Pairings

[VickieD]

Hi
I have 3 pairs at present. However I am getting another 2 babies at weekend (no rescues near to me except pets at home and prev bad experience ) and I am contemplating have a herd (four) girls and just wondered what other people's experiences have been ?
(Read all literature on bonding and prev bad experience with trio of boys).
I am after actually experience of people who have tried and succeeded or failed. My girls will be 24wks and babies 8 wks and sisters.
Thanks
Vickie

 

[eileen]

ive four herds,all one neutered boar to three females.i believe alot is down to personalities and space.ive three boars living together,but they are very well matched,older boar who is four and two very laid back boars ,in a seven foot c and c cage lots of space.you will need to use a neutral area to bond them,be prepared for option 2 if it fails.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi
I have 3 pairs at present. However I am getting another 2 babies at weekend (no rescues near to me except pets at home and prev bad experience ) and I am contemplating have a herd (four) girls and just wondered what other people's experiences have been ?
(Read all literature on bonding and prev bad experience with trio of boys).
I am after actually experience of people who have tried and succeeded or failed. My girls will be 24wks and babies 8 wks and sisters.
Thanks
Vickie

At that age, there shouldn't be any problems, as they babies are desperate to belong to a family and far too young to compete for the top spot.

In my own experience, merging two pairs of sows of different ages (one pair preferably sub-adult) is the safest way of creating a herd; submissive sows or sows from a group background usually also integrate well. Problems can arise with older, single, bereaved dominant or very fear-aggressive sows that have been on their own or in a firm relationship for a very long time. My largest herd has been upt to 14 piggies (13 sows and 1 husboar); I currently have a group of 6, 5 and a trio, each with their (neutered) husboar.

 

[madguinealady]

I had consisting of one boar and ten sows.I have never had a problem with introducing any sows to my group, there are no fights they are just accepted.They are in28 square foot run.I did have two herds consisting of six sows and for sows because one sow of each group hated each other.One of the girls in the smaller herd would only accept babies.I even had a girl that got into the herd consisting of six and they didn't bat an eyelid.Heathcliffe has accepted Milo no problem too.I guess I've just been really lucky.

 

[MrsMoo]

I have 6 girls living together. They have a large area to live in and seem fine. If i had more then i would only feel comfortable introducing a younger one as wouldn't want to upset the dynamics.

 

[BB3]

I have 4 girls living together and they have settled in fine, they don't cuddle with each other and have their own sleeping spots but other than a little bit of rumbling they accept each other well x