Hi everyone, this is my second post about bonding. The first bonding between male Mckenzie and female Gouda went well and they've been happily living together for months
Recently got a call from pets at home who have 2 females for adoption about 1 and a half years old, so about 9 months older than Mack and Gouda.
I really want to give them a home and give a go at bonding them with Mack and Gouda, so I was just wondering if anyone has any experiences with this specific type of group bonding to share?
My main concern is Gouda as one of the new females (Holly) is quite chunky! I'm worried she'll give Gouda hassle. The other new female, Rosie, is more timid though like Gouda. Do females work out dominance between them? Is Mckenzie likely to get into scraps with Holly if she's big enough even to match him?
Any experiences and advice you can share would be great as I'm a worry wart!
You had some good replies here from some of the most experienced members on the forum.
I had a situation very similar to yours recently.
I had a neutered Boar and a older female, who I attempted to bond with a pair of younger sows.
originally this bonding went very well and they were a settled group for over a year.
I basically just made sure everyone was healthy first, as an unwell Piggie can infect the others as well as cause fights as they can be picked on by the others for it.
The only issues I had came nearly a year later when one of the younger sows had to be removed as she had a suspected infectious illness, She was out for a few months and when I attempted to rebond her into the group I had two separate massive falling out's on my hands. Mostly my fault for not rebonding in the correct type of environment.
Basically I didn't make sure there were no corners to get backed into and assumed that because she had lived with the group for over a year that she could go back easily with the group.
This lead to Pigs being cornered and attacking each other and I had to end it by throwing a towel on her and getting her out. the situation was just too violent.
I left it for a few more weeks then tried again after realising what went wrong last time.
This time I placed them side by side for about 2 weeks.
Then I introduced them in a round run with just some grass and water and let them feel each other out.
Sows specifically will be very vocal while bonding I have found, The more submissive sows will Squeal when they are approached to sow they are submitting.
They can size each other up by raising their noses in the air and sometimes will give chase or lunge at each other, although this doesnt always mean the bonding is failed.
You have to watch how they react, Usually the submissive sow will run away, and may even lay down and show their stomach to show they are submitting. but this is where you need to watch them because a bite here could be the end of the bonding.
usually after an episode of stress, its helpful to introduce some kind of food, hay or veg later on, as this can distract them all.
For my girl, she had gone from being lowest on the hierarchy to deciding to challenge the top girl with everything she had when I reintroduced them. This caused a lot of trouble and led to the three pigs lining up and chattering at her to back off, i suppose they were backing the top pig here.
During this introduction Aurora took a long time to accept that she wasnt moving up on the higherachy and even spent some time sitting alone facing away from the others before she intrograted herself back into the group.
It was a few hours before i felt they should have some tunnels and logs to walk through, but no hidey huts for atleast 24 hours and then it was cardboard boxes with multiple exits so no one could get cornered again.
They all live happily together now, though Aurora has stayed at the bottom of the rank.
So yes its possible, But my main advise is to be careful if one of them becomes poorly, that reintroduction could lead to issues! And make sure to introduce in a new environment for all pigs, with very little to begin with then introduce tunnels and such later on.
before you start spent some time looking at good vs bad bonding behavior on the forums thread linked above:
So you know what your looking out for and even watch some videos so you know what to expect. And always have something like a towel handy to throw over them if they do start fighting badly and even then never get in between fighting pigs with your hands, they will likely bite you as they are in that defense mode and these bites can be deep. Use oven gloves ideally.
Good luck!
Gouda made it clear she was the top dog for the females lol.