Confused pig?

[Sappyshelly]

Not sure what to post this under. Sorry!

So i would post this under Farley’s surgery forum but I feel as if this is a new topic that needs to be addressed. So the boys have been separated for about a week now since farley was first diagnosed with the stone and since he got the surgery. Although Clifford and Farley won’t be fully back together until Farley is 100% healed, I thought that a little play pen time with each other could never hurt. I will be putting the pigs in the play pen starting tomorrow. I know both the pigs know that each other are there, since they hear each other squeak since I just put Farley in the second layer of the cage. I made a very stupid mistake and decided to let Farley see clifford behind the bars of the cage. Now i think that they are confused. It also didn’t go very well. Although all I let them do was see each other behind the cage, Farley started making the deep kind of rattling noise (I think it’s called rumble shrutting but I’m not very sure). Now I have worries about re introducing them since Clifford is usually the dominant boy. Did I make the pigs confused? Sorry if I’m so paranoid I just never introduced two pigs together, or even re introduce them.

 

[Piggies&buns]

The problem with boys is separating and then letting them see each other and then separating again and then putting them in one playpen and then separating....it is very very stressful for them and causes them to go into dominance mode each time it happens. I’d keep them completely separate, don’t let them see each other and definitely don’t put them into the playpen together (dominance behaviours will happen, mounting etc, and if you’ve got a piggie recovering from surgery then you don’t want him being injured while he isn’t completely better) until Farley is completely better and you are able to do a proper reintroduction following the guides on here and then are able to put them back into the same cage.

 

[dannif_piggies]

I have nothing more to add than what's been said above but I wish you all the best and hopefully once Farley is healed a reintroduction will happen with ease

 

[Sappyshelly]

Ok thank you

 

[Wiebke]

Not sure what to post this under. Sorry!

So i would post this under Farley’s surgery forum but I feel as if this is a new topic that needs to be addressed. So the boys have been separated for about a week now since farley was first diagnosed with the stone and since he got the surgery. Although Clifford and Farley won’t be fully back together until Farley is 100% healed, I thought that a little play pen time with each other could never hurt. I will be putting the pigs in the play pen starting tomorrow. I know both the pigs know that each other are there, since they hear each other squeak since I just put Farley in the second layer of the cage. I made a very stupid mistake and decided to let Farley see clifford behind the bars of the cage. Now i think that they are confused. It also didn’t go very well. Although all I let them do was see each other behind the cage, Farley started making the deep kind of rattling noise (I think it’s called rumble shrutting but I’m not very sure). Now I have worries about re introducing them since Clifford is usually the dominant boy. Did I make the pigs confused? Sorry if I’m so paranoid I just never introduced two pigs together, or even re introduce them.

Hi! Piggies don't do 'play time'. For them, every meeting after a separation or during an introduction is bonding time. Every time boars meet, they need to start right back in square one with the whole bonding process. You can imagine how frustrating that is for them!

Please leave them either fully apart with all time interaction through the bars or put them together and sit it out.
Bonding: Illustrated Dominance Behaviours And Dynamics
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?

 

[Sappyshelly]

@Wiebke thanks for the information! Hopefully all goes well once we re introduce the pigs. I read through. We are going to leave the pigs separated until Farley isn’t comepletly better. Where do you reccomend to get two entrance hidey houses?

 

[Sappyshelly]

@Wiebke thanks for the information! Hopefully all goes well once we re introduce the pigs. I read through. We are going to leave the pigs separated until Farley isn’t comepletly better. Where do you reccomend to get two entrance hidey houses?

Farley is completely better*

 

[Wiebke]

@Wiebke thanks for the information! Hopefully all goes well once we re introduce the pigs. I read through. We are going to leave the pigs separated until Farley isn’t comepletly better. Where do you reccomend to get two entrance hidey houses?

Log tunnels are ideal for the purpose in my experience. Put two if them side by side in the middle of the cage, so they can always escape but won't see each other when in the tunnel.
Both my boar pairs have them, but it has also calmed down my rambunctious teenage twin girls who were propper hooligans at 6 months old.

Whatever you get, get two exactly the same.

This was the boar pen when Nye was a teenager in full flow - you can see, everything is as open as possible. You can't see black Nosgan in the video; he is at the back of the shelter my husband has built me.

Here is my set-up for my quartet with the teenage twins.

I have just started another boar pair with 2 year old Dylan and 4 weeks old Llelo, so I have to see how that goes when the little boy hits the big hormones!


The other tip I would give you is to get hold of some spare C&C grids, cable tie them together and to one side of their cage, so you can divide it asap whenever necessary. I had to use the divider a couple of times when Nye became too much for skittish Nosgan. After a couple of days once the hormones spike has gone down the boys would bo back together during roaming time as if nothing had happened. And have a pair of oven gloves by the cage during the worst phases in case they do get into a fight, which can escalate very quickly sometimes.

After a separation you always need to conduct a full formal intro on neutral ground. Whether your two boys get back together or not depends on how fragile their bond has become and if the old hierarchy is still intact.

 

[Sappyshelly]

Log tunnels are ideal for the purpose in my experience. Put two if them side by side in the middle of the cage, so they can always escape but won't see each other when in the tunnel.
Both my boar pairs have them, but it has also calmed down my rambunctious teenage twin girls who were propper hooligans at 6 months old.

