Introducing bonded boar pairs (separately; not merging pairs)

[Hunt76]

Hi,

My partner and I recently adopted a second pair of boars who are very closely bonded. For their quarantine, we decided to keep them in a temporary C&C in our bedroom. Their quarantine is over, but they’ve yet to “meet” our other bonded boar pair in our living room - obviously, they can smell and hear each other, though!

I’ve done a ton of research on boars and bonding, but one thing eludes me: how do you introduce boar pairs with no intention of merging pairs? Clearly, a lot of people have boar pairs in adjacent cages and it goes just fine - so I assume it’s acceptable to have them meet through bars without risking the integrity of either bond?

Ultimately, we may place our boars in adjacent cages; however, even if we don’t, something feels “off” about having two pairs living under the same roof without them at least meeting through a divider.

Any advice would be appreciated! Thank you!

 

[Piggies&buns]

Yes it’s absolutely fine to just have them meet through the bars. There is nothing specific you need to do.

They will interact through the bars, there will probably be a lot of rumbling and pacing the bars. You may also see them laying at the divider as an act of marking their own territory. Probably a lot of boarly smells for a while. You may also see an increase in dominance between each pair. It should not cause any real issues between each pair though.

I have a pair of 5 year old boars. I then brought home a young pair last year (they were 9 weeks at the time). They lived in a two storey hutch in my shed with the youngsters at the bottom so they never actually met until playpen time. The shed floor is used as a playpen so when the older two came down for their turn to play it created a bit of a stir every time as they weren’t used to seeing each other. Mounting and chasing in the pairs and rumbling along the dividing bar when the pen was being used. It would settle after a while but it happened every time because they were not in constant contact between the bars. Sometimes I had to cover the divider because one of my boys got quite agitated with excitement.
The youngsters bond sadly did break down when they were 18 weeks old but it had nothing to do with them seeing the older boys.
I have now moved the hutch out of the shed for summer and put the boys into adjoining c&c cages on the shed floor so they are 24/7 in contact with each other through the bars. Initially it was as I said above - a lot of smell, a lot of rumbling and the older two started mounting each other again ( their dominance had pretty much stopped up until this point). After a couple of days it just all settled and they act as one big herd without living as a herd! The youngsters rumble along the bars a lot still but that’s territory marking and hormones - they are 8 months old now!

 

[piggl]

As said above all should be fine if separated by bars but I will still wish you luck with your integrating of your piggies x