3 bonded girls reject a new young one

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Piggyologist

Piggyologist

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Hi
I'm sure someone's come across trying to bond a new girl with an already bonded pack (3 girls all around a couple of years old). In our case the new girl is a lot younger ( 4 - 8 months, it's hard to tell, she was very malnourished when we rehomed her) than the trio who lived together for years. When trying to introduce the new girl she's very friendly and active around the older girls, tries to approach them, sniffs their sides, licks their ear, etc. but the older girls react with nothing but aggression, which triggers protective response from the little one. They hiss and cough at each other and older girl nearly always tries to bite and chases the young one trying to get another bite.

Any advise on how to bond an active young girl with them?
 
Oh dear :{

have you read the rebonding/intro thread ? there's some fab info on this one.....

whee also send some loving bonding hugs and wheeeeeeeeeks and hope that it all works out ok from the girls and I xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

this is the thread:

http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38562

GOOD LUCK XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX xx>>>xx>>>xx>>>
 
Bonding girls can be just as dramatic as boys.

If you can have them living side by side for a while, swapping over into each other's space so they get used to the smell. Have them in neutral space for the intro - often a run in the garden is best as there's lots of grass to distract them.

I usually try to introduce the newbie to the dominant sow first, if she accepts her then the others are likely to. I add the other girls one by one once the last intro settles.

If the dominant isn't being very welcoming I do it in reverse, letting the newbie meet the bottom sow and then adding the girls in dominance order until all but the top sow are in together, allow them to settle happily and then bring in the top girl. Often as all the others are calm and happy she will let the newbie join as long as she doesn't play up.

Some runnig down and bullying is common with girls, the submissive letting out plaintive squeals is too. It's their way of showing complete submission and should prevent too much in the way of bullying.

Good luck - the link Glynis has provided gives quite a few good ideas.

Suzy x
 
thank you, it's all very informative

Our dominant sow hates the newbie, so we'll try to introduce them in reverse order now :)
The new girl lives separately next to the others and the dominant girl when walking around tries to get into the little one's cage, this type of curiosity isn't typical of her at all - she obviously feels very strongly about the new girl
 
I would give them a minimum of a week next to each other so everypig can settle down and get used to the presence of each other before you try another set of introductions. If you are too hasty and want too much too quickly, you may make things worse. Piggies have very much their own minds and they hate being pushed.

Make sure that you stage the intros on neutral ground and also that you thoroughly clean out the whole cage, including the furniture in it- not every top sow will accept sudden intruders into her territory!
 
we are still introducing the girls on a neutral territory

the little one put on around 100 grammes in two weeks:
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and just because I took this photo today as well: here's one of our older girls
DSC07628.jpg

DSC07622.jpg
 
The little one seems to be thriving! I hope that things will go better this time round.
 
Argh intros can be such a tricky business can't they?

I second the advice you have been given already been given in terms of taking it slow, neutral grounds, introducing them in the right order etc....

Out of interest what sings of aggression are they showing? It can be hard for us humans to tell between what is aggression and what is normal dominance behaviour sometimes...

I have seen sows acting pretty harsh with new babies in the past and although it's heart breaking for us as it looks quite full on it's just their way of settling their pecking order and I think they almost teach a bit of a life lesson to the youngster.

It can be a little distressing to watch but unless the bullying persists or there are clear sings of aggression (full on teeth chattering, biting etc...) more often than not they will settle down.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Lx
 
Gorgeous piggles hope they're bonding goes well :)
 
Oh, there's all sorts of aggression: the little one seems to treat older girls walking right behind her as bullying while it's just the way they like to run in a chain nose-to-bottom, you know what I mean. She doesn't get it, she thinks it's a bad sign.
Also she tries to lick other pigs ears sometimes, they don't like being touched at all and take it the wrong way.

In general, when two pigs clash, there's teeth chattering, they try to stand on their hind legs (especially the little one as she's being very protective since they try to drive her away all the time and even actively attack her), they bite (no blood yet, but my husband bled instead as he managed to stuck his hand in the middle of the fighting scrumble, so we can definitely say one of our pigs tried to hurt her quite strongly).
The little one puffs really loud when threatened: exhales air through the nose with intentionally strong snorting sound.
We are taking it slowly, there's a little progress already, but it's not great yet.
 
Piggyologist said:
Oh, there's all sorts of aggression: the little one seems to treat older girls walking right behind her as bullying while it's just the way they like to run in a chain nose-to-bottom, you know what I mean. She doesn't get it, she thinks it's a bad sign.
Also she tries to lick other pigs ears sometimes, they don't like being touched at all and take it the wrong way.

In general, when two pigs clash, there's teeth chattering, they try to stand on their hind legs (especially the little one as she's being very protective since they try to drive her away all the time and even actively attack her), they bite (no blood yet, but my husband bled instead as he managed to stuck his hand in the middle of the fighting scrumble, so we can definitely say one of our pigs tried to hurt her quite strongly).
The little one puffs really loud when threatened: exhales air through the nose with intentionally strong snorting sound.
We are taking it slowly, there's a little progress already, but it's not great yet.
Click to expand...
The chasing around and squeaking is normal, nothing to worry about. However their does seem to be some clear sings of aggression there, especially with the standing on hind legs and puffing....

Are you able to have them side by side for a while as suggested? Swapping them over also seems a good idea - although I have never tried that before.

I would recommend going slow - as you are already - to ensure that you don't upset you existing group. Any new addition and they have to work out their whole hierarchy almost...

Good luck!
x
 
here's the sweetest, calmest 'old' girl or all and with the newby she turn into a beast - acts like a guard bull terrier of the whole pack :)
DSC07658.png

and these little teeth made quite a lot of damage to my hubby's hand instead of the new girl's face :)
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and she's not even the dominant one:
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she's the Alpha-sow, who is relatively ok with the new girl at times:
DSC07636.png
 
I have found that the biggest fuss/aggression has always come from the piggy just above in the hierarchy, to make sure that her place is not in question.
 
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