going mental

[sweetness]

yesterday, one of our 8 week old male piggies passed away. today, zeus the surviving boy is going mental! he's still eating and drinking but is dashing round his cage like nothing we've seen. is it normal or could he be stressed after loosing his buddy?

 

[katiepops]

That's so sad, sorry to hear about your loss.
I think Zeus is a little distressed and looking for the other piggy. My Hector went crazy when he was seperated after fighting. Charging up and down and biting the bars.
He calms down when he has some attention either from me or his new neighbouring piggy.
I think Zeus is going to need a new friend, which I know is hard when you've just lost one but it's the best thing for him.

 

[Freela]

Poor guy! I suspect he's agitated because he knows something happened or is simply looking for his friend. When we had a bonded pair and one was sick and had repeat vet visits, the piggie left at home used to run around frantically looking for her sister, though ironically after the sick one passed away she didn't look for her anymore. But she spent some time in the cage with her after she had passed away... I think on some level she understood that her friend was not coming back that time.

I would give him some extra love and attention, and consider getting him a friend in the near future. My experience is that our remaining pig didn't completely brighten up until we got a companion pig for her, and then she was obviously very excited!

 

[sweetness]

thanks guys. we have got Zeus a new friend, a beautiful 10 week old boy called Apollo. He's calmed down already x