How Many? Introducing pair of bonded boars to pair of baby boars??

[Heather Inman]

I have a bonded pair of 2 adult boars (under 1 year old) and now we have a pair of baby boars from he same litter who are getting along perfectly right now. Both pairs are in their own 2x4 cages in separate rooms. The quarantine period is coming to an end, should I introduce them and combine cage to make a much larger one or leave them in their happy pairs in seperate cages? Also if I decide not to introduce could I eventually move the seperate cages near eachother or is that just dumb? Please help! I am at a loss as what to do and I know there are so many factors but the little guys are still pretty small (I am not exactly sure how old though) My adult boars are pretty large and twice their size really, so I figure if I am going to introduce I want to do it ASAP hoping the size difference will help with hierarchy. Any advice??!

 

[bpatters]

You might be able to get away with introductions, or you might not. You might wind up with four individual cages, one pig in each.

The safest thing to do would be to keep the two pairs separate from each other, at least for a year or so until the younger ones have worked out most of the puberty squabbles. Actually, the safest thing to do would be to keep the pairs totally separated, but if you want to try a herd, it would be better to wait.

You'll also need a HUGE cage if you want to put four boars together, and really, a 2x4 is not large enough for most boar pairs. Some manage it, but a 2x5 or larger is better.

 

[Heather Inman]

Ok so waiting would we better then. Thanks for the reply, in your opinion, do you think males typically live better in pairs? It's not ideal having cages in 2 rooms, but I would rather keep the 2 seperate cages forever rather then have my older guys mad at me and end up seperate. These baby boars came from an acquaintance of a friend who contacted me on Facebook cause she knew I had guinea pigs. I couldn't say no once she sent me a pic, she was originally going to try to find them a rescue. I drove 2 hours to get them and now I'm going to make it work somehow. I just didn't realize until after I got them how hard it sometimes impossible it can be to keep more then 2/3 boars. the extra cubes were really to eventually make my original guys a larger fun style cage. Anyway, thanks so much for the help

 

[bpatters]

You don't need to put the cages in separate rooms. They can even be next to each other, although if you wind up with pig(s) chewing the bars, you may have to plexiglass along the inner wall.

Actually, the magic number for boars is either two or four or more. Large herds do pretty well, although it does take some forbearance on your part to let them work out their dominance squabbles.

You might want to read these threads. Start with this one and then follow the link in the last post: http://www.guinealynx.info/forums/viewtopic.php?t=46468