Looking For Advice/possible Housing Situation

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crnyng

crnyng

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So my story goes, I have 9 pigs. 6 female and 3 male. All my females are or will be housed together in a roughly 20 square foot C&C cage. I then have two males housed together and my last one alone because he fought with both my other boys regardless. The two males housed together (Mocha and Pumpkin) were decent together. Sometimes they chattered teeth or rumblestrutted. Other times they did nose-offs but as of lately they seem to fight more often. Doesn't seem completely vicious but its definitely something that I'm not comfortable with. I also just found earlier Mocha has a massive scabbed over wound on his middle portion of his back. It looks so so horrible and I feel utterly terrible for him. It's got me wondering if it was from Pumpkin and if so I know they can't stay together. I have been tossing the idea around of perhaps neutering one of my males and having him live with the 6 females. Then adopting two already spayed females and housing one with each of the other males. So Basically, 6 females and one male, then one male and female and another cage with one male and female. I worry though that putting one of my males in with my females he will torment them seeing as they have lived 1+ years with no male. Or would they truly be happier with a male involved? I sort of feel guilty at the idea of putting a male that will constantly, probably, mount them and "sexually harass" them together, so to speak. Can I just get personal experience stories and advice as to what you think on this scenario? I only have 3 cages and that is the other reason I am considering this. The other two are wooden cages both roughly 2.5 x 4 feet so I only can fit so many cages in my apartment.
 
Photo of the girls cage and photo of Mochas wound ): Does this look like a fight wound or fungal/mange?

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It's possible the boys were fighting because they could smell the girls.Looks like a bite wound to me.Good luck sorting your babies living accommodation out.I have five girls and a neutered boy.Introducing them at the weekend and hoping it goes well.
 
Will do.Have a back up plan if any of them don't get on with him.Can put a 120 and an 80 together and house him and one of the girls he gets on with best in that
 
its difficult when you have females near boys!please can i suggest you take mocha to the vet to rule out fungal /or mange.i had two boars that fell out and one knocked the other ones teeth out,and bite wounds to head.both boys were 6 months old and had gone to stay at my friends for a week.they had female piggies so we think that set them off.but they could never go back together again.got them neutered ,and wives...never looked back.now have 4 herds with neutered male with 3 females in each herd.good luck.
 
How well do you herds get along? Meaning the females with the male? I worry if I were to do this my girls would hate it seeing as as long as any have been alive have never been with a male
 
That looks like mites to me. The centre of the back is a common place for mite infestation to occur.

I don't know why but I had a Teddy type pig who would get something exactly like that if I didn't treat for mites every six months. The first time it happened I wasn't very experienced with pigs and thought it was a bite wound too. But, I got some advice from my vet and online and treat it with Ivermectin and he was fine after an extended course.

Good luck
 
Agree it could possibly be self inflicted due a skin issue, so a vet check is best, I know you have a lot on your plate at the moment though. Maybe he could go with you when Chai next sees the vet?

It's a difficult decision and any op carries a risk, also in the UK spayed sows are few and far between, not sure about the US. So if you did go down the neuter route could you split your current girls so half were with one boar and half were with the other. Would mean both boars would need to be neutered though. I would wait until you know for certain it is a fight wound before making any decisions.
 
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