Bonding....gizmo The Thug

[Tiamolly123]

For five days I've been trying to bond Gizmo the thug with 3 sows, he clearly disliked 2 of them. Then I tried to bond him with Tia, the most quietest piggy in the herd so Gizmo decided to fight with her. She was shocked so we had to pull her out & cuddle her, to calm her down. We tried again for 3 more times & everything was fine, so we put, them in the large cage, & Gizmo the thug decided he was going to fight with the lot. I've tried to see if he can be bonded with a rescue one, but they can't do it for another 6 weeks or so. I now have a depressed boar. I have thought of getting a baby from the pet shop, but I've no guarantee that will work. He's about 5-6months old & the girls are about 18-2 years old. Gizmo the thug lives in 1 part of the cage, the sows in another. The rescue suggested swapping them over so each gets the other scent. What are the chances of this working. Especially as Gizmo the thug is so unsociable. Now he's sulking in his cosy & he won't come out.
He's also has soft stools, which is my fault I gave them loads of veg so they wouldn't fight & I think his tummy couldn't take it.
Sorry for such a large post.

 

[Wiebke]

Gizmo is currently at the randiest and most difficult age to bond. Neutering doesn't cut off the testosterone output all that much as my own husboars can attest, so he can be a bit too much for adult sows, especially if won't take a "no" from the sows and is trying to be boss, too. It is likely that your submissive sow was not happy about being separated from her friends and stuck with an ASBO boy.

It is difficult since once sows have decided that a piggy is not "us", in my own experience, they will rarely change their mind - and it is the sows who ultimately choose which boar they want to associate. I would still keep Gizmo alongside them so he has got interaction through the bars. Of course he is unhappy and feels very rejected right now!

A younger sow or two who thinks he is the bee's knees and who won't challenge his dominance is likely to be best way forward.

Just keep Gizmo off fresh food for a day and she should be fine on that score.

 

[Tiamolly123]

Yes I've got him off fresh food, I'll see if I can get him dated.
Is it better to get Gizmo paired with a boar or sow, if I have too go ahead.
Did your boar go into the herd with no problems?

 

[Wiebke]

Yes I've got him off fresh food, I'll see if I can get him dated.
Is it better to get Gizmo paired with a boar or sow, if I have too go ahead.
Did your boar go into the herd with no problems?

You can date Gizmo with either gender, the key is that they get on. He is currently at the most difficult age for bonding boars. At least you have got all possibilities open.

I did get my 3 year old boar bonded. Having important information from his fosterers, I very carefully staged the intro, leaving out any sows of mine that were likely to take any bolshy advances amiss and start a fight. I was lucky that it was my least confrontational group anyway, that the top sows accepted him straight away and that I could do a good amount of sow juggling considering that Pioden went on a humping spree straight away. I was planning to split the group into two quartets with a neutered boar each, as Papi and Pili Pala didn't get along, but both did get on with the other boar and his leading lady (I'd made sure of that before bonding Pioden). It was not quite easy to make sure that all sows were happy with both their husboar AND their companion sows, but after a very long day with plenty of piggy emotion and an amazing amount of boar stink, I managed!

PS: If Pioden hadn't worked out, I had the option of taking him back to the rescue. As I have adopted several piggies from that rescue before, they trusted me with doing the bonding at home instead of lugging 5 sows on the train for 1 1/2 hours each way.

 

[Tiamolly123]

Great, really pleased it worked