In the summer time I am planning on getting a herd of 5/6 piggies, I wanted to know if anyone had any tips for me? I have two boars right now (who will live separately from the herd) so I know all of the basics, but is owning a herd alot different or is it basically the same? I just want to be as prepared as I possibly can
Hi!
Your location will play a major factor in resourcing the piggies to build up a herd, so could you please add your your country, state/province and UK county to location in your account details (accessed by clicking on your username on the top bar). This will allow us to our recommendations and tips to what is really relevant and available where you are straight away? We jump a lot between different threads and are dealing with members and enquiries literally from all over the world with very different conditions and access to rescues or vets. Having you location appear with every post will save everybody time and allows us to help you most effectively.
Ideally you build up your herd around a more dominant leader piggy; this can be a sow or a more dominant adult neutered boar. Any further additions should not be able to challenge the accepted leadership. Submissive sows of any age with a group background as well as sub-adult sows are the easiest. However, in my own repeated experience there is no guarantee that what looks a perfect match on paper will work out in the bonding pen!
You can have both sows-only groups and those with a neutered boar. Personally I am a great fan of 'husboars' as they mirror a more natural set-up. It is the sows that normally associate themselves with a boar of their choice to form a core group for bringing up babies between them.
The by far safest way is to work together with a good standard rescue with mandatory quarantine/vet care and pregnancy watch and that will properly sex and pair up your piggies. Character compatilibity is key way ahead of age.
Being able to rescue date or allow the rescue to tailor build your group ahead of adoption will mean that you can neatly avoid all the usual pitfalls that come with buying/adopting on spec. Always double-check the gender of any piggies you are adding!
Rescues often take in already pregnant sows and not rarely several/a group at a time. Starting with a mother/daughter(s)/creche sibling situation mimics a natural group so you'll have all the instincts on your side. the same goes with sows that are already bonded and used to living with others. I have found that a range of ages from older piggies to youngsters can help to stabilise the hierarchy. If you are not desperately stuck on a certain date and rather be prepared to wait a bit for suitable piggies to become adoptable, then adopting your tailor-made group would make for a very smooth start into your group adventure.
You will still see some dominance as they re-establish their group hierarchy in their new home.
However as in English speaking countries anybody can call themselves a rescue or a breeder and there is no licensing or supervision, you get the full spectrum from the really good ones you are in the safest and most experienced of hands when it comes to getting piggies (including pet shops!) to any shade of gray in between (and also not all that rarely any shade in between rescuing and breeding, sadly).
We can provide lists of recommended and vetted good standard rescues and may be able to help you with tips as to which rescue you may want to best used for your purpose once we know which area you are roughly located in.
You have to keep in mind that a group is a dynamic process and not a static one; changes will inevitably happen overtime as piggies grow up and grow older, fall ill or die, which is bound to impact on the group. Not all piggies will get on equally well. Especially in the wake of a leader stepping down/dying, the succession can lead to a fall-out, as can ovarian cysts as sows get older.
If you get piggies on spec, you always have to have a plan B (or C or even D) in case things don't work out. Fear-agression and dominance issues can be a real problem, especially when trying to integrate single sows not used to other piggies or just one long term companion, or pairs that have been together since babyhood and where the adult lead sow is often not willing to give up her status and submit to the group.
Rescue dating under expert supervision before you bring home any new piggies is by far the safest way forward. And if things go haywire, then at least you have the rescue to fall back on and are not stuck with yet another separate cage and another one...
(You want ideally to have a spare hospital/quarantine/emergency cage ready anyway.)
Personally I have found that using a neutered boar with leadership qualities as the founder piggy has given me a solid base to build my own Tribe on; thankfully I found a very charismatic successor to my first patriarch Llewelyn in Hywel.
Adding a neutered boar at a later stage may also not necessarily go smoothly if one of the top sows is taking a dislike to him; again rescue dating has been very much the way forward for me when I didn't start out with a patriarch for my later post-big Tribe medium-sized groups. But this relies on you having access to neutered boars first and foremost...
Please be aware that a group is a lot more work - lots more cleaning and feeding, needing to set up a sizeable vet fund because emergencies and illnesses tend to happen in bunches and you may have to treat the whole group for things like ringworm or skin parasites... I've repeatedly had months where I have run up vet bills over £600-1000 in a month if operations coincided with unplanned piggy emergencies or you are dealing with a contagious mystery bug.
You also have to be prepared to be at higher risk of having to syringe feed and emergency/crisis care around the clock and to also have back-up in place you yourself are suddenly very ill or have an accident. The same goes for holiday cover. A lot of spontaneousness goes out of your life when you have to deal with a larger number of pets of any species.
I have started out with a pair and then gradually worked up to the number I currently have and that I know I can look after sustainably working from home so I am cage cleaning from one end to the room and basically starting at the other end again straight away most times. It's not quite as glamorous as you may imagine! Not to mention what to do with any increased waste...
You have to also be prepared to deal with death, pts/euthanasia and grieving more often; that also extends to what you do want to do with your dead piggies. Cremation can become pretty expensive when you have several deaths in short succession or when you have to factor in several potential losses in a year.
Loss doesn't hurt any less now matter how many piggies you have or have had, as each bond is unique. Although you will learn over time to deal better with some ethical/processing aspects as you will find your personal stance on recurring scenarios.
I have lost 20 piggies in the last 3 years (many of them the last and by now very old Tribe survivors and piggies I adopted as adults or even pensioners, but also a number of younger ones due to medical issues or sudden unforeseeable problems); that wasn't exactly easy to cope with at times! It is however a price I am willing to pay as the joy still outweighs the pain overall; but there are times when the pain outweighs the joy.
PS: If you are interested, I have told the story of Wiebke's Tribe (which rose to 14 piggies in its 'hayday') in detail from its beginnings to when it all fell apart some years and a generation down the line when group dynamics took a turn for the worse after a hostile takeover. It is a useful and honest first-hand report of the wide range of challenges you are facing when building up and running a group.
You can find it in Guinea Pig Magazine, issues 37/38/39. The back issues from 2017 can still be ordered either as print or as a download from here:
Guinea Pig Magazine
