Very Shy New Piggy

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Annie Robbins

Annie Robbins

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Hey everyone,

I have adopted a new 4 month old female piggy. I currently have her in quarantine away from my other piggy. It is day 3 since I have brought her home, and I have not held her just so she can adjust to her surroundings. Also, she is in a quiet room. She will not leave her corner to eat or to drink. I will randomly during the day stroke her back and talk to her calmly. I even offer some fresh veggies.

I have had many piggies in the past, and none have seemed this petrified before. Is there anything I can do to help her transition.

I have also uploaded a picture, so you can look at her body position to show how scared she is.

Piggette.webp
 
Oh bless her, she is adorable :wub:
Don't worry, she will eventually come round and learn to trust you. It took two of my boys months to take food from my hand. They came from a school,so they were obviously petrified about being handled. Sending you virtual best wishes :)

My best advice I can give is to give her a bowl of veggies and walk away. You will soon learn her favourite and be able to give her them by hand ;) x
 
Totally normal behavior, we have all been there, she does look a very scared piggy - bless her

She is beautiful :love:

I would leave her to settle for a few days as you are doing Maybe put a towel over one end of the cage so it is darker there for her and put her food that end so she can eat in the darker area and feel less exposed
 
She may just have a shy, docile personality and hence be more nervous than your previous pigs in a new situation. I know when we first got Sundae, we didn't even see her for the first week (she did come out to eat and drink at night. Otherwise she hid.) I would give her those first few days to settle in and then begin handling her for short periods of time daily to get her used to you.
 
I second the towel recommendation, she will feel more secure that way. Is she eating at all?
 
Hi I'm the same at the moment I've just got a little baby (6 weeks old) as a companion for my other 5 month old female piggie. She's in quarantine too and I feel so bad that she's on her own! She is too extremely shy and nervous x

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Lovely pig. Pigs will often do their thing when you're not around, I had two very shy and untamed boys and the first thing I did was keep routine, minimal handling and even minimal eye contact until they got used to me. Bit by bit I would stroke them all over and hold the veggies in my hand until they took it from me. I would also create a safe space but minimise hides. It took loads of patience which was hard but now they're really great and still queue up to be hand fed the first bit of veg!
Some pigs will always be shy but it will get better with patience!
 
Thank you everyone for the advice!

The towel suggestion totally helped! I just noticed she is covered in lice, so that might add to the odd behavior. She was been eating tons of lettuce, but it doesn't seem that she is drinking at all.
 
Lettuce has quite a bit of water in it so she will be getting it from there. The lice is a problem though. Maybe you should get her checked over by a vet who will recommend the best treatment for lice. Keep her quarantined from your other piggie until its sorted.
 
Noodle was the same now she's the most loving pig :) she's still jumpy sometimes but she loves a cuddle. I just spent an hour every day removing any hideys and chatting to her. Leaving my fingers in the cage so she isn't as frightened. I think it helps to when the piggies are on a table or sothething. They get a bit more frightened when on the floor x

IMG_3196.webp
 
Aw she is a cute little baby! Wiley was the same way we used a towel to cover one end of the cage. She had lice as well and once treated and cleared by the vet she came out of her shell leaps and bounds being with Whinny. Just takes time and patience I'm sure she'll come around.
 
Will she try cucumber as a lap treat? My pigs have a good range of veg and I've never seen either drink from their bottle.
 
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