Baby guinea pig sows - difficult to find....

[CherryMaple]

We would like to get 3 baby guinea pigs. We have done a lot of research into how best to look after them and bought a large C&C cage. Other owners have said that sows will get on much better than boars. I have contacted our local Cavy Club, and everyone is keeping their sows. There are only boars available. Can anyone advise how best to find sows?

We’re looking for baby pigs, not rescued adults. Our last pet was rescue, and we had a bad experience. We need to get babies this time - it’s non-negotiable.

I’m not looking for general guinea pig keeping advice - we’ve already read a lot and spoken to owners - just where to get them. However, if people would like to set me straight on thinking sows are the best option, that would be great.

Thanks

@OverTheRainbow88 rabbits aren't a good pet for kids, as PP said, and it's tricky to get set up to care for them properly. You've got to provide a safe run on grass so they can dig but can't escape and they need space for three full bunny hops in any direction- the vast majority of commercial hutches are really undersized. They must be kept in pairs or groups too.

Great thanks! Will research guinea pigs, totally not expecting 4 year old to be able to care for them on his own!

I was thinking if I got two baby sows, and then a baby boar

Your boar wouldn't be ready to castrate until he was a good weight , youre looking at 6months + to be mature enough.

They need to have 6 weeks to go sterile after the operation.
Castration is not without risk .

Rescues will often castrate their boars to make them easier to home .
Though two boars that fight are not going to suddenly stop fighting after castration. But it means if one dies , you can get females quicker if they're both castrated .
And Rescues will have a Vet that will do en mass at a good price and they'll be very used to doing this surgery ( still with accepted risk)

Our ex breeders were brought in to bond with our young large boar (we kept them side by side till he was sterile)
When he died they missed him, we got GP6 , castrated 2 weeks before so introduced the same way after side by siding till sterile .

One boar castrated can have a lovely herd of as many sows as you have space for . ( TV programme PetSchool had Max and his 21 wives )

2-3 sows is a nice sized herd with a boar .

@70isaLimitNotaTarget

I was thinking if I got two baby sows, and then a baby boar

Your boar wouldn't be ready to castrate until he was a good weight , youre looking at 6months + to be mature enough.

They need to have 6 weeks to go sterile after the operation.
Castration is not without risk .

Rescues will often castrate their boars to make them easier to home .
Though two boars that fight are not going to suddenly stop fighting after castration. But it means if one dies , you can get females quicker if they're both castrated .
And Rescues will have a Vet that will do en mass at a good price and they'll be very used to doing this surgery ( still with accepted risk)

Our ex breeders were brought in to bond with our young large boar (we kept them side by side till he was sterile)
When he died they missed him, we got GP6 , castrated 2 weeks before so introduced the same way after side by siding till sterile .

One boar castrated can have a lovely herd of as many sows as you have space for . ( TV programme PetSchool had Max and his 21 wives )

2-3 sows is a nice sized herd with a boar .

We had a castrated boar with his two wives, it went well. We had to do side by side introductions though he was already sterile as they needed time to get used to each other but then they were inseparable. Our current boars will remain uncastrated as they are our last pair of pigs.

We got 3 boars from
Pets at home.

I googled it later and the internet is full of stories of boars falling out with each other.

We tried to do everything right, loads of space, separate food bowls etc but one by one ours fell out with each other until we had THREE Of those big cages 😬

We got two boats from P at H. Despite lots of research, I missed the bit about not keeping males together. Luckily, they lived very happily together in a large (6ft x 4ft) C&C cage with two of everything so it worked out well.

When one passed away, I didn’t want to risk getting our remaining GP castrated as the process is not without risks so I was so worried about what to do. Luckily a local breeder (family friend) had a young boar for us to try with our remaining GP. We dedicated lots and lots of time to introductions (including spending six hours watching them closely on the day we finally took the barrier out from between their sections of the hutch)! They are now very happy together (and I am not going to think about what happens when one passes away next time).

Boars are wonderful IMO!

@InspectorAlleyn

We got two boats from P at H. Despite lots of research, I missed the bit about not keeping males together. Luckily, they lived very happily together in a large (6ft x 4ft) C&C cage with two of everything so it worked out well.

When one passed away, I didn’t want to risk getting our remaining GP castrated as the process is not without risks so I was so worried about what to do. Luckily a local breeder (family friend) had a young boar for us to try with our remaining GP. We dedicated lots and lots of time to introductions (including spending six hours watching them closely on the day we finally took the barrier out from between their sections of the hutch)! They are now very happy together (and I am not going to think about what happens when one passes away next time).

