Bonding Advice

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Sodapops

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After reading many thread recently re. bonding piggies and because ive seriously considering re-homing another sow, ive decided to give the Wexford bonding another try (as i know he'd love another few girlfriends)
x)

At the moment Wexford lives with Tulisa in a ferplast 140 - right next to them is JJ and Summer (mother and daughter pairing who were Wexford's intended girlfriends) who live in a 1250 cage. The idea re. living quarters should things work out is to modify the 150 cage to include a small 'trap'door with ramp leading to the 140 cae (which already has a sliding side door) - this would give all 4 around 9-10ft x 2ft of living space :)

Today i put all 4 pigs out in our new 6ft x 6ft run (so plenty of room to escape) along with loads of boxes/tunnels. For the first 10mins everything was dead quiet as i dont think any of them knew about each other.

Tulisa isn't the most confident anyhow (as she's only ever known Wexford) so she just kept her distance from JJ and Summer. WexFord however made a few attempts to woo JJ and Summer but these were soon stopped by the girls in the form of a few nips.

JJ doesn't like anyone touching her 'bum' area anyhow, so other than a few nips of warning she pretty much stayed away from Wexford (although there was about 10mins where Wexford and JJ were in the unnel together facing one another and both seemed quite comfortable)

After observing for about 1hr 30mins, Summer seems to be the main problem in the group as she will chase and nip both Wexford and Tulisa - if either of them was in the tunnel or box she would 'chase' them out - there was no teeth chattering from Summer during her 'episodes' and immediatelky afterwards she would popcorn (as if she was almost proud of herself).

Wexford however did display a couple of teeth chattering moments (these4 were very quiet chatterings as i had to bend down to hear him doing it).

When i put Tulisa and Wexford back in their cage, i wanted to judge their reaction by bringing summer to the cage to them - Tulisa was scared out of her wits and just ran and 'hid' while Wexford kept coming for a sniff but promptly backed away is Summer so much as looked at him.

JJ on the other hand was quite happy to be in their cage with them - she just pottered around having a good smell of everything. I'm not sure if it's Summer's doing, but everytime JJ would go near Wexford, he would back away whilst rumbling at the same time. (tulisa would just run)

So what should i do about Summer - it seems as though she has the biggest problem? And i think she's the one stopping their relationship from progressing.

Does this all sound normal? Sorry for the long winded post, i just wanted to explain everything to judge whether it's all normal?

Tomorrow i'll be switching them around so each pair can spend time in the other's cage (to get used to smells and whatnot. I'll then (if the weather hold out) put them all out again tomorrow in their run.
 
Give them more shared time on neutral ground whenever you are there to supervise; ideally every day for at least an hour or two.

Take it slowly and don't rush it - it will either work out or not in the long term, but as soon as you try to force it, things are bound to go haywire. That is the one big lesson I have learned about bonding!
 
No experience of this myself but wanted to wish you luck. Your piggies are gorgeous and it would be lovely if the handsome Wexford had a tribe of his own! :)
 
Hope it all works out for the better! Will be keeping a close eye on this thread!
 
Wiebke said:
Give them more shared time on neutral ground whenever you are there to supervise; ideally every day for at least an hour or two.

Take it slowly and don't rush it - it will either work out or not in the long term, but as soon as you try to force it, things are bound to go haywire. That is the one big lesson I have learned about bonding!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advise Wiebke :) Each pairing has their own cage - so as far as them living together i'd much rather take things slow and see success, than rush things and have it not work..

Out of curiosity - how do you know when the 'right' time is? Ive not seen any teeth chattering from Summer or JJ (tulisa just runs away) and i only seen some mild teeth chattering on Wexford's part - but they'd already been together about an hour before this happened - so I'm guessing it was a defense thing more so than an anger thing. For the most part Wexford just ran away when Summer came near him...
 
I would say that the right time is when Wexford and Tulisa are more comfy around the girls and are interacting in a positive way. Ideally, they feed together and coordinate their life together. Even having them next to each other with just a grid/mesh in between when you can't be there, will help.

The problem is that as long as things are not settled, problems can flare up all of sudden and seemingly out of nowhere within a minute - just the wrong signal and the wrong reaction will do; that is why it is so important that you are there and why you need to take things slowly so the piggies can get used to each other.

Wexford has obviously some clear memories of what Summer can do! If you can affors to, wait until both girl come into season and see whether Wexford will come up to them and they accept his services.

At the moment, you still have all to play for.
 
Wiebke said:
I would say that the right time is when Wexford and Tulisa are more comfy around the girls and are interacting in a positive way. Ideally, they feed together and coordinate their life together. Even having them next to each other with just a grid/mesh in between when you can't be there, will help.

The problem is that as long as things are not settled, problems can flare up all of sudden and seemingly out of nowhere within a minute - just the wrong signal and the wrong reaction will do; that is why it is so important that you are there and why you need to take things slowly so the piggies can get used to each other.

Wexford has obviously some clear memories of what Summer can do! If you can affors to, wait until both girl come into season and see whether Wexford will come up to them and they accept his services.

At the moment, you still have all to play for.
Click to expand...

Thanks Wiebke - your advise is invaluable :) In terms of time - they've been living side by side in their cages now for a few weeks - so they'll remain this way weather it works or not (fingers crossed it does)

You know when you say, wait till my girls are in season - ive only ever seen my girls in season twice - how will i know for sure that they are? I know that sounds silly, but the only signs i know of them being in season (and like i said ive only seen it twice) is them rublestrutting at one another - they never actually mount - they seem to wiggle their bottoms, chase one another, then run in the opposite direction when they realize what they are doing :)) It's funny because i spend a lot of time talking to them and observing them - so strange ive only seen them do this twice :p
 
All the best with this 'project'!
You might need the patience of a saint - don't give up! :))@)

It took me a few months before my 2 pigs would accept my 2 new girls and it was OK to leave them unsupervised. They are now a fully fledged herd and very happy. I nearly gave up several times, especially at the start, but do keep going to the intros.

I've just rescued 2 baby girls that I hope can be added to the herd once quarantine is over....
 
Rumblestrutting - and Wexford's reaction will tell you; he'll be rumbling a lot more, too!
 
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