How Many? Trying to sort a herd

[EasyButton]

Honestly I suspect I know the answer to this one but I figured it couldn't hurt to check with others -

I have a (fixed) sow and an (unfixed) boar who are about 5 years apart in age. They used to be part of a trio with another (fixed) sow who just passed very unexpectedly - in fact, we got our current female to be a companion for the one who just passed because our old man is 8 and I know that's on the upper edge of where guinea pigs go, and we didn't want her to be alone when he passed.

The female we still have is very picky about playmates and I was thinking that the easiest thing to do with her might be to add a third to the group again but add a baby. Obviously since my male is not fixed a baby sow wouldn't work, so my next thought was to get another boar.

My gut instinct here is that another boar, even if we get him very young and get him fixed as soon as we can, will fight with our established boar because there's a female in the equation, but there's a part of me hoping that maybe if we get a very young one that won't be a problem. Thoughts?

Right now the only nearby rescue who adopts out spayed guinea pigs is not taking applications because of covid related backlog.

 

[bpatters]

Multiple boars won't work if there's a sow in the midst. I think you'd be better off to wait until your boar has passed on and then let your sow pick out a potential mate from a rescue.