My Dilema: failed bonding- date? rehome? split up?..

[Skelly]

Hello Everyone,

So to give you the back story first:

I have two sows Daisy and Minnow, I got a little boar called oliver and neitered him. Once he was safe to put with the girls I bathed them all and put them down on neutral territory, all seemed to go well for the first 10 mins and then all hell unleashed!
Daisy (who is a very grumpy and dominant pig anyway) took a dislike to oliver and started yawning, lungig and generally trying to attack oliver.
Obviously I took Oliver away and left it for a few days.
I tried again, minus th bathing, and the same happened.
I thought 'third times lucky' and tried one more time and of course, it happen again.

So what do I do?

Do I split Daisy and Minnow up and put Minnow in with Oliver?
Try again?
Let them live side by side in a split cage?
Take Oliver dating? (Mum has said more piggies though!)

Any advice would be brilliant.

Thanks
Jess.

 

[piggyfan]

I would not want to split up your girls as they have always been happy together. I would take Oliver dating so he can choose his own friend. I do not see what else you can do really.

 

[Wiebke]

I would try and talk with your mum about dating Oliver at Windwhistle Warren (your closest recommended rescue), so he can find the lady of his dreams. It is the best and most risk free way of making sure that he is going to be a happy boy.
http://www.windwhistlewarren.org.uk/

Sadly, not all sows, especially not very dominant top sows, will accept a boar. Undersows usually do - that is the reason why I have been so very careful to rehome only girls with a group background or confirmed submissive characters for my Tribe. However, "punishing" Daisy for being what she is, is not the right way forward.

 

[Skelly]

I don't think I can convince my mum to let me get another piggy

 

[squeakysmallpaws]

Hey Skelly,

Out of interest how long did you leave them to it?

When I was bonding my neutered lads with their girls - I can't exactly say it went without hiccup, there was a few moments where my heart was in my mouth! It took my Manny about 3 hours to get wild Izzy under control. She protested and kicked and lunged and flew at him - no biting though or yawning.

I scattered food, and put hay on a plate and in a hay rack, which all faciliated it but it still took yonks, eventually he managed to push her head down and she eventually submitted to him. Now they are so loving!

I also know another girl who had lots of trouble bonding her two sows with a boy. She enlisted the help of Jenny at Crawley who came over to give her some guidance and together they cracked it. I will pop her a note and see if she has time to come over to this thread and tell you a bit about what worked for her.

Don't split the girls, they're friends and don't have a relationship with Oliver, so they'd just be all sad to be without one another

I'd be inclined to give them a week or so living side by side - let them get to know each other a bit get some more advice, maybe for a donation someone from a rescue could help you bond your trio and give it another try, you can but ask I suppose!

If it really isn't going to happen like Wiebke says its better to let Oliver find a lady of his own.

x

 

[Guinea pigs <3]

Hey Skelly,

Kathryn got in touch about your thread and asked me to come and give some advice, hope it's helpful! Definitely have a look through my old threads as there's lots of info on how it went on them when I bonded my two with Sir Finley.

Firstly - don't put any beds/tunnels/hideys etc when you're bonding. Mine got territorial over those.
- scatter veggies and hay everywhere, try not to put the whole lot in one spot!

Something Jenny did with me was to hold a dustpan and when they started to get a bit more aggressive she would dangle it in front of the piggies to distract them. Most of the time they'd then forget about the dominance and start sniffing the dustpan rolleyes however if the aggression continued to progress we could use that to block them from hurting each other.

I know others might disagree but I think you shouldn't leave them until blood is drawn. This then destroys most chances of them ever working as a trio. Once the aggression hits a certain level (yawning/hackles up/puffing) and you can see the piggies are getting stressed then stop the bonding and separate. Don't let them all get too worked up.

I had to bond my trio over numerous sessions spanning over months! Every time I re-bonded them they re-asserted themselves in less time and settled down a lot quicker. Eventually I was able to introduced hideys etc within the neutral territory, it did start the dominance over again but they had enough of a bond by this time to sort it out quickly. Once they were ok with those then I went for the final jump - the cage!

Basically I had a very dominant sow (Mabel) and she wasn't happy with the introduction of a new piggy, he soon learnt he wasn't going to be top pig and backed down which kept Mabel happy! They are good friends now and she regularly sleeps next to him/grooms him - it can be done but it is a lot of hard work!

Any questions do ask