Hi all,
Very recently one of my wee pigs, Morgan, passed away despite our best efforts to keep him going. He and his brother Jerry were adopted at the age of about 18 months, and we quickly found they had some dominance issues. Jerry was always larger, bolder, and clearly more dominant, but Morgan would antagonise him to the point that we had to separate them. Although they can't be let out together, they lived in a large homemade cage with a wire grid separating them, which kept them happy. They like to see and socialise with each other - unfortunately they just couldn't get along physically!
Now that Morgan has passed away, we don't know what's best to get for Jerry. The options are:
1. A sow, which we are reluctant to do as we don't want to risk getting him neutered if possible.
2. An adult boar of the same age (around 2 1/2 years) - with the risk that they will need to be kept separated and will never get along.
3. One or two babies. The worry with getting one baby is the likelihood of Jerry passing away and leaving the other pig alone. If we get two, that's less likely to happen. Our cage is very large with the divider down, easily big enough for 3 pigs to have plenty of room and private space (we also let them run around the floor every evening). IF Jerry didn't accept the babies though, we'd have to leave the divider up, and I wouldn't feel comfortable with 2 pigs at one side as they wouldn't have as much room as i'd like.
I know it's a long and slightly complicated post, but i'd really appreciate any input!
Thanks in advance!
Very recently one of my wee pigs, Morgan, passed away despite our best efforts to keep him going. He and his brother Jerry were adopted at the age of about 18 months, and we quickly found they had some dominance issues. Jerry was always larger, bolder, and clearly more dominant, but Morgan would antagonise him to the point that we had to separate them. Although they can't be let out together, they lived in a large homemade cage with a wire grid separating them, which kept them happy. They like to see and socialise with each other - unfortunately they just couldn't get along physically!
Now that Morgan has passed away, we don't know what's best to get for Jerry. The options are:
1. A sow, which we are reluctant to do as we don't want to risk getting him neutered if possible.
2. An adult boar of the same age (around 2 1/2 years) - with the risk that they will need to be kept separated and will never get along.
3. One or two babies. The worry with getting one baby is the likelihood of Jerry passing away and leaving the other pig alone. If we get two, that's less likely to happen. Our cage is very large with the divider down, easily big enough for 3 pigs to have plenty of room and private space (we also let them run around the floor every evening). IF Jerry didn't accept the babies though, we'd have to leave the divider up, and I wouldn't feel comfortable with 2 pigs at one side as they wouldn't have as much room as i'd like.
I know it's a long and slightly complicated post, but i'd really appreciate any input!
Thanks in advance!
