Sooo, hypothetically speaking, how much room would you need for 3 piggies?

[LingDiLong]

Just wondering. Honest. I already have 2 sows in a large hutch in a shed, the rest of the shed is made over into an indoor run for them for when it rains.

I can never resist looking at the blog for our local guinea pig rescue and they are absolutely over-run with pigs at the moment. So, how much extra room would you need for a 3rd pig? And would introducing a 3rd sow to a very well established pairing even work?

Sigh. If I had the room I'd love a whole herd of piggies!

It's lethal to look at these Rescue sites isn't it,
I keep looking at Gumtree (not to adopt , just for some cavy coveting)

OK- cages. Cavy Cages says 'preferred 13.5 square feet'
Which IRL is about 4'x3.5' which IMO isn't that big.

I measured my boys shed when I went to adopt my new piglet. I'd thought it was 5'5" but it's actually 72"x70" (so nearer to 6') but there's a tiny bit at the door where DH but a barrier.
My two boys have grown to fill the space but I know if I'd got GP1 neutered I could have got him 2-3 girls.
Boars are very space consuming.
(They've got the outdoor run but it's seperate)

Why not get a single boar and get him neutered (or the Rescue might already have some neutered boys)

I put a young female with my Himalayan mum/daughter adult pair (when I was a child) and the old girl was really mean to the new girl. (New pig had to side-by-side but actually was pg and had one sow so that was her company sorted out)

Sows can be narky and territorial but a friendly boar would be Head of the Hareem and quite grateful . And neutered boars are less likely to get impaction.

Hm...I'm actually looking after a friend's boar at the moment. She doesn't take great care of him to be honest, and has said she doesn't really want him any more. His hutch is falling apart too. I'd been thinking I'd like to take him on but not sure how that would work as obviously I don't want baby piggies (well I do but clearly that wouldn't be practical!)

How much does neutering cost roughly, do you know?

Depends on where you go. I've seen quotes of £40 +. Phone round a few Vets. Make sure they do a good number of neutering before you decide.
The boar would need to be in good health and a good weight.
I would have had my GP1 neutered but my DD (it's her pig) didn't want to risk him after his brother died. I took my boars to a Vet that does a GP clinic. If he'd have 'gone' under the anaesthetic I'd have taken it as a calculated risk, but obviously for my daughter it wasn't a risk she wanted to take.
And (more importantly for him) he'd have had to be "in quarentine" from his new cagemates while he was waiting to turn sterile.

You could rescue him, neuter him and keep him seperate from your sows until he's ready (takes about a month)
He could have 'squeaking contact' with them .

You could use it as a bargaining tool in your favour if you play it right.
If you are looking for another pig, then it might as well be hers.
If she umms and ahhs then she's miss her chance to rehome the boar.

If she 'rehomed' him (through the dreaded Gumtree for example) she won't know where he'll end up.

And if she puts him into a reputable rescue they'll request a donation.

She might as well pay for all/part of his operation.

If he isn't neuterable he could side-by-side with your girls. But obviously you'll need to keep them apart.

Baby GP are so cute . Our little piglet is about 9 weeks old now. He's growing , but my goodness he's hyperactive, tries to abseil off my shoulder, is noisy, a bit bitey (more gnawing really) and nails like needles.
Makes me appreciate the finer qualities of lardy adults.

Just a suggestion, how about getting the boar neutered and leaving him at your friend's house until he is sterile. That will be six weeks to be on the safe side.

Why I say this as is I think he will find smelling sows stressful, post op, new home to get used to not being able to get to the Laydeez. From experience my Old Boy broke his teeth off gnawing his hutch when Fatimus and Naughty Girl arrived.

70, I don't think my friend would be up for paying out any money on him. His hutch is literally falling apart but she won't buy a new one because he's old and I think she's hoping he'll pop his clogs soon

Which sort of brings me to the next problem. He's a white piggie with red eyes but one is now blue and cloudy. I'm assuming a cataract but I'm not sure. What if he has health problems and a trip to the vet for neutering turns into an expensive course of treatment? There's no way my friend would want to pay out.

I am kind of considering having him but separately to the girls anyway so he can live out his days here with a bit more care and attention.

YY Fortified - but I suppose weigh up whether the friend would look after post-op boar (the most common neuter problem is post-op infection or abcess) . If the boys current owner isn't bothered about him now, will she go through the whole cleaning the wound, keep him off hay, check ups.

A recovering boar could be kept seperate (with hands washings and maybe put an old shirt to to handle him to prevent smell transfer).

If I'd have had GP1 neutered I'd (in theory) have waited till he wet on holiday then asked the Small Animal Boarding (which is where I got the boys originally through their links with the Rescue) to 'match' him on neutral territory.

I know I'd have caved in and got his laydeez early but kept them seperate

But because LingDiLings prospective boar is used to being alone, there's not the urgency to match him.He could stay put if he'll have the aftercare.

