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Wiebke's Tribe: Sows and the City Boars

Sulwen 'Bright Sun'/Sisu is unfortunately turning out to be a rather tricky customer. She is at heart a rather fearful and insecure piggy who over-compensates with confrontational and overly dominant behaviour ('fear-aggression').

She had a week of living next to Llelo's similarly aged widow Melangell 'Sweet Angel' in a divided run. Mella is the only piggy slightly larger than Sulwen and the only Tribe piggy who Sulwen hasn't pulled her dominance dance through the bars against. Sulwen very much picked her cues from Melangell during the last week and there was no hostile behaviour across the divider.
Mella would have liked her as a new mate by signalling it with some ostentious piggy washing but Sulwen unfortunately didn't. The bonding sadly didn't last a quarter of an hour before it started to escalate with some mutual 'stay our of my personal sphere' lunging, started by Sulwen. :(

Picture from the initial intro to see whether it would be worth taking this further by living alongside each other for some days. There was no hostile territorial behaviour, so I put in the necessary furniture.
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Picture from the start of the bonding proper
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Sulwen has now taken Mella's cage next to Merlin where she has got a couple of months' time to make friends with my smallest and least dominant boar. I am taking this one very slowly to help her work through her fear-aggression issues gradually. I have spotted her piggy washing next to Merlin so I am keeping my fingers crossed that friendship will grow and that she will behave once face to face. At the moment, there is still a fair bit of territorial behaviour mixed in.
Should the bonding fail, Melangell has already become best of friends through the bars with Merlin so he is assured a lady who loves him in any case. It would have been nice if Sulwen and Melangell would have made friends to live both with Merlin but piggies and best laid plans don't work out all that often...

Sulwen and Merlin
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The joys of fickle ladies!

PS: Mella is currently denned next to the big group to hopefully bond with them one she has had a little time to get over her disappointment and to interact with them through the bars.
She is a friendly, rather laid back and not very dominant lady who was living with Brathlys and Llelo but has sadly lost them just half a year apart. Ultimately, it doesn't matter whether she is going to live with Brangwyn or Merlin, just that she does with one of the Cornish boys.

@Little Ones
@Bradshaw Piggies
 
I am so sorry she is being so difficult :( it has honestly come as such a surprise! When we bonded her with Sprout, we did it at home rather than at the rescue and it was a done deal pretty much instantly, so it’s such a surprise that she is like this. Like Merlin, Sprout was a very small boar (1100 grams at his heaviest!) and non-dominant (he would just constantly woo her with rumblestruts), so hopefully this will be the match for her with some time. I’ve never seen any type of dominance from her with Sprout - no rumblestrutting, teeth chattering, nothing at all - so losing him must have really rocked her :(
I’m just so glad she’s with someone who can read her and understand her and who has patience to work through any of her issues. I’m very hopeful that she will overcome her insecurity issues with time.
 
Little Ones said:
I am so sorry she is being so difficult :( it has honestly come as such a surprise! When we bonded her with Sprout, we did it at home rather than at the rescue and it was a done deal pretty much instantly, so it’s such a surprise that she is like this. Like Merlin, Sprout was a very small boar (1100 grams at his heaviest!) and non-dominant (he would just constantly woo her with rumblestruts), so hopefully this will be the match for her with some time. I’ve never seen any type of dominance from her with Sprout - no rumblestrutting, teeth chattering, nothing at all - so losing him must have really rocked her :(
I’m just so glad she’s with someone who can read her and understand her and who has patience to work through any of her issues. I’m very hopeful that she will overcome her insecurity issues with time.
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Merlin was and is her best bet but I wanted to try out other options that would have been more convenient for me first; I'd hoped that Sulwen would hitch up with dominant Brangwyn before she arrived. Now I cannot see that one working out, to be honest. Brangwyn is too naturally dominant himself.

In my own experience widowed piggies who have shared a happy bond are usually either desperate for new company (which I had been hoping for) or rather often somewhat insecure in terms of a new relationship. Sulwen has very much turned out to be in the second group since her loss is compounded by the move to a new home.
Bonding her and Melangell into a working trio with Merlin would have been plan B+ for me. However in order to make a trio work for the long term, Sulwen and Mella would have had to make friends with each other first to avoid an ousider situation in the longer term. I am now on plan B - just Merlin himself.

I lost 4 piggies in just over three weeks in August 2021 but found that none of the four widowed companions would accept any of the others so I had to adopt another 4 piggies (or rather 5 as one of them is a mother/daughter pair and the other three were/are widowed piggies themselves); one of the latter was young Melangell who'd just lost her old dental sanctuary companion at TEAS. It took me about a month to match them all up but in the end I did.
It's just working out who goes best with who for the long term since that depends entirely on the dynamics between different personalities - and with adults, you are dealing with two fully developed personalities which makes it trickier but very fascinating and totally satisfying when it works out.

Anyway, what Sulwen is most definitely not anymore is being depressed and pining - anything but. :)
 
Wiebke said:
Sulwen 'Bright Sun'/Sisu is unfortunately turning out to be a rather tricky customer. She is at heart a rather fearful and insecure piggy who over-compensates with confrontational and overly dominant behaviour ('fear-aggression').

