New boar owners

Fizzgig&squishie

Fizzgig&squishie

New Born Pup
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Hi all,

we are new cavy owners and love our boys to pieces. Squishie is an Abyssinian and Fizzgig is a texel, both 7 weeks old. They are well socialized, seem to love each other a lot, but have been scrapping a bit this last week (no wounds or bites, playing and sleeping together after squabbles). Last night during playtime, one of them released an incredible amount of boar glue, at least incredible to me and my daughter. If we got them neutered now, would that be good for them and reduce smell and ...glue? We have a vet who neutered our pet rats so we trust them. we have no plans for sows and they are both definitely male, so pregnancy is not an issue. Cage size = 2.3 sq meters. Thank you!
 
From my experience with our 2 neutered boys: No, it doesn’t change anything. They still scent mark the same and I still have to cut Pewter‘s bum hair every now and then because of the mess Benito leaves haha. So if you don‘t have any plans to bond them with sows I probably wouldn’t do it :) but the guide above should tell you everything you need to know!
 
Thank you! And I had read the article, it’s just that the two examples discussed in depth are neuter at 2 weeks and then one at 6 months, so I didn’t know if 7-8 weeks would be early enough to reduce any behaviors. I do know my boy rats who were neutered young still scent marked a lot! But I’ve never had unneutered adult male rates to compare them to, and as far as I know they never ejaculated.

In general this website has been amazing, my daughter and I have been reading the articles and pinned posts since before we got our cavies. They helped us pick 2 only, figure out our cage, and are why we selected boars in the first place. I guess we’ll just take their bums along with the rest of them! thank you for the resource. Will also try to figure out how to get some pictures up here!
 
Fizzgig&squishie said:
Thank you! And I had read the article, it’s just that the two examples discussed in depth are neuter at 2 weeks and then one at 6 months, so I didn’t know if 7-8 weeks would be early enough to reduce any behaviors. I do know my boy rats who were neutered young still scent marked a lot! But I’ve never had unneutered adult male rates to compare them to, and as far as I know they never ejaculated.
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The only time neutering will make any difference to things like boar glue, is if it is done before the testicles descend, so basically between 2 and 3 weeks of age.
Sadly this is (as far as I know) never done in the UK.
Here in Switzerland it is standard practice, and all boars sold to the public are already neutered.
This means they only need to be parted for their mothers/sisters for a few hours when they are operated on - then they are popped straight back into the family group, until they are sold.
It also means no accidental litters or issues with mis-sexed piggies at the pet shop, because even this does happen the boys can't make babies.
It also explains why Switzerland has very few rescue guinea pigs, and those that do come up in rescue are impossibly difficult to adopt because the standards are SO high.

So given that your boys have already passed this threshold for early neutering there really is no point in having it done at this stage in their life.
 
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