Advice for moving newly bonded group into new cage

Megham

Megham

New Born Pup
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Hi everyone!

I've finally recently found some friends for my single female Fern.

There was still lots of dominance behaviour from Fern earlier yesterday and the day before but it has calmed down dramatically since and things are much more peaceful.

I have ordered a cage upgrade for them and will be building my own c and c cage. But I need advice for when is a good time for me to move them? The cage will be staying in the same location in the room and I will keep hides the same and will transfer some bedding but would I be risking the bond by doing it ie a week after they have come home? I don't want to disturb the progress in the bonding or reset it. Is this not a concern or is there a suitable time to wait when it will affect them less?

Thank you!
 
Claire W said:
Hello :) If they have all settled down together, you should be fine to move them to their new cage. Just be prepared for some more dominant behaviour. It takes roughly two weeks for a heirachy to be established.
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Fabulous! Thank you!
 
Megham said:
Hi everyone!

I've finally recently found some friends for my single female Fern.

There was still lots of dominance behaviour from Fern earlier yesterday and the day before but it has calmed down dramatically since and things are much more peaceful.

I have ordered a cage upgrade for them and will be building my own c and c cage. But I need advice for when is a good time for me to move them? The cage will be staying in the same location in the room and I will keep hides the same and will transfer some bedding but would I be risking the bond by doing it ie a week after they have come home? I don't want to disturb the progress in the bonding or reset it. Is this not a concern or is there a suitable time to wait when it will affect them less?

Thank you!
Click to expand...

Hi

With a very easy and smooth bonding that is clearly a meeting of two souls, you can move them across after 2-3 hours. If there has been lots of dominance, I tend to keep them overnight in the bonding pen until the roughest bit of the hierarchy sort-out is done; if necessary even a second night. It makes for a much less renewed dominance show-offs in the new cage when they settle into it as a group and not as a bunch of piggies that still have to sort out the full hierarchy ladder.

Keep in mind that the post-intro dominance phase lasts on average around 2 weeks until a group is fully established. Most people are not aware that the bonding process doesn't last just a few hours; so it doesn't really matter when exactly in the process you move them - basically whenever you are happy that they have bonded and that there is an undisputed hierarchy between them.

In my own experience, it really pays not hurry the cage transfer; it makes for a much calmer process.

When you move them across, make sure that there are no hides and dead corners where piggies can be locked into as part of dominance behaviours. If there is quite a bit of possessive behaviour, I prefer to place a row of log tunnels in the middle of the cage like backyard garages - no piggy can control them all and they are all exactly the same, so no strops over who has the prime territory. I would also recommed to sprinkle feed veg and pellets around an area - it makes for dominance over food although there is the inevitable squabble over the last bits.
 
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