boys and girls living side by side?

[DEE0215]

I am rebuilding my cage this week and was planning on making one very long cage (2X10 c&c) with a divider in the middle. One side would be for my boys and the other for the girls. I was wondering if that would be okay or would it make my boys start fighting? I thought I read somewhere that the boys may fight over the girl. Does anyone have experience with them living side by side or do you keep them seperated in other areas of the same room? All advice/experiences would be great. Thanks!

 

[coolcavies]

They would be more likely to fight, but in my experience it depends on the pigs. How many boars do you have? All of my pairs of boys have floor time in the shed (it's a 12ftx8ft shed) and the girls' pen is on the floor in there, so when the lads are out the only thing seperating them is the C&C 'fence' - they don't fight. I've never kept boys and girls side by side permanently though, just never wanted to risk it, so this probably isn't much help!

 

[DEE0215]

Thanks. Every opinion helps. I have 2 boars that are about 7 weeks old. They are the sons of one of the females they would be next to. I only have 2 females that I want to reintroduce to each other. I had to seperate them because when the one was pregnant, she was anything but nice to her older roommate, who is very laid back. Now that she has had the boys, I would like to put the girls together again.

 

[dagwellismypigy]

It would be fine, angelscavies has her cage like that.

 

[Treen]

I've heard a lot of people say that having girls housed next to boys has caused friction between boars (the scent of them in season can be enough) but also lot of people who successfully house them side by side with no problems at all. Not much help am I!

 

[DEE0215]

Thanks everyone. It is all helpful. I am going to try it and see how they react. I guess the worst that could happen is they start fighting and I have to seperate the cages. I would rather find out now with a c&c cage then with a wood cage that my husband wants to build for them. Thanks again to each of you for the advice.

 

[Katie]

Hi Dee! I'm from Ohio too, where are you?

I have had both success and failure with housing boars next to sows. I think it really depends on the boars personality.

 

[DEE0215]

Hi Katie. I live in Baltimore. It is about 20 to 30 minutes east of Columbus. Where are you located? I really hope it works out. Right now, they are in the same room with my one female Sophie. When I had to seperate Brandi and Sophie (due to fighting), I had to close off the first level of the cage making it individual cages on the top and on the bottom. I have the boys, Rudy and Jett, on the top, and Sophie is on the bottom. That has worked okay so far, but being side by side where they can see each other may be a different story. We'll see. I'll be doing this either tonight or tomarrow.

 

[Katie]

I'm in Akron, about 2 1/2 hours away. A rescue in town hosts Pignics, you should come this year!

 

[DEE0215]

Thanks. If you let me know when it is, I'll see if I can come up. Sounds fun.

 

[mncavylover]

I have heard some not-so-great stories, and I've heard of instances where it works out fine. It all depends on the pigs. You can always just make two seperate cages, side-by-side, so that you can move the cages if something happens. Good luck!