Boars are wonderful IMO!

That's a great size cage for 2 pigs, how lucky they were. We have two boars in a two level cage which is 4x2 downstairs and upstairs but with 2 cut outs for their ramp to get up.

Talking of ramps, we have used two c&c panels to make the ramp but then have used shoe laces to add a corregated plastic tunnel on the ramp which means they can go up and down at ease - at least when the other GP is not sleeping in the tunnel of course (see lack of intelligence!)

Good cage advice here
mgpr.org/newsite/GP_Info/PigCages.htm

^ Mainly the first bit, I'm not convinced about the ready made cages but the midwest is good.

I did take the obligatory pigtures for you all. Sorry the quality isn't great, but they really don't like it when I point a camera at them, lol.

The darker one is called Coco and the lighter one is Caramel. It makes a change from our old piggies who were both completely ginger and impossible to tell apart, until one of them got a cataract.

@MsAwesomeDragon

I did take the obligatory pigtures for you all. Sorry the quality isn't great, but they really don't like it when I point a camera at them, lol.

The darker one is called Coco and the lighter one is Caramel. It makes a change from our old piggies who were both completely ginger and impossible to tell apart, until one of them got a cataract.

Gorgeous! There is not such thing as a guinea pig photo that isn't great. Coco looks like a long haired pig?

Aww such cuties!!

Yes, Coco has longish hair, although not as long as some I've seen. I think she'll need some extra grooming to keep her hair from getting dirty.

They're both utterly gorgeous, and adventurous. Watching them zoom round their cage, running up and down the ramp and climbing on the wooden log house is so funny.

Hi OP,

Total guinea pig nerd here 🤚🏼

In my experience the best options would be all girls OR one boy and girls.

Two boys are more difficult (it goes without saying you could never have two boys and one girl).

I can't help much with where to get sows but I do have some advice.

As someone else has said, guinea pigs reach teenage years and during this time they will try and establish a hierarchy where one pig will assert dominance over the others. Sometimes the other pig will instantly be submissive but other times they will challenge. They will do various things such as seeing who can get their nose the highest, yawning (to show teeth), rumble strutting and mounting each other.

Many pig owners make the mistake of separating pigs too soon because they think it's bullying/fighting. Of course you CAN get bullying in pigs but you have to be careful to tell the difference between the pigs establishing a hierarchy (which is natural) and bullying/fighting.

After a while it should settle down but the hierarchy can change sometimes. For example one of my pigs grew older and frail and although she was normally the dominant one, her young sister then became the alpha.

Because of this hierarchy it can be much more difficult having two boys. I once had two boys and they went past the point of normal 'asserting dominance' behaviour. There is such a thing in pigs where they 'make a hurricane' basically they fly at each other and fight (looks like they go round in spirals). If this happens you have to separate them as they will fight to the death. This happened to my boys, neither would back down, both wanted to be alpha and I had to separate them , get them both neutered and a female companion each.

My experience of buying vs rescuing pigs is that the pigs I have bought from pets at home have all developed health problems but ones I have rescued have been more resilient health wise. I think it's to do with the inbreeding.

Good luck!!

P.s be very careful with c and c cages and baby pigs. One of mine once got her head stuck. Make sure you have the plastic thing in it so the metal holes are not on ground level

@OverTheRainbow88

Would you recommend them for a 4 year old? He’s desperate for a pet and is a gentle giant. Was between guinea pigs or rabbits, but we’ve never had either before.

I think that may be slightly too young. I've had a few feisty pigs who like to nip and also they often mistake fingers for carrots (their eyes are on the side of their head so they can't see what's in front of their mouth)

Plus guinea pigs are quite fragile little things with tiny bones and quite easy to get injured if held too tightly or picked up incorrectly x

Thanks so much to everyone who has posted on the thread with advice.

@MsAwesomeDragon Your pigs are gorgeous

@Greentulips1 Many thanks - your comments about the C&C cages with babies, and the fighting were really helpful!

I have found a breeder through a Cavy Club who has 3 baby sows we can have - so pleased! Our cage and equipment are due to arrive next week, and then we can bring them home. I will post pics then.

If there is anything else I need to know in the meantime, please keep the advice coming!

Thanks again all

The most important thing is to learn how to eat crisps without rustling the packet... our herd were wheeking like crazy earlier as I tried to eat my hula hoops in peace 

@MsAwesomeDragon you have gorgeous piggies