Whatever you get, get two exactly the same.

This was the boar pen when Nye was a teenager in full flow - you can see, everything is as open as possible. You can't see black Nosgan in the video; he is at the back of the shelter my husband has built me.

Here is my set-up for my quartet with the teenage twins.

I have just started another boar pair with 2 year old Dylan and 4 weeks old Llelo, so I have to see how that goes when the little boy hits the big hormones!
View attachment 96408

The other tip I would give you is to get hold of some spare C&C grids, cable tie them together and to one side of their cage, so you can divide it asap whenever necessary. I had to use the divider a couple of times when Nye became too much for skittish Nosgan. After a couple of days once the hormones spike has gone down the boys would bo back together during roaming time as if nothing had happened. And have a pair of oven gloves by the cage during the worst phases in case they do get into a fight, which can escalate very quickly sometimes.

After a separation you always need to conduct a full formal intro on neutral ground. Whether your two boys get back together or not depends on how fragile their bond has become and if the old hierarchy is still intact.

Thank you so much for such great information

 

[Sappyshelly]

Log tunnels are ideal for the purpose in my experience. Put two if them side by side in the middle of the cage, so they can always escape but won't see each other when in the tunnel.
Both my boar pairs have them, but it has also calmed down my rambunctious teenage twin girls who were propper hooligans at 6 months old.

Whatever you get, get two exactly the same.

This was the boar pen when Nye was a teenager in full flow - you can see, everything is as open as possible. You can't see black Nosgan in the video; he is at the back of the shelter my husband has built me.

Here is my set-up for my quartet with the teenage twins.

I have just started another boar pair with 2 year old Dylan and 4 weeks old Llelo, so I have to see how that goes when the little boy hits the big hormones!
View attachment 96408

The other tip I would give you is to get hold of some spare C&C grids, cable tie them together and to one side of their cage, so you can divide it asap whenever necessary. I had to use the divider a couple of times when Nye became too much for skittish Nosgan. After a couple of days once the hormones spike has gone down the boys would bo back together during roaming time as if nothing had happened. And have a pair of oven gloves by the cage during the worst phases in case they do get into a fight, which can escalate very quickly sometimes.

After a separation you always need to conduct a full formal intro on neutral ground. Whether your two boys get back together or not depends on how fragile their bond has become and if the old hierarchy is still intact.

Sorry for so many questions. So is the re introducing and bonding process basically the same thing? Put them in a neutral territory with some hay, clean out there cage (I bought new liners for this moment) and see if there is any good signs and then after two hours if all look good put them back in there cage with new hideys? also this is the houses I’m thinking of getting

 

[dannif_piggies]

Sorry for so many questions. So is the re introducing and bonding process basically the same thing? Put them in a neutral territory with some hay, clean out there cage (I bought new liners for this moment) and see if there is any good signs and then after two hours if all look good put them back in there cage with new hideys? also this is the houses I’m thinking of getting
View attachment 96409

Sorry to but in, if you are from the UK (I'm not sure if this website delivers to other counties but it may be worth looking in to, you can get bend bridges, much cheaper on this website: Wicker Bridge for Small Pets it has a minimum spend of £15 for each order, but the largest bendy bridges are only £5 each (in my experience these are too big and I would've thought the medium ones would be suffocient at £2.50 each... then you can spend the rest of the minimum spend money to get some other clean and fresh boredom breakers for them both, you would still probably end up spending less overall, and have more items

 

[Wiebke]

Sorry for so many questions. So is the re introducing and bonding process basically the same thing? Put them in a neutral territory with some hay, clean out there cage (I bought new liners for this moment) and see if there is any good signs and then after two hours if all look good put them back in there cage with new hideys? also this is the houses I’m thinking of getting
View attachment 96409

Hi! That looks about the same. I am UK based, so these tunnels are easily available.

After a longer separation of more than two days, bonding and re-introduction are the same. That is why I call it the full formal bonding process. it can take more than two hours in new bondings, but you should usually know pretty quickly whether the existing bond is still working or not when you try to re-bond a pair split because of a fight.

Have a plan B and thick oven gloves at the ready in case they go back to fighting straight again; a riled boar will instinctively sink his teeth into anything that moves close to him and could attack him. Instinctive full-on defence bites can permanently damage a hand. With hormonal boys it is always touch and go whether they will go back together. it all depends on the balance of personalities, and that is not something you can predict easily when you buy two cute babies at a shop.

 

[Sappyshelly]

OK thank you . My boys are four and have when I re introduce them they would have been separated for two weeks .
They are both five so I’m not worried about harmones.

 

[Sappyshelly]

ok so we are planning to re introduce them tonight or tomorrow. Is it best to introduce them in a play pen, dog crate, bath tub, or there carrier?

 

[DMS260820]

Hi! Piggies don't do 'play time'. For them, every meeting after a separation or during an introduction is bonding time. Every time boars meet, they need to start right back in square one with the whole bonding process. You can imagine how frustrating that is for them!

Please leave them either fully apart with all time interaction through the bars or put them together and sit it out.
Bonding: Illustrated Dominance Behaviours And Dynamics
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?

Just read this comment. One question does this stand for a boar and a sow that are living seperatly next door to one another?