Spayed sows with entire boar

[KathT]

I have one spayed sow and will be getting her cage mate spayed (due to ovarian cysts) soon. Once the sow is healed and recovered completely from her op, I was going to try and bond them with my entire boar, but have some questions. I presume that spayed sows will no longer come into season - will this affect the way the sows accept the boar? They won’t want ‘servicing’ so will the boar force himself upon them, should he feel the need? All the pigs involved are around 4 years old (age guesses as they are all rescues) and I know it’s about compatibility, so the point may be moot. The sows have been with a neutered boar but he died suddenly last summer so they’ve been a pair since then. Any input from anyone with spayed sows and entire boar groups especially welcome!

 

[Wiebke]

I have one spayed sow and will be getting her cage mate spayed (due to ovarian cysts) soon. Once the sow is healed and recovered completely from her op, I was going to try and bond them with my entire boar, but have some questions. I presume that spayed sows will no longer come into season - will this affect the way the sows accept the boar? They won’t want ‘servicing’ so will the boar force himself upon them, should he feel the need? All the pigs involved are around 4 years old (age guesses as they are all rescues) and I know it’s about compatibility, so the point may be moot. The sows have been with a neutered boar but he died suddenly last summer so they’ve been a pair since then. Any input from anyone with spayed sows and entire boar groups especially welcome!

Hi!

Acceptance is down to personality and not whether a piggy is neutered or spayed, irrespective of the gender. Older sows past ideal pup bearing age (over 2-3 years of age) tend to be much less keen on boar company because their body is no longer urging them on the way it does in younger sows even though neither gender ever loses the ability to procreate - only that the rate of miscarriage and fatal births is climbing up quickly.

Spayed sows will behave just like normal sows (including rumble-strutting and dominance mounting, as I know from my own); they just don't have seasons but still emit all the usual female pheromones and they still produce some hormones and can act hormonal on occasion.

 

[KathT]

Thanks Wiebke, I know it’s more of a compatibility thing and that it might not happen with the sows being older. At the moment it’s all hypothetical til my sow is spayed - and maybe not even then. I suppose I just wanted to know what spaying does to a sow as, after having all her reproductive bits removed, she is unlikely to come into season. And how a male with spayed sows reacts to this and the sows to the boars advances. I presume by your answer things continue as they normally would, much like having a hysterectomy does for us (women), but minus the pain and aggravation of menstruation!