Bonding Into A Herd

[KaitlinH]

i have successfully bonded my two males together and I am over the moon about it! They seem to be getting on fine, I am still checking and keeping an eye on them just in case though.

My friend has a herd of piggies with one male and multiple females. She wants to bond another female into the herd but has a few questions as to how she should introduce them. Does she get the new piggie in an area and then slowly add members of the herd to it or does she put them all in at one? If she does introduce them one by one, does she add least dominant first etc?

Thank you xo

 

[Pawz]

Personally I would not slowly add members, this is because the herd has a hierarchy and the new sow will have to find her rank as a “whole” rather than rank changing as new dominance fights break out by adding a few at a time.

That’s not to say you can’t do it in small groups leading up to the large one. Just for me it would depend on the group size as a whole.

How large is the herd? The most important part of bonding is it is done on neutral territory.

@Wiebke has an exceptionally large herd so is likely the best advisor, I have only dealt with small groups.

 

[Betsy]

Put in the dominant sow first with the new one and if she accepts the new girl the others are more likely to. When I bonded my lot together this is what I did. I only bonded 5 together though. As @Squeakz has said @Wiebke is the best one to help. Mind you @Sophie mason has a large herd too she might be able to advise too.

 

[KaitlinH]

Thank you so much x