I have been looking for a female companion for Cupcake for about 3-4 weeks and it is harder than I thought. I have a connection through the vet that cupcake sees, but nothing has panned out yet.
Anyway, I look at cragslist, petfinder, etc and they always have tons of males but rarely females. And the females are bonded pairs. Why is that?
So frustrated!
My guess would be because when a GP gets pregnant, the female babies can be kept with the mom but the boys can't so they're adopted out, thus many more males up for adoption and fewer females.
Have you considered adopting a bonded pair and having a heard of 3? Or a neutered male? Just a thought... Good luck!
All I can speculate is the people tend to view Boars as smelly and nasty. Just what I have heard from non-piggy people.
If you live in Canada, you can try www.kijiji.ca. That's where I found my girls.
I don't know about other people, but I personally prefer sows because I don't want to risk a dominance game gone wrong. Like almost all animals, males tend to be more aggressive, especially towards other males. Females are generally less aggressive to other females. (I'm not counting the females in the wild. They can be really aggressive at times.)
Of course, I could be wrong, but that's just my opinion.
It's just the timing. Sometimes there are lots of boys sometimes lots of girls. Just keep looking girls will come.
I think a lot of it is the mean/smelly/aggressive perception, and that's so far from the truth. Sure, some boars are aggressive and male guinea pigs need some extra care to keep that special area clean, but I don't think any of that should be enough to keep them from being adopted. My boar, Borat, has only made oar stank twice since I've owned him, and he's actually much calmer and more laid back than my female, Amy. I was told Bo was a girl when I adopted him from the shelter, but I would have taken him even if I'd known he was male.
I would say that's incorrect & completely individual, an an unfortunate reason for males to not be favored & left homeless longer. Especially with girls being in heat every 16 days with sometimes extremely aggressive behavior. Mine will tolerate each other at best, but there's constant kicking, spraying, nastiness & fights for dominance. And I wont even go into the hormonal hell we went through with ovarian cysts. The most well bonded pairs I've witnessed were 2 pairs of boys.Originally Posted by Ithilgil
There are always more boys than girls looking for homes in my area. Girls always tend to find homes faster, too. Personally, I always prefer males over females because (in my experience) they are so much more outgoing and people-friendly.
I agree with Paula, out of all my pigs and pigs I have had or fostered, males tend to be way more out going and people friendly. BUT I get the whole bonded issues, my three boys hate each other and I have three cages because of it.
I think it boils down to, smell, bonding issues and care. Boys require more care in their aging then females usually do. You have your gland cleanings, anal sack issues, penis issues/cleanings and that's just on top of normal pig issues.
I personally would just adopt a boar and have him neutered so he can go in with your sow.
Thank you all for such great replies. There are certainly some super cute boys out there. Is it safe to neuter a boy? To they then rub their boar stink all over?
I've also noticed that there is a slight dominance play between my two sows - Robin is definitely the more dominant one; Rhode is really skittish. But mines don't fight often. If they do fight (usually verbal fights or food tug-a-wars), it's usually over a piece of veggie. Sometimes Rhode wins, other times Robin wins.
I don't see them kicking or harming each other though.
Once again, I could be wrong because they're my first cavies, but I was thinking that maybe Rhode and Robin are well-bonded because they've been together since their birth. They're sisters. I don't think they've ever been seperated before.
But truthfully, I didn't care about their gender when I first got them. I just came across an ad for a pair of unwanted guinea pigs. Then one thing led to another, and now I'm the proud owner of Rhode and Robin.
My personal preference for female pets is just mainly because I'm a girl. I also have/had male pets now/before. Just not male guinea pigs.
I got my two boars when they were 6 weeks old, they are half-brothers but in the two and a half years I have owned them I have had a few problems but none that were life threatening and they are still happily living together. It just took them a while to get to a agreement with who will be the boss.
Around 2 months ago I rescued a Female piggy, She is wonderful but I still think boars are much better then girls because I find that boars are more friendly and laid back. But It differs between guinea pig.
In the end it is all up to you if you want to get a girl piggy or a neutered boar.
Good Luck with finding the perfect friend for your piggy. (:
Kelly9 (06-11-12)
It's SAFER to get a boar neutered than to have a sow spayed but there are still risks. You need to find a Cavy Savy vet! I have a boy and a girl - brother and sister - and I'm waiting until next month to get him neutered (so he's old enough). I can't wait for them to finally be together in a cage again!! I don't think they have "boar stink" after being neutered but please correct me if I'm wrong.
I love boars......just not two of them together. I had two boars from the same litter and they almost ran me out of the house with the smell. I literally had to change the cage from top to bottom on a daily basis.......and began to think that I would be bankrupt from the litter costs.
One of the boys died a year ago and we then had the remaining one, Chester, neutered with the goal of getting him a female roommate. (As soon as the other boar died, no more boar stink.) Life circumstances got in the way and we weren't able to follow through, so he lived alone......until three weeks ago.
Little Miss Maya, a beautiful little ruby-eyed 3 mo. old Texel sow came to live with us. We never even had time to do the proper introductions.......they took one look at each other and it was love at first sight. Chester, who has always been this very happy mellow fellow........now seems to be even happier. And, Maya absolutely adores her big brother.
The first blip in this love story came when after only three days with us, she went into heat. He thought it was a play for dominance and was a bit testy with her.
Maya just finished her second 72 hr. heat yesterday. She followed Chester all over the cage and would corner him in the litter box and hump him.........she was absolutely relentless! It was, "OK, big boy here it is......let me show you what to do with it". Needless to say, he didn't know what to do with it.
This time he didn't seem to interpret it as a dominance effort and was much kinder to her. He would turn around and look at her like "oh, you are SO silly" but yet seemed to be flattered by the attention. In fact, he would tease her.......he'd walk by her cozy where she was relaxing, stick his nose in, and then rumblestrut past it shaking his butt.
It's a joy to see him popcorn around the cage. She is so cute in that she tries to get him to play with her by running all over the cage, but sometimes he doesn't seem inclined. So, she does zoomies by herself as a last resort. We got lucky because they are so absolutely perfect for each other
So, let's hear it for a neutered male paired with an intact female! We're certainly happy with the combination.
I second spy9doc. My neutered male & intact female pair is so cute together. My neutered male never smells, but I check his sac often and clean it out. I never have problems with them, they get along so well. They can get loud when Penny is in heat, tough. During her cycle they are very loud for one night, rumbling, running, and sometimes humping. Thankfully it only lasts a night and then they're fine. I think it's the time when Penny is accepting of Sheldon's special attention. They are the perfect couple, I am so happy I found Sheldon to be Penny's buddy.
I think males are friendlier than females and form a stronger bond than females do. My two most bonded pairs were both males. The two I have now never fight or bicker and they don't stink at all. I think I'd rate them as the best pair I've ever had. The most aggressive guinea pigs I've had have been females.
One thing I didn't say before was that both of my boars love to lick me, unlike my girl who bites. But she is getting softer on the bites, I'm not sure how they learn to lick but my boys have always done it, yet it seems like It will take a while to teach my girl how to.
Ah, great. And I started with a girl! Figures that boys are better. Oh well.
Aww, sounds cute. I wonder how my 5 year old would handle the humping? I have never actually smelled boar stink and honestly, I really don't want to! haha So I suppose I don't know what I am missing.
I think it's personal opinion. I have always preferred females, and have much better luck pairing females than males. Neutered male/intact female pairs are usually easy, too.
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