Bonding a sow and neutered boar

[Jeslubur]

Hi everyone,

We had a pretty awlful start to the year and lost two of our piggies over the last couple of weeks.

We’ve been left with a single sow and and single boar who we’ve been trying to bond.

Our sow (toffee) is quite timid and seems to jump and get nervous very easily. As a result she’s not been too keen on our boar whiskey and can get quite defensive.

Our boar is very big but has been pretty gentle with her.

We’ve not put them in the cage together yet but we have been giving them supervised floor time for the past week and a half. This has included with a barrier and without a barrier.

When we have the barrier in the pen, they eeem very interested with eachother. They seem happy to lie either side of the barrier together and will stay fairly close together.

However as soon as we take the barrier away, toffee gets very defensive when whiskey comes too close... teeth chattering and a few scuffles.

Today they had a bit of a tiff and toffee has come away with a small cut on her mouth where things got a bit heated. It seems that she was the one starting the fight which I was quite surprised about.

We’ve now separated them again, but I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions?

We’ve had such a hard start to the year that we really want it to work between the two of them. But not sure what else to do?

If any one has any advice we’d really appreciate it!

Thank you x

 

[Merab]

Welcome to the forum
So sorry you’ve had such a difficult start to the year.
I’m not a bonding expert but I have learned from the forum that constantly separating piggies doesn’t help.
They need to work out the bond and it can seem quite rough to us.
The forum bonding thread is excellent and saved my sanity when I bonded 2 pairs of sows last year.
The 2 middle ranking piggies had a few tussles which resulted in some small nips and a loss of a tuft of fur.
With forum members encouragement I gritted my teeth and now those 2 are the best of friends.
I’m tagging @Wiebke who is a bonding expert for you

 

[Jeslubur]

Thank you!
It seems like there so so much conflicting advice when I look it up online it’s so hard to know what the best thing to do is!

I hate the fact that their both on their own now after losing their mates, so just hoping it will work out with bonding them! X

 

[Merab]

Stick with this forum for advice.
It’s easy to get confused with all the different advice online.
I’ve been a member here for just over a year and very quickly discovered that the guidance is sound.
There are some very experienced piggy owners and everyone cares passionately about the piggies’ well-being

 

[Jeslubur]

Okay thank you very much!

 

[Wiebke]

Hi everyone,

We had a pretty awlful start to the year and lost two of our piggies over the last couple of weeks.

We’ve been left with a single sow and and single boar who we’ve been trying to bond.

Our sow (toffee) is quite timid and seems to jump and get nervous very easily. As a result she’s not been too keen on our boar whiskey and can get quite defensive.

Our boar is very big but has been pretty gentle with her.

We’ve not put them in the cage together yet but we have been giving them supervised floor time for the past week and a half. This has included with a barrier and without a barrier.

When we have the barrier in the pen, they eeem very interested with eachother. They seem happy to lie either side of the barrier together and will stay fairly close together.

However as soon as we take the barrier away, toffee gets very defensive when whiskey comes too close... teeth chattering and a few scuffles.

Today they had a bit of a tiff and toffee has come away with a small cut on her mouth where things got a bit heated. It seems that she was the one starting the fight which I was quite surprised about.

We’ve now separated them again, but I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions?

We’ve had such a hard start to the year that we really want it to work between the two of them. But not sure what else to do?

If any one has any advice we’d really appreciate it!

Thank you x

Hi!

I am very sorry for your losses.

A full on bite to the mouth is generally the defense bite of a piggy that feels cornered; a shallow nick is often from a misjudged strongly worded 'stay away from me' lunge.

Please keep your two next to each other for the time being, ideally where they can interact through the grids/bars with full sight (body language), nose touching (scent/pheromones) and of course be able to communicate by sound. This will prevent depression and ensures ongoing round the clock stimulation and company.
Not all piggies will gel; especially older sows often prefer having their own territory after the loss of their companion. At one point I had 4 single older sows, none of which would live with any of the others - or would bond with another piggy, and not for lack of dating! Two would eventually move in with each other after 10 months and a third would on the third attempt live with her sister and her sister's young husboar about 5 months down the line. The fourth (a spayed sow) stayed on as a live-alongside piggy to two boars.

If you could take your boy rescue dating to find him company he can have a say in, then that would be the best solution; you can keep the pair next to Toffee for company.

It is always upsetting when things don't work out conveniently but in my experience it is highly unlikely that Toffee will ever accept your boy.

You can find links to recommended good standard rescues for several countries(most of which offer rescue dating) in our bereavement guide. Please note that we have members and enquiries from all over the world but that our default advice is UK based. By adding your country, state/province or UK county to your account details (via clicking on your username on the top bar) you can help us enormously because it allows us to tailor any recommendations to what is available and relevant to where you are straight away. Rescue and vet access, climate, background and brand names vary widely but can be crucial for our advice. Thank you!
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