In Rescue/Shelter: Adopting from a rescue

[BekahsPiggies]

I have a question about a rescue in my area. I was looking at thier web-site and it sounds like they will only pair males with females and vice versa. I was under the impression that you can have 2 females or 2 males as cage-mates. Is there a reason I am unaware of that explains why they will only pair males with females?

[Jennicat]

It can depend on a lot of things, and a huge portion of that is probably intake ratios, adoptability concerns, and avoiding putting adolescent boars together.

1.) intake ratios -- we often find that the animals don't come in "even" ratios to allow everybody to be paired up with same sex partners, or that we may have stubborn boars that are having some social issues with other boars, and for simple ease, we neuter or spay and place together mixed pairs.

2.) adoptability -- people just seem to like "husband and wife" pairs. Even if we tell them over and over and over again that boys won't fight, some people will still believe it in their heart of hearts. Often they may also not want to deal with two sets of pouch cleaning. Neutering the boar typically eliminates that need and gives them a pair that "won't" fight.

3.) avoiding adolescents together -- Male adolescent boars can really be jerks to each other, and it's unavoidable that some pairs of adolescents won't get along. Some rescues choose to approach the problem by neutering the teenaged boys and putting them with girls, who they're less likely to be inclined to bicker with over territory disputes.

These are my personal opinions only, by the way, you'd probably need to contact the rescue and ask. It may be as simple as all the same-sex pairs having happened to be adopted leaving the mixed sex pairs up, or having a steady string of boy then girl then boy then girl single surrenders or pulls and then having to neuter and pair accordingly so no one was left alone.