Mixed gender pair or trio?

Little Ones

Little Ones

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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 :)
 
Little Ones said:
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 :)
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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.
 
Thanks all, I’ve asked for just one girl in that case. I just didn’t want to do wrong by the pigs since I don’t know any better from only having boars. We’ll see what they say back, the rescue is forum recommended I believe, so it’s a nice place. I think their thinking was that if there’s two girls, the boars humping etc is spread out between them rather than just directed at the one sow which makes for a better dynamic.

With regards to bonding, since Sprout has never interacted with a sow before, bar interaction prior to the bonding would probably make more sense, I imagine it would likely be quite intense otherwise. He’s also been alone since the beginning of January so I’m eager to give him some piggy interaction as soon as possible, his six weeks are up on the 23rd of May. He’s an IC pig with a nervous disposition, so I feel like bonding at a rescue would be so stressful and should be a last resort, especially since it would be several hours on a train and from past experience, he just becomes petrified. If the bonding did fail once Sprout’s 6 weeks were up, the only option then would be to switch out the adopted pig but take him for a bonding session at the rescue so the situation didn’t repeat itself. That’s the current plan anyway, hopefully I’m doing the right thing? I’ve mentioned this to the rescue via email, so things could change if they would prefer a different arrangement.
 
Merab's Slave said:
Looking forward to pictures when Sprout gets his companion / s :luv:
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I’m excited, hopefully we can collect soon. I think the rescue aims for a collection within a week or so!
There were two groups of three girls to choose from. The first group were quite nervous, but the other group were very self-assured and calm so I asked for one of the calm girls.
I hope they get on, Sprout is a tricky one, very dominant with other boars in the same space, but very affectionate through the bars. Then very timid and nervous, but will still wheek and zoomie like crazy! He’s been like it ever since we got him two years ago, he’s quite a contradiction. I do feel though that if he were with a pig as nervous as himself, they would just copy each other so it’s not ideal. He tends to only stick to his shaded areas and hideys rather than spending time around the cage. I think being around a confident girl will be the push he needs to come all the way out of his shell. He does tend to get his confidence from other piggies, particularly Digby before he passed away. They would spend all day just sat next to each other through the bars.
 
My late Edward started off living with two sows then one sow then two sows then one sow then three sows so absolutely can boars live with just one sow. As mentioned, it all comes down to personality and character comparability rather than the number. I wish you well in finding a companion for Sprout 🙂
 
Well here is the lady herself!
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Isn’t she gorgeous? 😍 Sprout is already obsessed with her, he’s popcorning, making happy sounds and can barely contain himself! He’s been cleaning her face too.
She’s around a year and a half, and I believe she used to belong to a breeder. She’s been on pregnancy watch, and one of the others she came into the rescue with ended up being pregnant but she wasn’t.
She’s super calm, eating hay and lounging around like she hasn’t been in a carrier for four hours! We have everything crossed that their bonding works out, it will probably happen in about 4 weeks.
Now we’re onto thinking about names 🤔🤔
 
Update:
She’s been settling in well, Sprout is still head over heels.
We’ve had her out today however and noticed it seems like she has static lice! There’s little dark brown specs by her bum.
We’ll have to get them both a vet appointment and get the appropriate treatment as I assume now Sprout could have caught them too? I’ve only dealt with mange mites before which BB brought with him from the rescue we got him from. Does anyone know if the treatment for static lice is the same as mange mites, so ivermectin spot on from the vet?
 
Little Ones said:
Update:
She’s been settling in well, Sprout is still head over heels.
We’ve had her out today however and noticed it seems like she has static lice! There’s little dark brown specs by her bum.
We’ll have to get them both a vet appointment and get the appropriate treatment as I assume now Sprout could have caught them too? I’ve only dealt with mange mites before which BB brought with him from the rescue we got him from. Does anyone know if the treatment for static lice is the same as mange mites, so ivermectin spot on from the vet?
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Oh no, sorry to hear she has mites.
Yes - usual treatment is Xeno, three treatments with two weeks between each treatment.
Let us know what the vet says
 
We were able to be seen today and have been prescribed the Xeno450, three treatments for each pig. My only concern is that Sprout only weighs 1017 and not the 1200 stated on the packaging. I just wanted to check this would be safe to give? We were told every 7-10 days, is this correct or should it be every 14 days? Thanks for the help with this!
 
Little Ones said:
We were able to be seen today and have been prescribed the Xeno450, three treatments for each pig. My only concern is that Sprout only weighs 1017 and not the 1200 stated on the packaging. I just wanted to check this would be safe to give? We were told every 7-10 days, is this correct or should it be every 14 days? Thanks for the help with this!
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It’s fine for him to have the xeno 450 but For an adult piggy weighing less than the 1200g you normally give the appropriate percentage part of a pippette.


It’s usually every 14 days.
 
Piggies&buns said:
It’s fine for him to have the xeno 450 but For an adult piggy weighing less than the 1200g you normally give the appropriate percentage part of a pippette.


It’s usually every 14 days.
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Thank you for your response, how am I able tell this? There’s no markings on the pipette or anything so not sure how to judge it?
 
Update:
Things are still going well here with the pair, Sprout finally calmed down yesterday. He’s still crazy about her but he’s not constantly biting the bars and trying to get to her. Interestingly, it’s her now that’s biting the bars a lot more, I think she likes the attention he gives her. I know their connection between the bars doesn’t always equate to a good connection face to face but I do have a good feeling that they’ll get on when the time comes! She is definitely encouraging him to be more brave, he spends a lot more time out in the open now as he’s usually lounging next to the bars waiting for her.
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Oh @Little Ones she’s so beautiful and brave :luv: Congratulations :hug:Such a gorgeous pair (through the bars and 🤞 for the future!) 🥰
My Cleo arrived with lovely lice and had the Xeno too, as well as the other three just in case! Hope it clears them and she’s feeling less creepy-crawly soon bless her xx
 
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