Multiple Mixed Pairs

[Parsnip]

We have boys who fell out, brothers from a rescue. We tried to bond another male with the less aggressive boar and that failed after a couple of months, but we kept him too. We had them all neutered with the view of finding females to pair them up with, so 3 mixed pairs. I’ve tried to find rescue females and not had much luck. One push back is that pairing the first boar will agitate the remaining single (neutered) boars. We can move the new pairing to another room or floor in the house if that helps. We’d have a large cage for the new pairing, 12ft sq (although sometimes they say this is too small so I’m confused).

Do anyone have insights into trying to pair up neutered males and females with other such pairings and/or single males? And the set up needed, eg out of smelling distance.

Thanks

 

[Piggies&buns]

10 square feet is the recommended size for a neutered boar/sow pair. 12 square feet would be lovely for a boar/sow pair - certainly not too small. Although, and of course, rescues will have their own cage specifications to follow.

Having a sow around the other two single boars may agitate them (while they are single) as they are not used to smelling sows so it will produce a reaction from them. Obviously the risk of it breaking any bonds isn’t there given they are single, so once they got used to the smell of a girly around then they would be fine.
Unless and until you can find three single sows at once, then this is always going to be an issue. Moving them to another room would of course be a good solution until the other two boys can find a sow each. Nothing wrong with having three mixed pairs in one room though.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi

Single boars have nobody to fight or fall out with, so they are OK with sows in the same room, as are mixed gender groups with one neutered husboar', so they can all stay in the same room and even in adjoining cages. You just have to brace for lots of excitement.

The problem only arises if you introduce a sow/sows into a room with bonded boars of any age that are not used to sow pheromones and therefore tend to overreact.

I have a room full of sows and mixed gender pairs/groups with one 'husboar' per cage and have had so for well over 10 years in all sorts of constellations and numbers.

I have had to occasionally cable-tie dividing grids or even put in a piece of corrext until the worst is over when a new boar arrival causes a bit of a stir through the grids with a similarly aged boy but it has never led to any fallouts and they usually settle down next to each other just fine once they have worked out where they stand to each other in the overarching boar hierarchy. Boars living around sows all the time produce a calming compound; the absence of it when introducing sows into a boars-only environment or new boars into a sow environment (neutered or not) is what makes things so lively.

Please brace for lots of 'boar stink' and plenty of excitement. Also be aware that the big hurdle with mixed gender pairs is the initial acceptance. This is never a given.
A Closer Look At Pairs (Boars - Sows - Mixed)
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
When Sows Experience A Strong Season (videos)
All the best for your plans!

 

[Parsnip]

Thanks for the responses. I did wonder how rescues do it and I’m sure there’s YouTubers with mixed groups/pairs. I struggled to find anything useful about multiple mixed pairings so this is super helpful. I’d love to pair my boys. It may be that we end up having to go to a breeder as I’ve had no luck with rescues, so few single females come up.

 

[Parsnip]

Here’s the boys. Carefully hidden from each other.