The Lost Boys: The Plight of Rescue Boars

By Beth Akins from Miss Piggy’s Pig Lair in Queensland, Australia

As Featured in Issue 67 of Guinea Pig Magazine

At Guinea Pig Magazine, we feel extremely privileged to be able to share the stories of remarkable rescues, and the dedicated individuals who work tirelessly to give guinea pigs a second chance at life.

In Issue 67, 2022, we featured a rescue story by Beth Akins from Miss Piggy’s Guinea Pig Lair in Queensland, Australia. Beth’s story highlights the challenges faced by rescue boars; male guinea pigs who often come from difficult backgrounds and struggle to find new homes. Read on for Beth’s story of her work with rescued boars and some valuable insights into Miss Piggy’s Lair Rescue. A huge thanks to Beth and the rescue for sharing their story with us…

Often when supporters visit our shelter, I am asked why I have a row of cages dedicated to single guinea pigs. As we walk towards them, I explain that many of them are single males. Some have been surrendered alone because, sadly, they’ve lost their previous friend to illness or old age, and their family wasn’t keen on adopting more. Others were never paired up with a friend because the owners didn’t know it is in the best interest of a guinea pig to have a companion. But the majority of our single boys are currently from a backyard breeding situation. When this happens, it is quite difficult to pair them with another male as they much prefer the opposite sex.

Since the arrival of this backyard breeding surrender, we have had many males that just aren’t compatible with others. Added to this headache is the widespread post-COVID dumping of small animals, particularly those purchased from pet shops. With this problem at hand, I decided to try and raise funds for de-sexing operations for at least some of our lonely boys, especially those that I have had no bonding success with for quite some time.

Upon mentioning this to one of our lovely rescue supporters, who also happens to be a vet, Dr. C-J kindly talked to her manager in an effort to keep costs down. The plight of these lonely boars has touched the hearts not only of Dr. C-J’s clinic but also our Facebook and Instagram followers. This, in turn, led to raising enough funds for six of our boys to be neutered.

While the surgery for de-sexing a male isn’t cheap (especially here in Australia), there are a couple of beneficial reasons to go ahead with the procedure. As a boar ages, some can develop impaction issues, which means the muscles at the back end of the body have weakened, and they are no longer able to expel soft poops (i.e., the caecal pellets) that accumulate in the perineal sac. In my personal experience with older de-sexed males, this problem is much less severe and therefore less unpleasant for your boar and, of course, for yourself, as they do not have a large cavity between their descended testicles where the mass can build up. If anyone has had to remove impaction messes, you’ll know exactly what I am talking about!

Another added benefit of a de-sexed male—especially from a shelter’s viewpoint—is that they’re more likely to be adopted. Some female pairs can be just as feisty as male pairs. I’ve had one particular female named Snow that was surrendered with her “husband” Storm. Snow was heavily pregnant with Storm’s pups upon arrival at our shelter, so I separated the pair immediately. While waiting for Snow to give birth, I trialled Storm with our other single males—sadly to no avail—so he was added to the list of males for surgery. Snow soon gave birth to two boys and a baby girl. The two males didn’t get along, and the mother was very aggressive towards her daughter, so the entire family had to be separated.

By the time the necessary de-sexing safety wait period after Storm’s surgery was over (we always wait four weeks post-castration before putting sexes together), I placed Snow back in with Storm, and the reunion went fabulously! The happy couple are now (2022) searching for a new loving home and family to join.

This left Snow’s offspring: two brothers, Diablo and Carlos, who didn’t’ get along, and a sister, Zoe. As mentioned earlier, Snow did not care for her daughter’s company, but poor young Zoe was constantly calling for a friend. A surrendered male by the name of Tibbles, whose previous owner had him de-sexed to make our task of finding him a new friend and family a little bit easier, was conveniently on hand. I put young Zoe with Tibbles, and there was popcorning all around! Zoe even cleaned her new husband’s ears; they were so adorable together.

I trialled Diablo with many single males to no avail, but I also trialled his brother Carlos with one male, and it was a success right away! Diablo was also booked in to have surgery so he can live his life out with a lady pig.

There is, however, one special boy that I cannot leave out of this story, and that is Winkle. Winkle was dumped at a lady’s doorstep alongside another piggy in early October 2020. They were in separate boxes with a note that read “they don’t get along.” The finder of the boxes contacted us to see if she could surrender them.

Winkle arrived healthy apart from being somewhat underweight. He was a constant ball of energy, though, so his weight wasn’t of huge concern. However, his boisterousness posed trouble for finding a new friend. After his arrival, I introduced him to a multitude of single boys and even to a de-sexed girl, but that energy of his just wouldn’t settle down, crossing the line into harassment. When we did our call for raising funds, de-sexing Winkle was the first item on my waiting list!

I often have a lovely mother and daughter visit our shelter for grooming their two female guinea pigs. Isabelle, Joanne’s daughter, was always drawn to Winkle’s crazy antics. I blurted out in excitement that we’d finally had him de-sexed. They weren’t particularly looking to adopt, so I probably should have mentioned it to Joanne in private, as Isabelle basically chewed her mother’s ear off while I waited for his post-surgery wait to be over. Nevertheless, Joanne promptly filled out an adoption application, and we went ahead with a trial for the trio, which, with time given, was successful!

To say I am happy about the outcome of these single boys would be an understatement! I’d like to thank Dr. C-J and her clinic for their continued support. And of course, we couldn’t have done this without our kind donors! We do, however, have many more single males arriving, so if you’d like to support this cause, it really makes a huge difference for the owner families to know that they have a stably bonded boar, for the shelters, as it allows them to take in more guinea pigs in need, and, of course, first and foremost, for the guinea pigs’ happiness!