boars is Christian then Dennis. All five together are Velvet, Betsy, Christian, Dennis then Meg. Sometimes Christian gets the better of Betsy but not often. And poor Meg has always been the undersow. If I ever had to split them I would put Dennis and Betsy together as they very close and loving bond and are nearly always together. If Betsy is there you can almost guarantee Dennis will be too and they follow each other around a lot. It is very cute to see.
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Lady Kelly said:
That is true the boar just kind of slots in and keeps the peace lol
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Thank you. That helps a lot :)
 
Hope it goes well! Yes you're right, as far as I can see boars have no hierarchy when they're a husboar. My Iggy isn't the boss of anyone but he still likes to show off and pretend to be manly :))
 
Cavy Kung-Fu said:
Hope it goes well! Yes you're right, as far as I can see boars have no hierarchy when they're a husboar. My Iggy isn't the boss of anyone but he still likes to show off and pretend to be manly :))
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That's interesting... so it sounds like he's just got to accept that my dominant sow is going to push him around... (and maybe the others too :))). He took a definite shining to two of the gals, maybe they were the nicest to him :love:
 
I've just bonded a neutered boar with my three girls. Luckily it was very plain sailing. Charlie (the boar) rumblestrutted his way around the girls. He had a couple of chin offs with Primrose the bosspig but nothing more than that. I understand from his previous owner that he wasn't the dominant pig in his pairing so maybe that helped. I don't know where Charlie fits in in the hierarchy but the underpig, Flora, seems to love him and caravans behind him all the time!

Good luck!
 
kyliebowers said:
That's interesting... so it sounds like he's just got to accept that my dominant sow is going to push him around... (and maybe the others too :))). He took a definite shining to two of the gals, maybe they were the nicest to him :love:
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Haha yea a boy is no match for a dominant sow! :)) With my lot it's the #3 sow who pushes Iggy around. I don't even think he cares, he's just happy to be with the ladies and if he's picked on he just runs off and popcorns afterwards :))
 
Jude said:
I've just bonded a neutered boar with my three girls. Luckily it was very plain sailing. Charlie (the boar) rumblestrutted his way around the girls. He had a couple of chin offs with Primrose the bosspig but nothing more than that. I understand from his previous owner that he wasn't the dominant pig in his pairing so maybe that helped. I don't know where Charlie fits in in the hierarchy but the underpig, Flora, seems to love him and caravans behind him all the time!

Good luck!
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Ah that's lovely. Glad it was nice and easy for you :) Hope mine can come to some sort or arrangement soon!
 
So I tried again yesterday to introduce my boar and my dominant sow. They were together for about 30 mins until my sow decided to hop the fence! I couldn't put her back in after that because she was too tense after me having to catch her. She's just so crazy and tense all the time which is adding to the difficulty of introductions. She really HATES not having a hidey.

They mostly avoided each other but sometimes she would chase him and he would chatter whenever she came near. Not sure if this is going to work out but I'll stick at it after hearing your stories, @Cavy Kung-Fu @VickiA @Lady Kelly @Betsy @Jude

Looks like I'm buying a playpen with taller sides today!
 
kyliebowers said:
So I tried again yesterday to introduce my boar and my dominant sow. They were together for about 30 mins until my sow decided to hop the fence! I couldn't put her back in after that because she was too tense after me having to catch her. She's just so crazy and tense all the time which is adding to the difficulty of introductions. She really HATES not having a hidey.

They mostly avoided each other but sometimes she would chase him and he would chatter whenever she came near. Not sure if this is going to work out but I'll stick at it after hearing your stories, @Cavy Kung-Fu @VickiA @Lady Kelly @Betsy @Jude

Looks like I'm buying a playpen with taller sides today!
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Oh my gosh! What a little mischief! Try putting some tunnels in so she has a hidey but obviously ones that have two exits so they can't corner each other. The log ones tend to be quite good for that. Might help her feel more secured and settled.
 
