Wexford and the girls finally meet.. Teeth chattering from Wexford?

[Sodapops]

Hi guys,

The day has finally arrived where Wexford could meet his two new girlfriends - although i'm a little concerned re., their behaviour and whether it's normal?

For the last two weeks Wexford has been in a Ferplast 120 cage away from the girls and last night i transferred him into a smaller Ferplast 80 cage that i had and placed this cage inside the girls big cage overnight so they could smell each other.

After the school run i set up the indoor run and placed a huge pile of grass in the middle - i put all three piggies in there and for the first 10mins everyone more or less ignored each other. Then Wexford got a sniff of Summer (JJ's daughter) and of course started rumbling. Both Summer and JJ saw off his advances by jumping out of the way and sort of nipping at him. He attempted to woo the girls around 6=7times but neither would let him near, in fact summer would sort of chase him away.

I cleaned out the girls big cage and put all 3 together, but this is where the problem started - the girls are very insistant that they will not be mounted and so are sort of nipping at him - JJ isn't really bothering with him and the ring-leader seems to be summer who will chase him now and then. Wexford has now started protesting every time one of the girls goes near him and is starting to chatter his teeth at both of them - is this normal?

I'm not sure whether they are sorting things out or whether the girls (mostly summer) are hurting him, hence the reason why he's protesting and chattering his teeth at them when they go near him?

Any advice you could give is greatly appreciated.

I am watching them closely, but don't want to intervene if i don't have to - i know they have issues that need to be resolved - but as ive only ever bonded boars, i'm at a loss on whether this is normal?

 

[Wiebke]

None of the girls is near season, so they haven't got any interest in him. Wexfors is naturally frustrated. As long as it is not any worse, you can leave him.

I introduced Hywel over a series of little outings with one or two of the sows who were definitely not in season (as he was still on the post op wait) and then increasingly over shared meals with the whole group before I let him fully move in. Perhaps that can help until one of the girls comes into season.

 

[Sodapops]

Thanks for the reply Wiebke

Every time he rumbles at the girls they seem to chase him off and nip him - do you think i should put him back in his own cage and provide all 3 over the next few days with some shared floor time?

I always assumed it should be as you do with boars and once they are fine together you should leave them to live together?

I'd much rather have both him and the girls happy than him running for cover every 5 mins.

Just stuck as to what to do now...

 

[Wiebke]

Give them time to get to know each other better! Perhaps you can serve up some grass on a big flat plate and see whether he is allowed to share?

Otherwise, I would let him live next door and have little meetings with one sow at a time, preferably on neutral territory. Hywel had been living next to my girls for about two weeks and I had been feeding them right next to each other across the grid, so they knew each other well and were able to bond as much beforehand.

Just don't expect more than faint interest from a sow that is not season; I found that sharing some food was a good way of testing the water. Even though my girls were basically very interested in him, the actual one-to-one meetings were rather sobering affairs, but they helped towards the final intro.

I also swapped stuff that each group were using, like cosies, hides and dishes.

 

[Little Piggles]

Hope Wexford and the girls are still doing okay together?

When I introduced Boris to my girls, Pippa was pretty insistant that he was NOT going to give up her power and if it was going to work, he had to accept this.

I had a false start and took him out. The next day though I introduced the girls to him, one by one, in order of dominance over the course of a few hours. Once Boris and Pippa got along (there was an AWFUL lot of teeth chattering at first and Boris lost a few tufts of hair!) then the other two girls just followed suit.

Like Wiekbe, My lot had salad on a flat plate and a big sweetcorn cob went down well too as Boris was able to nibble one end whilst Pixel tried the other

If Summer and Wexford can get along okay, JJ should (hopefully) accept him too

Good luck! x

 

[Sodapops]

Unfortunately, things are not going great - i think it's gonna take a bit more time than first anticipated.

I made the decision to take Wexford out of the girls cage and put him back into his own temp cage - Wexford seemed terrified and the girls were none too happy about him being there.

I had JJ and Wexford out for some lap time and for the first 5mins everything was ok - that was until JJ went to sniff Wexford and he wiggled his bum at her, she then jumped at him - i immediately put JJ back in her cage and tried Summer with him - both Summer and Wexford sat next to each other (looking rather scared if i'm honest) - neither of them moved for 10mins. Summer then went to sniff Wexford's face and he nipped her - of course she was none too happy and flew at him.

To be honest i think Wexford is that traumatised at the fact that every time he goes near one of the girls they snap at him that his only option is to defend himself.

He came from a not too nice situation, so isn't a confident male figure, i think because of what's he's been through, he's easily frightened by the girls - this will also be his first interaction with other piggies.

We just have to tread very carefully, and after a lengthy chat with Vicky this morning we are going to take things very slowly - fingers crossed he'll get there eventually.

 

[Wiebke]

I would recommend the same.

Let Wexford get used to other piggies and the girls used to his presence until you see positive interest/interaction from either side. I tried to serve their food on either side of the bars so that they got the feeling of eating together. I hope that that also helps.