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C&C Big Enough For 6 Boars?

hkwalker1

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Just put together this 6x4 C&C cage. Is it big enough for six VERY BRATTY boys? These guys will fight for any reason you can think of. I can make it bigger if need be. Just wanted to run it by you all. Thanks!
AF0F8B3A-4FB6-4CDA-8AE9-8C467532C1A0.jpg
 

petluv

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Just put together this 6x4 C&C cage. Is it big enough for six VERY BRATTY boys? These guys will fight for any reason you can think of. I can make it bigger if need be. Just wanted to run it by you all. Thanks!
View attachment 86807
No no no! Never put 6 males together, let alone aggressive ones. It might be inconvenient but you need to separate your boys into three pairs. Each pair will need at least a 2x5 cage. Aggressive boys may need more space for each of the three cages. If you don’t have the space or resources for this you may have to make a heart wrenching choice to rehome the pairs you cannot keep. It’s going to be a tough choice, but it is required for the safety of each of the six boys to set things up as I mentioned.

Edited by bpatters: Actually herds of males may work much better than pairs. But you need a LOT of room for them.
 
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hkwalker1

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No no no! Never put 6 males together, let alone aggressive ones. It might be inconvenient but you need to separate your boys into three pairs. Each pair will need at least a 2x5 cage. Aggressive boys may need more space for each of the three cages. If you don’t have the space or resources for this you may have to make a heart wrenching choice to rehome the pairs you cannot keep. It’s going to be a tough choice, but it is required for the safety of each of the six boys to set things up as I mentioned.

I definitely don’t disagree with you. For the majority of their lives, I’ve had a bonded pair in a different 2x6 and the other 4 in a 3x7. But it looks like I may just have to split this cage in half. The trouble is going to be finding pairs who will get along. They all seemingly hate each other. I swear I picked the brattiest boys ever
 

hkwalker1

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I had them all together for about an hour before giving up and putting them back in their other cage
 

bpatters

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@hkwalker1, how did you introduce them before putting them in the cage?

I'd take those hideys out of the cage -- they're just invitations to squabble. You need smaller, open-ended hideys so nobody can get trapped.

You also need to break up the sight lines in the cage so that other pigs are not always visible. You can string fleece forests across it or clip fleece across the corners. Just give them places where they can chill without triggering a dominance response from the other pigs.
 

hkwalker1

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@hkwalker1, how did you introduce them before putting them in the cage?

I'd take those hideys out of the cage -- they're just invitations to squabble. You need smaller, open-ended hideys so nobody can get trapped.

You also need to break up the sight lines in the cage so that other pigs are not always visible. You can string fleece forests across it or clip fleece across the corners. Just give them places where they can chill without triggering a dominance response from the other pigs.
I always set up a “floor time” set up in another room. Lay down lots of fleece liners to clean up all the pee and such with foldable play pen grids i found on amazon. When they’re all good to go, they go into the clean cage with all the scents washed away. The fighting always starts when they hit puberty (I’ve got almost all of them when they were between 3-4 weeks old)
I’ll definitely set up some things to keep each other of sight occasionally. I’ve got lots of extra fleece so I’m sure I can whip something up
 

hkwalker1

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32D0CC41-2C17-4B93-8592-12493AEB60B5.jpg
There’s a hole cut in the purple hidey so there’s multiple exits. I left the log hideys because my senior piggie really likes to sit in there and lay. There’s also a big bed on the other side of the fleece divider that they like. Any feedback?
 

bpatters

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I'd "sprinkle" smaller fleece forests throughout the cage, and cut the fleece in strips so they can run through. That setup still leaves large areas where they can see each other. The idea is to have several places throughout the cage that pigs can "hide" in but that are easy to exit if their territory is invaded.

And I would definitely remove those hideys and replace them with something they can run through. For one thing, they take up a lot of floor space. For another, if one pig traps another inside one, the trapping pig can get its nose badly slashed.
 

Cathryn

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I had two piggies that seemed good together. Both bores. After about a year, they started fighting. And one was injured badly with a slash through his eye. It was horrible. Lucky he didn't loose his eye. I never want to see an eye like that again. I made the sad decision to re-home the little dude so I could keep them safe. It's so hard to find a truly peaceful pair. It's not worth the anxiety of wondering who has had their eye scratched out. If they fight, I would find it much more rewarding to separate.
 

hkwalker1

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Long time no post! The new cage set up has been a work and progress, and I figured I’d wait until it was finished(ish). In the picture, the big 6x4 cage has 3 of the pigs. The long 7x2 cage has 2 bonded pigs (unfortunately they are the ONLY two who dont ever fight). Lastly, in the little janky cage is my little Fudge. He’s going through boar puberty and he is, well, a complete bastard. He wants to kill every single pig on this earth. I don’t know what to do with him at this point, especially since I’m still struggling with two of the other boars in the large cage not liking each other. I may have to make the hard decision to rehome both Fudge and Caramel. But I am still deciding and holding on hope that one day will be different. Please feel free to give more feedback on the new home
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