Advice needed on bonding an older girl and a young boar

[emmadhesi]

Hi

I have 3 pigs, two girls and a boy, Butch.

Tonight I have introduced a third girl, Coco.

There were no problems between the girls however Coco and Butch had two separate fights within the first 20 mins or so, which I didn't interfere with as there was no blood.

The fighting has stopped and Butch clearly came out on top. He is now continually following Coco around, trying to mount her, sniff her bum, what looks like sniffing under her chin and basically harassing her! Her response is what I think is called hooting, a sound I've not heard before.

She is now spending most of her time sitting in a corner, moving out to eat now and again, before heading back to her corner where Butch comes to sit with her/mount her/sniff her.

From reading the other posts this appears to be quite normal and Butch is just asserting his dominance.

My concern is that Coco is quite an old pig, I don't know exactly how old but her eyes have gone opaque so I'm guessing a good age. Before I adopted her she was a lone pig. Is it fair to introduce an older pig, used to being on her own, to a younger boar? Can her legs cope with the continual mounting?!

Any reassurance or advice would be most welcome!

Emma

 

[CandyFloss]

Sorry I cant help with your question but hope someone else will be along soon who can

Is Butch neutered ? Do you know why Coco was a lone pig before you adopted her ?

Best of luck

x

 

[Wiebke]

I would weigh her daily for the time being to make sure that she is not losing weight and see whether things go back to more normal behaviour over the course of the next few days; so far it sounds pretty par for the course. How old is Butch? Is Coco with the other girls, too?

Your girl sounds like she has cataracts; but that is not necessarily a question of age. You may want to have her checked by a vet and test her for diabetes, especially if she is drinking a lot of water.

 

[emmadhesi]

Butch is neutered, and I'm not sure why Coco was lone. I know she belonged to a family with children, but they emigrated and so she needed a new home.

Coco and Butch are in with the other two girls and actually things seemed to have calmed somewhat over the past couple of hours.

I'm not sure how old Butch is unfortunately as he's another adoption and I didn't get much info on him.

Weikbe, thanks for the heads up about her eyes not necessarily being a sign of age. I'll take her to the vet and see what they say.

 

[Pat Shields]

I know nothing about guinea pig bonding except for what I have read on this forum. However, knowing that Coco is an older pig and was a lone pig and is probably a somewhat blind pig, this attention from the male, especially as physical as it has gotten, must be very stressful. I would not keep two animals of any sort together if one was harassing the other and that other was hiding or protecting herself. If it is necessary for them to be together, I would provide Coco with a small box that only she can fit into so that she can escape the unwanted attentions.