Bonded pair (boar) + new solo boar = chaos?

[Luvbugs]

Hello! :) My first post here! :)

I've been reading a lot of pages and posts about piggy introductions, but it seems my situation is a wee bit different and I wanted to know if someone had success (or not) with a similar situation.

2 little piggy boys have lived with me for over a year. They were rescue piggy brothers, are 2.5 y old, one of them is very skittish and the other one is mega alpha (he rumblestruts All. The. Time.) They are quite co-dependent and bonded.

Someone approached me to foster another piggy, who is a male and also 2.5 years old. However, this is a solo pig who hasn't met any other piggies since his baby days in the pet shop. Will my Alpha male eat him up alive??

I would keep them in separate cages at night, but during the day they have a big area to roam freely in the house, so they'd be sharing that.

I'm just a wee bit scared the new piggy would get overwhelmed with 1) seeing other piggies again after so long 2) feeling the Alpha-ness of my mega-alpha-boar.

Any suggestions or success stories much appreciated!!

Thank you for reading!!!!
:)
L.

[bpatters]

We NEVER recommend putting three boars together. Two works OK, sometimes a big bunch of them will work, three almost never does. I'd say either don't take him, or get him another buddy and have two cages of males.

[Luvbugs]

Ooh thank you so much!! I won't take him in, then. The piggies need to be happy and content :) ❤️

[JX4]

I was going to say that by trying to introduce a third boar to your established pair may make all three of them incompatible. It can make even the established pair start not getting along with each other. I'm guessing the ONLY way for three boars to work is if all three are brothers from the same litter together since birth. But even then it might not work. In any other situation three boars together is a recipe for TROUBLE.

[crowcrash]

I'm not encouraging you to get the new guy, I just thought I'd share my success story. I actually do have three boars, and they were introduced at different ages. I'm really not surprised if they're just oddballs. My oldest is a constant rumbler, but the middle one (a fat teddy who is the heaviest) just shrugs him off. When that happens, the rumbler throws a tantrum and tips the houses over, flings toys, etc, but he doesn't bite or hurt the others. The youngest is just a hyper zoomie-butt; the rumbler could never pin him down so he finally gave up. Occasionally they headbutt each other, but they live pretty peacefully. When outside of the cage, they move in a herd, and look for each other if they get separated. It wasn't always that way - each introduction was pretty stressful for a couple of weeks. I think, other than just being lucky with personalities, much of the success comes from having a large living space with several bowls/houses/toys. If one guy gets territorial over someone else's house, they just swap around. I couldn't see them getting along so well in a standard store-bought cage.

[WICharlie]

I agree with the above recommendations. Also, if this is just a foster pig and you are caring for him only until he is adopted out, definitely do not bother to try and integrate him into your herd.

Are you fostering him for a rescue? I would suggest housing him in a separate room away from your other boars.