She had a week of living next to Llelo's similarly aged widow Melangell 'Sweet Angel' in a divided run. Mella is the only piggy slightly larger than Sulwen and the only Tribe piggy who Sulwen hasn't pulled her dominance dance through the bars against. Sulwen very much picked her cues from Melangell during the last week and there was no hostile behaviour across the divider.
Mella would have liked her as a new mate by signalling it with some ostentious piggy washing but Sulwen unfortunately didn't. The bonding sadly didn't last a quarter of an hour before it started to escalate with some mutual 'stay our of my personal sphere' lunging, started by Sulwen. :(

Picture from the initial intro to see whether it would be worth taking this further by living alongside each other for some days. There was no hostile territorial behaviour, so I put in the necessary furniture.
View attachment 246787

Picture from the start of the bonding proper
View attachment 246786


Sulwen has now taken Mella's cage next to Merlin where she has got a couple of months' time to make friends with my smallest and least dominant boar. I am taking this one very slowly to help her work through her fear-aggression issues gradually. I have spotted her piggy washing next to Merlin so I am keeping my fingers crossed that friendship will grow and that she will behave once face to face. At the moment, there is still a fair bit of territorial behaviour mixed in.
Should the bonding fail, Melangell has already become best of friends through the bars with Merlin so he is assured a lady who loves him in any case. It would have been nice if Sulwen and Melangell would have made friends to live both with Merlin but piggies and best laid plans don't work out all that often...

Sulwen and Merlin
View attachment 246788

The joys of fickle ladies!

PS: Mella is currently denned next to the big group to hopefully bond with them one she has had a little time to get over her disappointment and to interact with them through the bars.
She is a friendly, rather laid back and not very dominant lady who was living with Brathlys and Llelo but has sadly lost them just half a year apart. Ultimately, it doesn't matter whether she is going to live with Brangwyn or Merlin, just that she does with one of the Cornish boys.

@Little Ones
@Bradshaw Piggies
Click to expand...
ohh look at them! :wub: We really miss little Merlin. I hope they both behave and can be bonded. I hope Merlin is on his best behaviour! He was always really easy to bond with my boys (but they were much older boars, so they were quite happy to tolerate him). Thank you so much for doing such a wonderful job of taking care of him @Wiebke
 
Bradshaw Piggies said:
ohh look at them! :wub: We really miss little Merlin. I hope they both behave and can be bonded. I hope Merlin is on his best behaviour! He was always really easy to bond with my boys (but they were much older boars, so they were quite happy to tolerate him). Thank you so much for doing such a wonderful job of taking care of him @Wiebke
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Merlin is busy trying to impress and woo his new neighbour. :)

I am pretty sure that he is able to melt Sulwen's heart just as he has Melangell's. Patience often wins out but Merlin is guaranteed a lady who is only just about a year older than him one way or other.

Ultimately I want to ensure that all my Cornish boars have a younger lady in their life for the longer term to grow as old with as possible in a stable relationship. It's just working out who goes best with who after a spate of unexpected deaths, including two of my non-Cornish husboars just a few weeks apart which has thrown some things in the air.
 
After Sulwen/Sisu and Melangell 'Sweet Angel' failed to gel and Sulwen is currently living next to Merlin, I have had a busy dating weekend with Melangell (nickname Mella).
The bonding with her old short term family sadly failed since Manon quite simply didn't want Mella back on her doorstep even though she submitted to Manon last week.

So I tried her with the big oldies group she's been living alongside with over the last week.
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Brangwyn was an outright 'no' after he introduced himself rather rudely and Carys was too touchie-feelie friendly too quickly for her liking (poor dear), so I tried Mella with just Esme (who seemed drawn to her and who looks vaguely a bit like Llelo) and Beti who she hadn't shown any negative reactions to during the full group bonding.
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I changed it to 5 years old Heilin instead of 4 years old Beti when the leadership contest between Beti and Mella got a bit heated. Friendly but not dominant Heilin proved to be the right choice, which has allowed me to split the large group space into two equal group pens. Brangwyn is back to his original ladies Beti and Begw plus Carys .

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(Heilin - Esme - Melangell)

The current combo allows me to bond Melangell and Esme with Merlin as my back-up option in case Sulwen is not working out with him. Mella is only 11 months younger than Esme.
 
Claire W said:
Sounds like a bit of a headache but I’m glad things have worked out for Melangell the third time round and that she’s happy in a trio with Esme and Heilin ❤️
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Neither Esme nor Heilin have shown any interest in their former mates or rattled the divider; this is the mark of a successful bonding. It was about all finding the right mix for both groups at the end.
 
fluffysal said:
@Claire W , it's great to know that you love Esme enough to have given her the opportunity to have a happy new life ❤️
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Thank you. Your words mean a lot. I’ll always miss Esme but I’m happy for her that she’s living the life she deserves with Wiebke and piggy friends which is what I couldn’t give her x
 
Wiebke said:
Neither Esme nor Heilin have shown any interest in their former mates or rattled the divider; this is the mark of a successful bonding. It was about all finding the right mix for both groups at the end.
Click to expand...
Your understanding of piggies is awe inspiring ! We all learn so much from you 🥰
 
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