Not sure if acceptance phase happened

amber89

amber89

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Hello all,

I have tried today to do the introduction between the newcomer Marshmallow and the pair Pufu and Cupcake. Since Monday evening they had full interaction through the mesh.

I have been having them in the introduction pen for already 2h.
There is still some teeth chattering involved between Pufu and Marshmallow and they don't seem to me to interact a lot with each other.
For the last 2h I observed:
- plenty of teeth chattering from both Pufu and Marshmallow
- three times they lunged at each other, but they backed down, so no real fight happened.
- chasing
- squeeking from Marshmallow
- rumble strutting from Pufu
- Marshmallow didn't accepted any humping from Pufu
- twice i saw them sharing the same leaf of lettuce
- one time they had a moment of calm, when each was lying down, in separate corners of the pen
- no power grooming
- popcorning from Marshmallow

Since there was/is no fight between them i am reluctant to separate them, but i also don't know how to interpret their behaviour.
I already read the handbooks, but i am still not sure if acceptance happened, and i am now in the dominance phase, or acceptance did not happened yet.

Thanks
 
I would say not completely yet. Eating and lying down are good signs. Please don't separate, if it's been a few hours and no fights then it will probably work. My three girls nipped and chattered occasionally for the first week or two when brought together, but did not fight. They are getting on much better now, a couple of months later!
Keep an eye on them, for as long as you can and if there continues to be no fighting and if they start grooming themselves or have a nap, I'd say initial acceptance has happened.
 
Two hours is not very long to be honest.
When I set up a bonding I usually plan to leave them in the bonding pen for anywhere between 3 - 7 hours, and on one occasion I actually left piggies in the bonding pen overnight just to be sure.

So it is early days yet and it sounds like nothing has been fully settled, so I would leave them there and give them more time to work things out.
Just make sure they have plenty of hay and water.
 
i know that a whole session can last up to 6 hours and the whole domination thing can take weeks.
But in the guidelines it was writing that acceptance occurs in the first 5-30 min.
 
amber89 said:
i know that a whole session can last up to 6 hours and the whole domination thing can take weeks.
But in the guidelines it was writing that acceptance occurs in the first 5-30 min.
Click to expand...
Acceptance is one thing and simply means they don't all hate each otehr on sight.

Once they decide this, then they need to work on establishing a hierarchy and that is what takes time, and can also be the point where a bonding fails becasue they can't reach an agreement.
The fact that they have accepted each other is good, but now they need time to see if they can establish a working heirachy that all the pigs are happy with.

But it all sounds good - I have had bondings fail in the first 2 minutes (I am looking directly at you Ruby).
 
You can have different stages of acceptance. The first half hour is a 'can I stand the sight of you?' kind of phase, the next however many hours is getting to know each other, who will be boss etc, then up to months after can be settling down. How long each stage lasts depends on the piggies.
 
Nassala said:
You can have different stages of acceptance. The first half hour is a 'can I stand the sight of you?' kind of phase, the next however many hours is getting to know each other, who will be boss etc, then up to months after can be settling down. How long each stage lasts depends on the piggies.
Click to expand...
Cross Post! Agree with Swissgreys :D
 
i was not so sure about the acceptance part...since they weren't interacting with each other

Now i am seeing them eating in peace all together from the same hay pile
 
Swissgreys said:
Acceptance is one thing and simply means they don't all hate each otehr on sight.

Once they decide this, then they need to work on establishing a hierarchy and that is what takes time, and can also be the point where a bonding fails becasue they can't reach an agreement.
The fact that they have accepted each other is good, but now they need time to see if they can establish a working heirachy that all the pigs are happy with.

But it all sounds good - I have had bondings fail in the first 2 minutes (I am looking directly at you Ruby).
Click to expand...
Yes Tallulah is that kind of girl too, failed to bond with the main herd to the extent that blood was drawn and we were off to the emergency vets with 2 injured arch-enemy piggies within 10 minutes- then with Ollie she fell in love within about 5 minutes and they shared a carrier home after an hour and a half!
But usually (with normal piggies) it takes much longer, it was 2 days before we put the safety oven gloves away bonding 2 pairs of ladies and 2 weeks before they decided they were properly settled!
 
amber89 said:
i was not so sure about the acceptance part...since they weren't interacting with each other

Now i am seeing them eating in peace all together from the same hay pile
Click to expand...
Eating hay together is good, that's a thing herds do even if they arent best friends, they eat hay peacefully with everyone in the group, I think that's a good sign!
 
I am pretty sure that they bonded.

I moved them today in the big cage, after giving it a good scrub.
There were no more domination issues, seems that everyone accepted their position.
Pufu is even a gentleman and is staying mostly outside, with Marshmallow, since she hasn't mastered yet neither the jump over the Plexiglas, nor the stairs.

DSC_1780_klein.webp
 
Congratulations on a successful bonding.
I bonded 2 pairs last year and although they were happy to live together after a few hours it took Jemimah and Priscilla nearly 2 weeks to sort themselves out. That was just a bit of lunging, teeth chattering and a mild tussle
Then they became best friends.
 
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