When you had OB on his own , you'd have had the same situation that I had with GP1. A male pair then a single, depressed boar.
(I think DD wanted a baby pig too. If it was females I'd have got older ones)

Baby piglet is like that RoadRunner cartoon. "MeepMeep" and he's gone in 0-60 mph.In the run he popcorns, turns 180 degrees, runs 'laps' and leaps in the air.
GP1 can still give him a run for his money though.

X-Post.

How old is the boar?

(He might be too old to neuter anyway)

WRT eyes- it could be damage to the eye (like a scratch). How long has it been like this? Is the eye weepy or crusty? Does he rub at it?
Or it could be - something IN the eye itself- foreign body/tumour/cyst/

Teeth problems can affect an eye (and could account for it being on one side)
Diabetes can affect GPeyes (but I work with humans and diabetes tends to affect both sides of the body)

Has he seen a vet about his eye? He might have done already and there might be no problems. (One of my girls had a scratched eye. It went completely opaque for a while then she got 80% of the colour back). She could still get about and it didn't trouble her.

Really depends if you want <strong>another</strong> guinea or <strong>this</strong> guinea. If you take him on for a while and give him a home, he'll be happier . And loads of people keep boars/sows in squeaking distance. The only issue would be if you had two boars and sows.

Would your friend pay for a vet check for him? And you could get a spare hutch from Freecycle?/Gumtree
Then you could decided from there?
Good Luck.

Aw poor lad that eye sounds proper blind my guess is he is an old piggy and not suitable for neutering.

However as my Old Boy proved living side by side can be successful, once his teeth grew back twice . Mine were all house piggies with hutches on opposite sides of the room but OB free ranged from the moment we got up in the morning. There was no possibility of forgetting or ignoring OB he would natter loudly and gnaw the hutch until the door was opened.

I think his eye has been like that a while. I had a good look at it today and it's not weepy or crusty or anything. I'm not sure exactly how old he is but I reckon about 5? I'll have a chat with my friend when she gets back and see if she'd be willing to pay for a vet check up and take it from there.

He's not being badly treated or I'd take him on regardless, he's just a bit neglected. I know she has an indoor cage she'd probably be happy to give me.

Old Boy went blind in one eye 2 months before he died. He was over 6 years old.

I doubt a vet check up will serve any purpose other than lighten someone's wallet in this case. IMO the eye has gone blind with old age. Piggies do very well with just one eye and it won't bother him. But I was devastated when it happened to OB and I cried loads

As he has been lonely for a while, living out his days in an indoor cage where he can hear family life and smell the fridge door opening would be perfect. And he can have chaperoned visits from sows so he can have a smell and a rumble, so cute.

Oooh it looks like this has gone from "Should I /could I get a 3rd pig"?
to "I want to offer this lone pig respite retirement care" (in the space of 11 posts)

If you've got the space and you reckon you could keep the boar apart from the girlie pigs (because if he got the chance he'd probably give it a go) then go for it.
You can give this little boy a chance to have some companionship for the twilight years.
It must be soul destroying for a GP to wheek and have no pig to answer the call.
(Do you ever play those YouTube recordings of guinea-pig noises? We do sometimes and though we laugh at the boys responses it is quite surprising to see how they pick up their ears and wheek back. We played the happy pig noises to our piglet. I didn't want to play the angry pig sounds in case he thought it was GP1 making these sounds)

Must stop calling GP3 'the piglet'. Little bugger was trying to mount GP1 t'other day.

GP1 gave him a judgey look, and walked off. He's not that type of hog.

It's raining heavily today...shame to have to go back and forth to my friend's house, maybe I should bring him here for the week (she says, plotting a pig nap). Only fly in the ointment would be winter when the girls need to come in. I'm not sure I have space for 2 cages. Would the boar be able to go in the run when the girls aren't in there or would the smell of them.drive him.bonkers?

In your shoes I wouldn't bring the boar to your house if it's just for the week - the boar would know the girls and there then it would be a shame when he has to be home alone.

If you did get hime to live with you permenantly, then you'd need to keep him seperate a while anyway (and I'd give him some mite treatment while he's doing this).
Once he knows the girls are there (and vice versa) then the smell of them in the run shouldn't really bother him . They might get a bit giddy when they can smell the other pigs, but really it's two boars that will be squabbly. One on it's own hasn't got the competition)

In winter you might need two cages in seperate rooms to house them all. Last year my boars were in the small bedroom (where all the junk lives ) but they were away from the radiator.
Year before they were in the dining room. We kept tripping over the cage and GP2 used to stage a food riot at 6am

No, you're right actually, that wouldn't be fair. Lots to think about anyway and my friend won't be back from hols for a while so no need to rush anything!

Thanks for all your advice