Rolo Bonding With Butterscotch And Caramel

[Forever Evan]

Despite my apprehension, I introduced Rolo (1.5 years) to our new babies, Butterscotch and Caramel. I put him in their big C&C cage and Rolo is in HEAVEN. He loves the space and the companionship. He has presented his dominance, but cutie pie Butterscotch seems to beat him at his game and comes right back with his own dominance. It has been amazing to watch. There has been no biting or fighting, only what seems normal as far as bonding and dominance goes. Caramel just seems to be ok with it all. I've read everything on this topic here.

One question - when do I confidently leave them in the same cage without supervision? Rolo is easily twice as large as the boys and I'm not comfortable leaving him in their cage overnight.

Or, am I being silly? If he hasn't presented any nasty behavior, should I switch him over? He is a new guinea when he's in the big cage - so happy and popcorning, running around, eating hay, pooping and being a piggie I haven't seen before. The boys don't seem to mind him at all, except when he pushes them away from the water bottles! But then they talk and all seems to be ok!

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[Lilly]

Awww gorgeous boys! Rolo is obviously happy because he has piggy company. But you might find that a trio of males won't work. The babies could end up fighting with each other or with Rolo when they hit their stroppy teenage phase.

 

[Wiebke]

You can switch boars over to a fully cleaned and rearranged cage after they have had their first nap together and are still fine.

In the long term you may find that there could be issues between Rolo and Butterscotch once the younger boys are hitting the teenage hormones. Trios have quite a high fall-out rate, especially those with mainly sub-adults. For the time, you can leave them together and then split the one boar off that is not working out at a later point if necessary.
You can find more information in our guides at the top of our Behaviour section.