We recently had our Sprout neutered to pair in him with a girl and we’ve contacted a rescue regarding adoption.
We originally had in mind to get one girl for Sprout, but are told by the rescue that a sow-boar duo is more rare and potentially less likely to work. Their advice is to get two girls to go with him, we have a 4x2 C&C and were told this would be a good size for all three.
I just wanted to know if this is matches up with your experiences? We wanted to only have 2 piggies as we’ve spent so much on health issues, particularly BBs bladder stones before he passed back in January. I feel like 2 piggies would be more manageable fund-wise if there were to be any illnesses. But saying that, I want to do best by the pigs.
The rescue will let me have just the one girl, but they’d prefer not to.
Thanks in advance
Hi
In my own - extensive - experience with mixed gender bondings with neutered boars (we call them 'husboars') can live very happily with just one sow, two sows or actually any number of them.
The two sows plus one husboar combo will only work if the sows are good friends, otherwise the boar will eventually side with the girl he gets on better and you will end up with a 2+1 outsider situation. A working trio is however a thing of beauty and a well of joy. They also have the advantage that you do not have the same pressure to find new companionship after a death.
The big hurdle when bonding a boar with one or more sows is always acceptance and reaching an agreement re. who is boss. You can never predict the outcome since it is entirely personality driven and relies on the dynamics developing between them. Mixed gender bondings are not always as straight forward as a boar bond but once you have found the right partner/partners, fall-outs are extremely rare.
You may find my own bonding experiences with my two newly neutered teenage boys in the last few days interesting; as you can see, I have ultimately ended up with one trio and one pair.
Here is the link:
FIVE Weddings, Three Divorces and Still No Funeral
Over the last 15 years or so, I have had many happy cross gender pairs, trios, quartets and larger groups up to 13 sows with their husboar. I have also had a good number of failed bonding attempts and a few dysfunctional trios where the sows were not happily bonded and the odd large group failure (generational leadership changes, ovarian cysts in several sows at once, or deaths of key piggies allowing underlying conflicts to come out).
You may find my Tribe gallery illuminating as it charts the life stories of all my piggies since I joined the forum and see for yourself how many mixed gender pairs and trios I have had and how they have worked out over the course of a lifetime (or not):
Wiebke's Tribe Photo Gallery
Forum experiences reflected:
A Closer Look At Pairs (Boars - Sows - Mixed)
Adding More Guinea Pigs Or Merging Pairs – What Works And What Not?
I think that you will find ample real life material and reflected forum experiences in those links to help you make up your own mind.
Please be aware that you can never force your piggies bond happily with your own choice and that keeping an open mind is generally a very useful position to start out with.
You will find that we have both a fair number of mixed pairs and trios that get happily with pairs actually outnumbering the trios.
I've ended up with mostly pairs (8 of them cross gender pairs) during lockdown after adopting a number of stuck in rescue hard to bond piggies who I was able to eventually find a compatible companion for but I have over the last couple of years worked my way back to mainly trios and quartets as I need to gradually work my numbers down from now on.
Trios and quartets mean less pressure on me for finding companionship quickly in the next few years. After losing 20 piggies in as many months (several times just days or even just a single day apart), I really do need a break from the relentless grieving overload. I also have learned my lesson after I ended up with 4 widowed singles in just 3 weeks, none of which would go with any of the others back in August/September 2021.
Long before age, gender or numbers comes the fact that it always comes down to whether your piggies want to be together and whether they can gel.
You can only give them opportunities to find a happy bond - it is very much the same as with human arranged marriages. In the end it comes down to whether the people involved get on and can make it work or not but you can never guarantee happiness.
If you are not happy with that rescue, please look further.