The Lorax
New Born Pup
Hello All,
I'm a newbie here and could use your help. First, the back story: a year ago, my family adopted four boars from a rescue center, which (I know now from reading this forum is a NO), and also they did not give me any useful information, at all, about anything. Since then, I've tried to read all I can and my family loves these piggies as best we can. They were about 4 months old when we adopted them and are now about 15 and a half months. At the time we adopted them, I didn't know the difference between dominance and bullying, and one piggy was being terrorized. Blood was drawn and I didn't know how serious this was. I thought him jumping up on high places was just him being acrobatic. I didn't know that all the noise they made running around after him was not just guinea pigs being guinea pigs. I read a lot of information but was clearly in the wrong places. A few days before New Year's Day this year, this one piggy was clearly not doing well. We took him to urgent care, where the vet told us that he'd been terrorized -- bitten so much and probably had pneumonia because his immune system was so stressed. He died on New Year's Day morning after receiving oxygen and being syringe fed. I assure you, I have been gutted by this whole experience and cannot believe that this little creature under my care was so horribly mistreated. I found out too late the extremely hard way and even as I write this, am crying.
So now I have the three other boars. Since the one piggy died, they have been so quiet (like not running around the cage at each other and crashing into things). There is a new hierarchy that is clear. They have what I believe is a sufficient amount of space -- 2 4 x 2 C and C cages and those connect to a larger square pen. #1 (the most dominant) and #2 piggy are always together -- sleeping, following each other around, etc. They get into it, but there is no blood. They don't actually ever fight in the way you describe on the forum -- like no actual rolling around and such. More just rumble strutting, but I do see the occasional tuft of fur on the bedding. #3 is clearly on the outs and my main issue is that I cannot figure out if he is stressed like the other piggy was or if this is just dominance and this is the deal. They are all around the same weight -- about 95.25 kg. All 3 are eating, drinking, etc, but the #3 piggy will get chased away from the hay area or his chosen sleeping area. Today I saw #1 piggy try to nip at him as he went by. And then today I also saw him jump on top of a Pigloo twice and that just stressed me out so much because that's what the #4 piggy used to do when he was trying to get away from the other piggies. But then I will also see all three of them in the same hay box together eating smoothly. I know from reading the forum that it is very unlikely 3 boars will get on together for life. I just don't know if my piggies are fine or if they need separation. #1 and #2 will popcorn around and I can't remember the last time I saw #3 do that. I will just lose sleep and sit there watching them rather than risk what happened before again. Here is what I could specific help with:
1) I know your recommendation is to have two water bottles, two hay areas. Does this mean like on opposite sides of my enclosure or is two bottles and two hay boxes in the same area sufficient?
2) I started spreading the veggies around the cage instead of in one bowl (although they all come eat at the bowl just fine). Would you recommend I keep doing this?
3) Any thoughts at all on whether this sounds like normal dominance or does it sound like something more?
4) I know blood being drawn is a clear sign for needing separation; what about fur pulling?
Thank you for any advice,
Lorax
I'm a newbie here and could use your help. First, the back story: a year ago, my family adopted four boars from a rescue center, which (I know now from reading this forum is a NO), and also they did not give me any useful information, at all, about anything. Since then, I've tried to read all I can and my family loves these piggies as best we can. They were about 4 months old when we adopted them and are now about 15 and a half months. At the time we adopted them, I didn't know the difference between dominance and bullying, and one piggy was being terrorized. Blood was drawn and I didn't know how serious this was. I thought him jumping up on high places was just him being acrobatic. I didn't know that all the noise they made running around after him was not just guinea pigs being guinea pigs. I read a lot of information but was clearly in the wrong places. A few days before New Year's Day this year, this one piggy was clearly not doing well. We took him to urgent care, where the vet told us that he'd been terrorized -- bitten so much and probably had pneumonia because his immune system was so stressed. He died on New Year's Day morning after receiving oxygen and being syringe fed. I assure you, I have been gutted by this whole experience and cannot believe that this little creature under my care was so horribly mistreated. I found out too late the extremely hard way and even as I write this, am crying.
So now I have the three other boars. Since the one piggy died, they have been so quiet (like not running around the cage at each other and crashing into things). There is a new hierarchy that is clear. They have what I believe is a sufficient amount of space -- 2 4 x 2 C and C cages and those connect to a larger square pen. #1 (the most dominant) and #2 piggy are always together -- sleeping, following each other around, etc. They get into it, but there is no blood. They don't actually ever fight in the way you describe on the forum -- like no actual rolling around and such. More just rumble strutting, but I do see the occasional tuft of fur on the bedding. #3 is clearly on the outs and my main issue is that I cannot figure out if he is stressed like the other piggy was or if this is just dominance and this is the deal. They are all around the same weight -- about 95.25 kg. All 3 are eating, drinking, etc, but the #3 piggy will get chased away from the hay area or his chosen sleeping area. Today I saw #1 piggy try to nip at him as he went by. And then today I also saw him jump on top of a Pigloo twice and that just stressed me out so much because that's what the #4 piggy used to do when he was trying to get away from the other piggies. But then I will also see all three of them in the same hay box together eating smoothly. I know from reading the forum that it is very unlikely 3 boars will get on together for life. I just don't know if my piggies are fine or if they need separation. #1 and #2 will popcorn around and I can't remember the last time I saw #3 do that. I will just lose sleep and sit there watching them rather than risk what happened before again. Here is what I could specific help with:
1) I know your recommendation is to have two water bottles, two hay areas. Does this mean like on opposite sides of my enclosure or is two bottles and two hay boxes in the same area sufficient?
2) I started spreading the veggies around the cage instead of in one bowl (although they all come eat at the bowl just fine). Would you recommend I keep doing this?
3) Any thoughts at all on whether this sounds like normal dominance or does it sound like something more?
4) I know blood being drawn is a clear sign for needing separation; what about fur pulling?
Thank you for any advice,
Lorax
