Does this look ok?

Janey

Janey

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Adult Guinea Pig
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Selwyn is meeting the girls today. He went a bit nuts straight off, as expected really. Rumbling, chasing, trying to mount. Some quite loud teeth chattering back, lots of trying to get away from him by both girls. Dorrie, top lady, mostly black with white bum and tan patch on side allowed him to mount once only and there’s been minimal bum sniffing from all three. Now Dorrie has been going after Meg who’s been rumbling quite a lot and running away from Dorrie. The last 15/20 minutes, Selwyn’s been very quiet and trying to stay out the way after a telling off from Dorrie. Would appreciate any thoughts please.

- YouTube
 
How long have they been in together? Have they slept and woken up yet? Mounting the top piggy is a good sign.

When I tried a bonding with a male and 2 girls, they were very wary of each other, one liked him, the other didn't and after about 25 mins I had a rolling fight of 3 piggies to separate.
 

Betsy said:
How long have they been in together? Have they slept and woken up yet? Mounting the top piggy is a good sign.

When I tried a bonding with a male and 2 girls, they were very wary of each other, one liked him, the other didn't and after about 25 mins I had a rolling fight of 3 piggies to separate.
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Yikes! They’ve been together for about 2.5 hours now. They’ve had short spells where they all seem fairly relaxed but not totally, then it’s been more dominance behaviours - Meg (under piggy) does like to rumble though and usually Dorrie tolerates it quite well. Seems Dorrie likes Selwyn and Meg hasn’t really had the chance to make friends with him yet - tentative sniffing but don’t think he’s mounted her yet - not for lack of trying though! Meg is definitely separate from the other 2 at the moment.IMG_2930.webp
 
Betsy said:
In the bondings I've done, I found that the one in corner that was quiet had already decided that the new piggy was OK and was just watching the proceedings to see if the dominant piggy liked the new one.
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Ah ok, good to know. Knowing the theory is all well and good but interpreting a real bonding takes it to a different level. At the moment I’m very cautiously hopeful!
 
Janey said:
Yikes!
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It doesn't have to work out the way it did for this trio of @Betsy 's though (rolling fight of 3 piggies), so do take heart. I do know bonding can be a little / lot scary and I've usually got my bonded trio (of 2 sows and a neutered male) from a rescue so scary part done. otoh I often added a third to an existing pair and rarely had any trouble.

Good luck!
 
Mrs Tiggy Winkle said:
It doesn't have to work out the way it did for this trio of @Betsy 's though (rolling fight of 3 piggies), so do take heart. I do know bonding can be a little / lot scary and I've usually got my bonded trio (of 2 sows and a neutered male) from a rescue so scary part done. otoh I often added a third to an existing pair and rarely had any trouble.

Good luck!
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Thanks! I’ve added a 3rd sow to an existing pair of sows twice before, but this is the first time I’ve added a neutered boar and it’s been very different! A lot more chasing/nipping and vocalising - basically sitting on the edge of my seat stuff as I’m not a dab hand at this! My top lady has a tendency to be pretty reactive, she’s always been on the bossy side. 😉
 
Betsy said:
I didn't mean to scare you @Janey, just let you know that it's pretty obvious if they don't like each other.
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That’s ok @Betsy, you didn’t! I was just very thankful that it didn’t happen with my lot yesterday 😊 I take it you had to go for Plan B then?
 
Janey said:
I take it you had to go for Plan B then?
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Yep I took the boar on the understanding that if he didn't get on with my 2 sows I could return him to the rescue and unfortunately, I had to do just that.
 
Betsy said:
Yep I took the boar on the understanding that if he didn't get on with my 2 sows I could return him to the rescue and unfortunately, I had to do just that.
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Same here. Thankfully things are a lot calmer today.
 
Well, things were calmer. Tonight it’s been less so, with some wild chases, nipping, lots of rumbling and pretty loud teeth chattering. Even had a few short but intense scuffles between Dorrie and Selwyn. Reasonably certain he just wants to hump them, but neither of them will let him. They are still in the bonding pen and I’m not feeling comfortable about moving them into the cage yet. Re-read the bonding guide again and while it is going in ‘rounds’ they will then eat/rest but not close to each other and no other friendly gestures going on either. Ugh. Do I just sit this out?
 
Well I left them in the bonding pen for the second night, although I have added 3 hides, all open ended so nobody can get trapped. There’s been chinning off, loud teeth chattering and more chasing. Selwyn insists on rumbling at the girls which seems to aggravate Dorrie so ends up with him being chased off and upsets Meg, so she’s always getting out his way. Not sure whether to call the whole thing off 🥺
 
Bonding can be pretty nerve wracking. They know what they are doing. Sometimes it looks worse than it actually is. It takes 2 weeks to form a bond and hierarchy. Maybe take the hides out even though they are open ended as they could be causing an issue. In the bondings I've done they haven't gone in until the 2 weeks is up and the bond has formed. It sounds as if Dorrie may be letting him know that she is top pig and he has to listen to her, Meg seems to have accepted her position as bottom pig as she is always getting out of his way. Has there been any submission squealing yet? I remember when I was bonding The Ever Beautiful Betsy 🌈 , Shy Little Meg 🌈and Pretty Patsy🌈. Patsy immediately accepted her position as the bottom pig (she was anyway) and Betsy wanted to be top pig and so did Meg. All of a sudden, Meg sounded like she was being murdered as she was submission squealing to let Betsy know that she (Meg) would take second in command.

Here they are living happily as a bonded trio of old ladies.

Betsy Patsy Meg Banana 1.webp

Patsy at the back, Betsy in the middle and Meg at the front.
 
Thanks @Betsy - there hasn’t been any submission squealing that I’ve heard, I kind of thought there might be as I thought Selwyn was on the submissive side. He was rescued from a hoarding situation and only has half his ears left as they’ve been nibbled off by other piggies 😕. Maybe I’ve been very fortunate to not have witnessed much unhappy/unsettled piggy behaviour up til now, but am struggling with this.
 
Betsy said:
How's it all going now @Janey? Are they still in together or did you have to separate?
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Thanks for asking! They’re still in together but still having their phases of being fine then not at all fine….
 
I’d say they’re happy campers, most of the time! Still have some teeth chattering ‘moments’ but Dorrie doesn’t stand for any of his boarly nonsense and doesn’t give an inch - so everypig knows their place! I think Meg is at the bottom of the pack but sometimes she’ll go to nip him to enforce her ‘no’ or ‘go away’! 😊
 
Thanks for your help - really appreciated!
 
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