Bonding issues after medical separation

[cafecreme]

Hello, we have a quad of piggies who came home with us ready bonded from a rescue last autumn. They are Beauty, aged 2, who has recently been though a rough recovery after spay surgery, her two daughters, Pops and Daisy, aged 18 months ish, and Mango, the boss, a neutered boar, also 2.

Beauty, aged 2, had to be separated from the rest of her quad for over a month while recovering from spay surgery. It wasn't much of a separation - just a divider in their 7x2 c&c but she wasn't that visible to them. She wasn't up to socialising for a long time, and was on bed pads, not aubiose, so a couple of inches lower than the other side.

On Friday, once she had the all clear from the vet, I tried to reintroduce them in a neutral space (temporary c&c with spare grids on a mat in another room) and it did not go well. Relentless chasing from one of her daughters, plus aggressive grooming. Even when she was left alone, Beauty was just frozen and didn't eat. It seemed like bullying rather than dominance because as soon as she was back on her own she started eating again and seemed much happier. Here is the thread about her recovery process and the rebonding session: Rough recovery after spay surgery

So we have a dilemma about what to do next. All of the options have space implications. They are currently in a 7x2, the trio have 4x2, and Beauty has 3x2. This is not enough space for them all so if we can't rebond, we need to expand asap to avoid further squabbles and issues. They need their exercise!

The cage takes up a lot of the room and if we need to expand, it'll mean significant changes, e.g. getting rid of furniture. I'm not keen on stacking the cages as it would make cleanout more difficult and block windows. And not good for interaction, anyway.

With any expansion, the room becomes less useful for the humans. Also larger cage means more workload for me on cleanout day... and I'm at capacity, dealing with long term health issues. Aubiose is our preferred option as we can compost it. Our washing machine struggles with fleece and I just don't have enough drying capacity in winter.

I have read through the excellent guides on the forum. Here are what I think are our options, please let me know if there are any others that I have missed.

1. Try again to reintroduce them
She can see them better now she's back on aubiose too - and has been hanging out in the hidey closest to the others. It may be that with some time, she might get more used to them and be less frozen with them?
No guarantee that the bully will leave off, though...

2. Keep her on her own in the long term, with the divider
This seems like a really sad option, she's only 2 and she did love being with the others before. We're a few days on from Friday, and while she prefers the hidey closest to the others, she still seems scared of the others, we haven't noticed any sniffing between the bars or other interaction. They have tried to nick hay from her side though..

If we go with this option, I think we would need at least an 8x2 to accommodate everyone. Plus another garden run for the summer, it would be harsh for her to have to stay in when the others go out, and she wouldn't like to be out on her own, being a nervous pig.

3. Use the rescue bonding service to get her a new partner
She's a shy piggy anyway, what would be the likelihood of success? We would end up with at least a 9x2.

4. Bond her to one of the others and keep the quad as two pairs
This would entail splitting up the two best friends, and it's not clear that she and one other would bond? We would end up with a 9x2.

5. Bond Beauty, Mango and Pops as a trio. Surrender the troublemaker back to the rescue.
This would be heartbreaking. But the only way we could keep them in the existing 7x2 if trying to bond them again doesn't work. Even though they weren't bullying, there's no guarantee that Mango and Pops would have her back though. I don't think keeping the troublemaker on her own would be a good idea, she would be very distressed.

Any thoughts or advice gratefully received, especially on whether Beauty could be likely to manage a new partner.

I want to do the best for the pigs, especially because Beauty has had such a rough time, but I also need to balance with my needs, and the rest of the family.

 

[Truffolo]

Quite a dilemma Could Beauty and Mango live together and then Pops and Daisy live together? 3x2 is a bit small, but although lifts are not supposed to count and your rescue might not agree, giving the girls a loft (if they get on really well) with one or two ramps could make their shared cage a little easier. My boys use their ramp as an outlet for energy, although I admit I am about to increase each piggy to 2x4 from 2x3. The girls would have each other at least. It may also be that a quad won't work where you are for the practical considerations you have described and these are realistic. I would keep Beauty and lovely Mango (I love boars) and ask the rescue if they could re-home Pops and Daisy as this would be the easiest transition and in the long run, the most stable bond and would make sense space wise and time wise. A male female pair is very sweet and loving and now that she is spayed, Beauty's behaviour should be stable. With female groups, the risk of ovarian cysts overturning everything always exists. It may also be that now that Beauty's hormonal status is settled, after a time and after time to regain her confidence and physical energy, she might be allowed into the herd again. There are a lot of factors at play here. I am sure if you explain to the rescue that a quad is a little tricky to deal with at the moment, that will be supportive and provide you with practical support which should help to make the situation easier to cope with. I hope it all turns out well

 

[cafecreme]

Thank you so much for your reply, and for thinking through this with me. I'm sorry for being slow to post again, busy week with other things going on.

I thought through your advice and advice from the rescue and for clean out today, I've put Mango in with Beauty in a new pop up puppy run - with hidies. They are getting along just fine, picking up where they left off. Which is lovely! They are very sweet together.

Pops and Daisy are in the other one and so far going OK.

My worry with splitting them into pairs like this is that Daisy can be very dominant over Pops - not the outright, obvious bullying when I tried to rebond all four together but still a lot of chinning and chasing. Daisy eats VERY quickly and as soon as she finishes she tries to steal Pops' food. When I scatter veg, she prefers to go nick something from Pops than to take the veg that's in front of her. Mango is an excellent buffer.

I think for the moment we'll put them back in with the current arrangement. At the weekend we'll extend the trio to 5x2 so they have more space. We can do this by moving some furniture, it's not ideal but it's not major upheaval.

Hopefully having had some Mango time, Beauty might be a bit more confident with the others too. There hasn't been much communication through the bars between them all, I'm putting a hay pile at the divider to encourage interaction but mostly they ignore her. And she runs away when Daisy gets near the divider, even though Daisy can't actually get her.

I think the next steps are to see how they all react to going back into the cage as it is, and continue the playdates with Mango. I know it's not ideal to keep having playdates but I do think that their bond is more stable - he was going to the vets with her. And maybe do a playdate with Pops. If that goes well, then maybe we could try all four together again. But Beauty + Pops would likely be less instantly harmonious. After Beauty had to be separated and put on puppy pads, Pops was in with her for the first few days, but we had to take her out when she started rumblestrutting and chasing Beauty. Though when the four were back together last week, Pops largely ignored Beauty and didn't chase her.

It would be heartbreaking to give any of them up, maybe if Pops and Daisy remain stable we could have the pairs in separate cages, but I think they wouldn't be right next door as they'd be distressed to see Mango and not be with him, and vice versa. This would entail major room rearrangement and upheaval. Mango and Pops are really good friends, so it would be really sad for them to be separated.

Another thing we could do could be to get Daisy investigated for ovarian cysts etc but a) she's only 18 months and I thought this was a problem for a bit older? b) she has not other symptoms c) she's always been like this, once they have a grudge, do they continue to hold a grudge? and d) the vet savings pot is now empty after Beauty's dramas.