Introducing a baby skinny pig to a herd of furry adults

PigglePuggle

PigglePuggle

Senior Guinea Pig
Joined
Apr 20, 2018
Messages
10,510
Reaction score
40,110
Points
2,175
Location
Liverpool
Looking ahead to when Tallulah is out of quarantine, does anyone think introducing Tallulah to the herd will be any different from introducing a furry pig?
There's already much less interest in her than there was when Blodwen arrived, but Tallulah is in plain sight and smell and chatting distance of the herd so she isnt just a mysterious smell, she's across the room- plus she's a baby really so isnt sparking any pheromonal responses. She's been noticed, but not too much. Theo's sleeping out in the open more and spending more time in the loft watching over her (he's always so worried in case there's a hungry eagle in the piggy room, he's never met an eagle but he has good instincts and likes to make sure his ladies are all safe from non-existent threats) but he's not rumble strutting at all.
Will the herd just accept her as a funny looking naked-scaredy-pants baby pig and make her as welcome as any competitor for the veggies would be? Or is the lack of interest a bad sign? They were very excited when she arrived for a couple of hours but now they don't seem that fussed... they must know she's a guinea pig, right? From the smell and watching her eat hay and piggy food and she's borrowed a food bowl and a water bottle and a fleecy tunnel, even if she looks like a naked bat faced hippo gremlin?
 
PigglePuggle said:
Looking ahead to when Tallulah is out of quarantine, does anyone think introducing Tallulah to the herd will be any different from introducing a furry pig?
There's already much less interest in her than there was when Blodwen arrived, but Tallulah is in plain sight and smell and chatting distance of the herd so she isnt just a mysterious smell, she's across the room- plus she's a baby really so isnt sparking any pheromonal responses. She's been noticed, but not too much. Theo's sleeping out in the open more and spending more time in the loft watching over her (he's always so worried in case there's a hungry eagle in the piggy room, he's never met an eagle but he has good instincts and likes to make sure his ladies are all safe from non-existent threats) but he's not rumble strutting at all.
Will the herd just accept her as a funny looking naked-scaredy-pants baby pig and make her as welcome as any competitor for the veggies would be? Or is the lack of interest a bad sign? They were very excited when she arrived for a couple of hours but now they don't seem that fussed... they must know she's a guinea pig, right? From the smell and watching her eat hay and piggy food and she's borrowed a food bowl and a water bottle and a fleecy tunnel, even if she looks like a naked bat faced hippo gremlin?
Click to expand...

No, there is no difference in terms of behaviour; social interactions and behaviour is the same.

What could be more noticeable is scratches from back leg swipes that are usually cushioned by hair etc. but will be more noticeable on skininies during the dominance phase.
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics (newly updated)
 
So is it a good sign that they are just acting normally even with her living in the same room? The main herd seem very relaxed with things, more relaxed than usual, apart from 2 or 3 hours of standing up at the cage bars when she arrived they quickly settled down to being much more peaceful and calm than usual, Blodwen chilling out in the open not hidden away, Piggle and Jezzy (the most conflicting personalities!) sharing hay...
I guess we'll find out on bonding day anyway!
 
Skinny pigs in my local small garden centre pet shop called Bruno's are £200. Why is this?
 
SkyPipDotBernie said:
Skinny pigs in my local small garden centre pet shop called Bruno's are £200. Why is this?
Click to expand...

Breeding skinnies is more complicated because the offspring of a skinny is not another perfect skinny. (And no, we cannot providing details on this forum!)

The rest is sadly sheer greed for providing a fashionable designer pet that enough people are willing to pay silly money for. :(
 
They are rare and "exotic"! Also hopefully so nobody buys one and shoves it in a cheap hutch in the garden!
But I think they are still quite unusual in the UK... especially in the north... none of our vets had ever met one despite them being quite cavy savvy, but they were very keen to make Tallulah's aquaintance and take photos of her while exclaiming over how lovely she was! I think she got 5 vet checks for the price of 1 because all the vets had heard of skinnies but never examined one. There was a flood of vets and nurses wanting a skinny pig selfie pigture. They all loved the belly button :)
 
Wiebke said:
Breeding skinnies is more complicated because the offspring of a skinny is not another perfect skinny. (And no, we cannot providing details on this forum!)

