Geoffs Dad
New Born Pup
Hi piggy experts we are after some advice.... apologies for the long ramble..
As mentioned in another thread we had a lovely pair of 3 year old boars, who were best buddies since babies... Unfortunately Gaz died and left Geoff with just us humans for company (which I think he likes, as he loves a cuddle and gets spoilt a bit...).
Anyway we realise humans are not the same so, as also mentioned in my thread, we took him to a rescue to find a friend, and even though we thought we had found one, this did not go so well once we got home.
We now believe it was to soon for all of us including Geoff as he was showing signs of depression, not moving much, fussy eating, lost a bit of weight, and consequently was getting bullied by his new friend to the point where he stopped coming out for for food and would only eat when he was on the sofa with us.
So we took the decision to separate them, return the new guy to the rescue, and get Geoff neutered to give us the option of a girlfriend for him.. The op went well (we have a fab vet).
Problem was we fell in love with the new guys crazy antics, gave him a name Reglisse (French for liquorice as he is completely black). or Reg to his friends, and kept him in another cage alongside Geoff..
Well long story short, it has been a couple of weeks Geoff has pretty much returned to his old self and is much brighter and interested in the world, Reg is still crazy.
What we would now really want is two mixed pairs. I have built a fairly large (ok its enormous 75 x 250cm double level) run where we can let them live side by side in happiness, but while Geoff can get dating in a few weeks. Poor old Reg will have to wait a few months until he is old enough to be neutered.
Our worry is we will go through bonding (which wasn't great last time, but at least no outright fighting) and Geoff declines again (he was previously the dominant pig, but hardly as they were both super chilled out) so we are not sure he knows how to handle a VERY energetic young boar. Or they are fine for a few months, then we go through the fighting stage when Reg's hormones kick in....
So finally to the question(s)?
Is living next to Geoff enough for Reg for these months? Or should we just try to re-bond them now Geoff is more recovered?
As mentioned in another thread we had a lovely pair of 3 year old boars, who were best buddies since babies... Unfortunately Gaz died and left Geoff with just us humans for company (which I think he likes, as he loves a cuddle and gets spoilt a bit...).
Anyway we realise humans are not the same so, as also mentioned in my thread, we took him to a rescue to find a friend, and even though we thought we had found one, this did not go so well once we got home.
We now believe it was to soon for all of us including Geoff as he was showing signs of depression, not moving much, fussy eating, lost a bit of weight, and consequently was getting bullied by his new friend to the point where he stopped coming out for for food and would only eat when he was on the sofa with us.
So we took the decision to separate them, return the new guy to the rescue, and get Geoff neutered to give us the option of a girlfriend for him.. The op went well (we have a fab vet).
Problem was we fell in love with the new guys crazy antics, gave him a name Reglisse (French for liquorice as he is completely black). or Reg to his friends, and kept him in another cage alongside Geoff..
Well long story short, it has been a couple of weeks Geoff has pretty much returned to his old self and is much brighter and interested in the world, Reg is still crazy.
What we would now really want is two mixed pairs. I have built a fairly large (ok its enormous 75 x 250cm double level) run where we can let them live side by side in happiness, but while Geoff can get dating in a few weeks. Poor old Reg will have to wait a few months until he is old enough to be neutered.
Our worry is we will go through bonding (which wasn't great last time, but at least no outright fighting) and Geoff declines again (he was previously the dominant pig, but hardly as they were both super chilled out) so we are not sure he knows how to handle a VERY energetic young boar. Or they are fine for a few months, then we go through the fighting stage when Reg's hormones kick in....
So finally to the question(s)?
Is living next to Geoff enough for Reg for these months? Or should we just try to re-bond them now Geoff is more recovered?
