Pumpkin&Spice
New Born Pup
Hi there! I was wondering whether anyone might have any advice about a situation I’ve run into with my herd of sow piggies... I’ll give a bit of background info first!
So a couple of weeks ago I adopted two young sows (6 and 4 months) who were already part of a group, to see whether they would bond with my four sows of different ages. Our first bonding session didn’t go so well due to fear aggression from one of the new pigs, but after trying a second time the following day, everything went much more smoothly and after several hours and calm and friendly behaviours, I popped them all back into their nice fresh, clean home. I’ve been watching them like a hawk since and everything had settled, so when I last cleaned them out I popped all of their toys back in and they’ve all seemed very happy... until last night.
They’ve been together for just over a week now and I don’t know whether something had happened, but my one pig, Floss, who was originally at the bottom of my herd of four, and has now moved up in her ranks, has become too scared to come down from their upstairs area to join the other piggies in eating their veg etc. When she sees the new pigs, she teeth chatters and then scarpers back upstairs. One of the new piggies teeth chatters back and it’s all a bit tense for a short moment. The new pigs haven’t figured upstairs out yet, which Floss seems to know.
At the beginning, Floss was really asserting her dominance over the new pigs and they were just seemingly submitting, so it seems strange that Floss is now behaving like this. I don’t think they’re bullying her, as they’re letting her eat and everything but it’s so not like her to not come down for her veg.
I’m at a bit of a loss with what to do and wondered if anyone had any advice? Do you think there’s hope for them and I should let them see it through? Or does it sound like they’re just not going to be happy together? It’s sooo strange because yesterday morning, Floss was downstairs happily eating with everyone as normal and I’ve had no reason to be concerned until now.
They have a big home of roughly 42sqft of space, so I like to think that space isn’t the issue!
Any advice would be very much appreciated. The whole thing is worrying me so much.
Thank you so so much!
x
So a couple of weeks ago I adopted two young sows (6 and 4 months) who were already part of a group, to see whether they would bond with my four sows of different ages. Our first bonding session didn’t go so well due to fear aggression from one of the new pigs, but after trying a second time the following day, everything went much more smoothly and after several hours and calm and friendly behaviours, I popped them all back into their nice fresh, clean home. I’ve been watching them like a hawk since and everything had settled, so when I last cleaned them out I popped all of their toys back in and they’ve all seemed very happy... until last night.
They’ve been together for just over a week now and I don’t know whether something had happened, but my one pig, Floss, who was originally at the bottom of my herd of four, and has now moved up in her ranks, has become too scared to come down from their upstairs area to join the other piggies in eating their veg etc. When she sees the new pigs, she teeth chatters and then scarpers back upstairs. One of the new piggies teeth chatters back and it’s all a bit tense for a short moment. The new pigs haven’t figured upstairs out yet, which Floss seems to know.
At the beginning, Floss was really asserting her dominance over the new pigs and they were just seemingly submitting, so it seems strange that Floss is now behaving like this. I don’t think they’re bullying her, as they’re letting her eat and everything but it’s so not like her to not come down for her veg.
I’m at a bit of a loss with what to do and wondered if anyone had any advice? Do you think there’s hope for them and I should let them see it through? Or does it sound like they’re just not going to be happy together? It’s sooo strange because yesterday morning, Floss was downstairs happily eating with everyone as normal and I’ve had no reason to be concerned until now.
They have a big home of roughly 42sqft of space, so I like to think that space isn’t the issue!
Any advice would be very much appreciated. The whole thing is worrying me so much.
Thank you so so much!
x