The rest is sadly sheer greed for providing a fashionable designer pet that enough people are willing to pay silly money for. :(
Click to expand...
Aww thats sad, yea i didnt want to talk about pet shops and breeding too much. Thanks for the answer☺
 
PigglePuggle said:
They are rare and "exotic"! Also hopefully so nobody buys one and shoves it in a cheap hutch in the garden!
But I think they are still quite unusual in the UK... especially in the north... none of our vets had ever met one despite them being quite cavy savvy, but they were very keen to make Tallulah's aquaintance and take photos of her while exclaiming over how lovely she was! I think she got 5 vet checks for the price of 1 because all the vets had heard of skinnies but never examined one. There was a flood of vets and nurses wanting a skinny pig selfie pigture. They all loved the belly button :)
Click to expand...
Thats nice how they were all very interested 😊. Another pet you dont see much now are gerds, they seemed to be around in the late 90's then dissapeared , then degus came in
 
Its true, I did some reading on this, they need outcrossing every few generations then people breed 2 furry skinny gene carriers and end up with 1/4 skinnies and some furry unwanteds. Then people buy them for hundreds of pounds and dress them up in clothes and stuff like designer minature dog puppies. We are determined obviously that Tallulah will be a proper guinea pig just with a bit more dinner and lots of fleecy beds in case she gets cold :) its not her fault her mum forgot to pack any furry pyjama genes!
 
When I introduced my skinny pig Jasmine, she did get quite a few scratches on her back which made me sad 😞. I ended up having to try a few options with bonding before she and Anna fell in love and now they live as a sweet little pair. Also I’m not sure if this is a skinny pig thing or just Jasmine’s little quirk, but she rarely teeth chatters, instead she does this weird little puff of air when she is mad. It’s actually pretty cute.8F50F5E6-8577-4F42-B17C-E8E33E638EAA.webp
 
Well I just held Tallulah on my lap near the playpen bars to get a good look at the others and she seemed very interested! Mostly they ignored her, Theo wandered over and gave her a quick sniff then went back to his hay...
 
It was so hard not to just pop her in the playpen with the others, she had her nose at the bars and kept looking round at me like, can I go in now?
She's back in her annoyingly clean quarantine cage but I have moved it closer to the others now she's had a very thorough vet check, so they can chat more and she can see what the others are doing :)
 
Aah at least they can have a good natter! :)

When Jess was tiny my past boy Sheepy had a suspected stroke and was really unwell, he was PTS and she was alone (again). Was so sad, running around calling for him :( thankfully a few days later I had my mum's piggy George staying for a week while she was on holiday, she was so pleased to have some piggy around! Even just for a chat!
(Then poor Rupert came along and got harassed! She'd missed those piggy cuddles!)
 
Sorry my usual Becci blab on, just mean I'm sure she'll be pleased to have a good chat and piggy sniff bless her, going by my crazy confident lady's actions in the past! :)
 
Thanks @alpacasqueak ! Jezzy floof is over by her cage having a chat right now, Tallulah is hiding in her fleecy tunnel but I'm sure she can hear and smell Jezzy being friendly :)
 
I'm more of a boar girl and have never really had a gang of ladies around, def good they're chilled though I can imagine! Hopefully all calm and happy when they're introduced :) when is her quarantine all done?
 
Quarantine is officially over on 2nd March so I'm kind of torn between going to the Manchester meet and having a piggy bonding day...!
But now she's had a full health check I'm tempted to introduce her earlier, seeing as she's just a little bald baby pig... she must be lonely...
 
I'd probably introduce sooner if I was happy she was well, just so she wasn't alone. Just me being a soppy person that couldn't wait with a teeny lone pig though!
Sure after Blodwen you're definitely extra careful!
 
Yes Blodwen was a very good lesson in why quarantine is necessary... but Tallulah is so tiny and bald and I just want to see her snuggled under Jezzy floof's floofy fur!
I'll definitely wait until weekend at least and check her over again and see how she's doing being alone... also best check my vet fund just in case I ended up with 7 sick piggies!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top