As you may or may not know we very sadly lost one of our piggies yesteday. Scampy left us quite suddenly and has left his dad, Blaze, pining for him.
He is already looking around outside his cage for his little boy and just seems generally low. Although we had to separate them several months ago (as Scampy's adolescent side seemed to come out and he got somewhat aggressive towards his dad), they both still needed to be next to each other and spent a lot of the time lying beside each other, divided by the grids of their pen. Even yestedray when Scampy was near the end, he snuggled up to his dad so it's blatantly obvious that the bond had remained.
We now don't know what to do about Blaze. As I see it we have 4 options:
1) Do nothing and hope that the general company of us and our other two piggies keeps him happy etc. (unlikely I suspect)
2) Put one of the other two piggies, speciifically Pepe who also seems to need company, in Scampy's part of the pen, leaving Dylan, who seems to be something of a loner anyway, on his own above them - Dylan is currently next to Pepe.
3) Get another male piggie (not sure how old) to put in Scampy's side of the cage and either try to bond them at a later date or leave them as per the Blaze/Scampy arrangement of just being divided by grids
4) Get Blaze neutered and get him one or two lady piggies as friends for him to share the large (undivided) pen with.
This last option is something we were considering doing with Pepe as we have reserved two female piggies already and were going to either put them in a single cage out of the way of all four (now three) boys or put Pepe with them.
We are in somewhat of a dilemma as, although option 4 to me is the best option, I am reluctant to get any of my boys "done" after hearing a few unpleasant results from recent neuterings. Also although Dylan is somewhat of a loner I do think he likes to have company some of the time as he gets quite happy when put in the run next to Pepe at playtime (again divided by grids).
Also, I'm not sure how well Pepe would get on being next to Blaze as they are both quite dominant piggies. Dylan conversely is quite passive unless actually in the same pen as Pepe when he turned in to a bit of a bully (we tried to bond them recently without success).
Any advice on these options, plus advise on when best to instigate any of them, would be appreciated.
Sorry if this is in the wrong section, I'm not entirely sure where this should go so feel free to move it if necessary to the right board.
He is already looking around outside his cage for his little boy and just seems generally low. Although we had to separate them several months ago (as Scampy's adolescent side seemed to come out and he got somewhat aggressive towards his dad), they both still needed to be next to each other and spent a lot of the time lying beside each other, divided by the grids of their pen. Even yestedray when Scampy was near the end, he snuggled up to his dad so it's blatantly obvious that the bond had remained.
We now don't know what to do about Blaze. As I see it we have 4 options:
1) Do nothing and hope that the general company of us and our other two piggies keeps him happy etc. (unlikely I suspect)
2) Put one of the other two piggies, speciifically Pepe who also seems to need company, in Scampy's part of the pen, leaving Dylan, who seems to be something of a loner anyway, on his own above them - Dylan is currently next to Pepe.
3) Get another male piggie (not sure how old) to put in Scampy's side of the cage and either try to bond them at a later date or leave them as per the Blaze/Scampy arrangement of just being divided by grids
4) Get Blaze neutered and get him one or two lady piggies as friends for him to share the large (undivided) pen with.
This last option is something we were considering doing with Pepe as we have reserved two female piggies already and were going to either put them in a single cage out of the way of all four (now three) boys or put Pepe with them.
We are in somewhat of a dilemma as, although option 4 to me is the best option, I am reluctant to get any of my boys "done" after hearing a few unpleasant results from recent neuterings. Also although Dylan is somewhat of a loner I do think he likes to have company some of the time as he gets quite happy when put in the run next to Pepe at playtime (again divided by grids).
Also, I'm not sure how well Pepe would get on being next to Blaze as they are both quite dominant piggies. Dylan conversely is quite passive unless actually in the same pen as Pepe when he turned in to a bit of a bully (we tried to bond them recently without success).
Any advice on these options, plus advise on when best to instigate any of them, would be appreciated.
Sorry if this is in the wrong section, I'm not entirely sure where this should go so feel free to move it if necessary to the right board.