Males (neutered) and Females together

[grandmachris]

I currently have two 5 month old females, Punkin and Sweet Pea. Punkin is very small but is quite dominant. The two girls have worked out their problems and get along quite well most of the time. Punkin rumblestruts and grumbles, but Sweet Pea just ingores her most of the time and is very submissive when she needs to be. The majority of the time they cuddle and love each other and even share treats, which I know is highly unusual. I would love to add a third one from a rescue, but think that it would be difficult to add another female because of Punkin's agressiveness.

Would she be more receptive to a neutered male? If the girls are not spayed, would the neutered male want to mount them all the time? Punkin is already doing that to Sweet Pea now and I would not want to add any more stress, especially to Sweet Pea. Should I leave well enough alone and just be happy with the two of them. They are in a 4x2 C&C cage which I could add a level to if I added another one.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

[cavy-cool-crazy]

I have a neutered male with 3 un-spayed girls. I actually have more of a problem with one of my girls mounting the others than my boy. Charlie, the only chap, was in his element at first, but he doesn't bother trying to mount them after a year of realising that Lottie gets there first and he rarely gets a look in.

Almost all of the mounting that occurs in my group is when one of the girls is in heat. Yes it can be quite a stressful 12 - 24 hours, but the girls stand up for themselves and can really shake the chaser off if they want to. The fact that they "get in their pose" when mounted makes me think that they are accepting of the mounting - the relentless chasing is what gets to them. Yes they want to be "mounted" when they are in heat but not harrassed!

In worst case scenarios, when the chasing gets so intense that the pigs can't move a muscle or eat without being pounced on, I flip one grid down and separate the troublemaker from the other 3 for a few hours. (In my group, the troublemaker is always the same pig; the other pigs mount once or twice then leave alone for a while.)

In your case, all you can do is go ahead and try. When I first introduced a third pig (Lottie) to a very happily and closely bonded pair (Charlie and Tuppy) it made Charlie and Tuppy fight for a while. It took a buddy bath and 2 hours to get them to stop attacking each other. But I gave them two weeks of getting used to Lottie living in the cage above them and they accepted her much better. Yes, there were high tensions and a fair bit of upset, but they did get on with each other and they all live together now - with Jasmine who was added just a week or two later.

I do think adding an extra level could help, but if you could extend the bottom section by one grid (long or wide) then do.