Lady Kelly said:
Oh my gosh! What a little mischief! Try putting some tunnels in so she has a hidey but obviously ones that have two exits so they can't corner each other. The log ones tend to be quite good for that. Might help her feel more secured and settled.
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I was thinking that. I think she might need a tunnel in order to relax. I have two of the large wooden bendy bridges. I'll see how they do with those :)
 
The best thing I've found when bonding is rather than a tunnel maybe 2-3 decent sized cardboard boxes with 4 doors cut into them. That way no one can get stuck and it will minimise any scuffles should one break out.

I just pop into Tesco and ask if I can pinch wine boxes or the massive grocery boxes they use to display veg. That way it's free! It gives everyone somewhere to hide and of course snacks are a great distraction :D
 
Cavy Kung-Fu said:
The best thing I've found when bonding is rather than a tunnel maybe 2-3 decent sized cardboard boxes with 4 doors cut into them. That way no one can get stuck and it will minimise any scuffles should one break out.

I just pop into Tesco and ask if I can pinch wine boxes or the massive grocery boxes they use to display veg. That way it's free! It gives everyone somewhere to hide and of course snacks are a great distraction :D
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This is what we did in the past as well. When we tried to bond our adopted neutered boar to my 2 girls. We put around 4 to 5 cardboard boxes (with cutout doors) and let them in a big run (from our living room to the hall in the kitchen) so they can have a big area to go to in case they started chasing each other. It took us around 6 to 8 weeks before all of them really started sleeping and cuddling next to each other without any problems. Too bad that after just 4 months, our boar had suffered complications from neutering and has passed away.
 
anyar.dris said:
This is what we did in the past as well. When we tried to bond our adopted neutered boar to my 2 girls. We put around 4 to 5 cardboard boxes (with cutout doors) and let them in a big run (from our living room to the hall in the kitchen) so they can have a big area to go to in case they started chasing each other. It took us around 6 to 8 weeks before all of them really started sleeping and cuddling next to each other without any problems. Too bad that after just 4 months, our boar had suffered complications from neutering and has passed away.
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Oh no, so sorry that you lost your little boy :hug:

It just shows that it does take some time but it's worth the perseverance to get a group together! With so many personalities to work with it takes a time! :)
 
Cavy Kung-Fu said:
The best thing I've found when bonding is rather than a tunnel maybe 2-3 decent sized cardboard boxes with 4 doors cut into them. That way no one can get stuck and it will minimise any scuffles should one break out.

I just pop into Tesco and ask if I can pinch wine boxes or the massive grocery boxes they use to display veg. That way it's free! It gives everyone somewhere to hide and of course snacks are a great distraction :D
Click to expand...

That's a great idea, thank you! I'm going to try again today if my new playpen arrives in time :)
 
anyar.dris said:
This is what we did in the past as well. When we tried to bond our adopted neutered boar to my 2 girls. We put around 4 to 5 cardboard boxes (with cutout doors) and let them in a big run (from our living room to the hall in the kitchen) so they can have a big area to go to in case they started chasing each other. It took us around 6 to 8 weeks before all of them really started sleeping and cuddling next to each other without any problems. Too bad that after just 4 months, our boar had suffered complications from neutering and has passed away.
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Oh no :( such sad news. So sorry for your loss. Thank you for sharing though, it's reassuring to hear stories like yours to know that if I stick it out I might get there eventually!
 
kyliebowers said:
That's a great idea, thank you! I'm going to try again today if my new playpen arrives in time :)
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Hope you got your knew play pen! Good luck for your try today. I feel your pain, I've always hated the bonding times even though I've never had any real bad experiences with them. We worry about our babies don't we?
 
It came! It's brilliant actually, glad I bought it. Will be much better for floor time too.

I added two tunnels (didn't get chance to get boxes, but I will next time) which seemed to be both a help and a hindrance... they definitely calmed my dominant sow but the did mean that they scared eacother a few times by accidentally sneaking up on one another. I need hides that hide them from "predators" above, but not from each other. The boxes should work great if I cut large areas of the sides off.

The dynamics definitely changed yesterday. I put my boar and 2 sows in. Hector (the boar) seems to know that he isn't boss now. After a while, he was joining one of the sows in making those "leave me alone, I know you're the boss" squeals. My sow just needs to stop chasing the poor lad now :(

I'm feeling positive about it though. I'm just going to take it slow and persevere. Thanks guys :)
 
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