[Gpdd] CARE Males with females in the room.

[Penny Charlesworth]

Hello Melissa,

I have had pairs of boars living in the same room as my groups of sows for thirty something years and have never had any trouble whatsoever. My wire pens are side by side all around two rooms and hold whichever gender needs a home. In the room where I am typing this message, I have two boar friends next to two boar brothers alongside a group of sows with a neutered boar. The next pen contains three sows next to two more boars. The other room alternates sows and boars in a row. There is a lot of gossip between neighbours but never any fighting.

When I clean my pens, I do not have to remove the piggies, just clean around them but if you have the kind of cages from which you have to remove the piggies in order to clean, you would need to keep separate "holding" boxes, playpens or whatever you use so that there is no scent of sows in the box into which you subsequently place your boars.

I'm pleased that you have done your "homework" on introducing boars. It doesn't always work as piggies tend to prefer to pick their own friends but I have just introduced my new piggy, Shadow, to one of my boars who had lost his friend and had no trouble at all. They are now firm friends. You sometimes need to take it a bit slower with boars than sows and give them a longer side by side time to get acquainted. I can tell within moments if my selection of a friend for a single boar is going to be successful. Many times there has just been a "getting to know you" period followed by a good shared feast but be ready with a towel to throw over a fight and have some thick gloves to protect you from the protagonists.

Have you seen the "Barmy 4 Boars" website, which had loads of info on introducing boars? Ignore the spelling and syntax errors and enjoy the piggies. Here's the link http://www.susieandpigs.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/home.htm

I hope that you will be successful in introducing a new friend to Alfie.

Penny and the Piggyfriends.