Bullying

[Marty]

Hi

Following Julie's thread the other day: http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=11297.0

Blaze and our new baby piggie (christened Oscar btw) had seemed to be getting on better over the last couple of days.

However, today when we got in and were having dinner we noticed Blaze's "bullying" had returned and that Oscar was starting to react back.

As we had set up Blaze and Scampy's old CNC cage the other night we decided to move them both in to this much larger area, as intended in the first place, hoping that the extra space would help things but instead Blaze's bullying has got worse. In the last couple of hours we've seen him

1) Try and spray Oscar (or kick his leg out at him) with his scent on several ocassions
2) Chase Oscar around the cage in an attempt to mount him
3) Chased Oscar away from the food bowl
4) Tried to squeeze his way in to Oscar's much smaller stick house to stop Oscar eating the hay we had put in there for him
5) Blocked Oscar's route out of his stick house by lying directly across it's entrance
6) Blaze is constantly rumbling and lying on/around the hay (which he never did before) which sometimes prohibits Oscar from going near the hay - we have put double of everything in the C&C including hay at each end

Oscar has in turn tried nipping Blaze back a few times, but still runs to him and generally doesn't seem bothered, although there is often a stressed noise when Blaze is rumbling. At the moment they are lying snuggled up close to each other!

We had been expecting the attempted mountings and possible little nips but hadn't expected this!

This behaviour is very familiar to us as this is how Blaze initially reacted to Scampy prior to them falling out when Blaze fell ill and Scampy tried to take advantage of Blaze's illness and usurp him as "top pig". Oddly enough, Blaze's droppings have become soft again after they had returned to normal for about 4 days so we were wondering if he's just reacting to feeling unwell again.

We don't want to give up on trying to bond Oscar with Blaze but we also don't want them getting in to a huge fight (like Blaze and Scampy did) and end up having to take them both to the vets etc. Oscar's very small (he's only 6 weeks old) and does seem to need the company of the older pig but I don't want him to get injured either.

As a side note, we are taking all four of our piggies to Vedra at the CCT on Friday to get them all checked out as Blaze, Dylan and Pepe have all been unwell since Scampy died (which we had thought had cleared up) so I'm hoping she can give us some possible insight in to his behaviour. (We sent her samples of all three boys' droppings last week for analysis so are hoping she may have found some reason for their loose droppings)

However, we'd really like some help and advice on what people think should be the best course of action as I'm beginning to think getting Blaze a new friend, now matter how badly he was missing Scampy, wasn't such a good idea

Marty & Julie

 

[karenrgpr]

Hi Marty, I feel so sorry for you. Weren't you just going to seperate them if things didn't work out? This is still early days though... Perhaps you should give them a bit longer to try and get on- if you can bear it : Failing that seperate them and give Rugby Rescue a ring

 

[Marty]

Hi Karen

Yep, it is still very early days - I am suspecting the behaviour has stepped up as we moved them from the temp cage to a large C&C so they are re-establishing their territory. Last night after some frantic leg-cocking from Blaze and a couple of lunges from Oscar (he's certainly a fearless little man, which is why I wonder if he has the right temperament to be housed with an already 'top' pig!) Julie reported that both were popcorning and Oscar was dashing about having a right old time : so something is obviously going right! I think after what happened with Scampy when he fell out with Blaze has made us extra wary; because Scampy and Blaze were father and son, we never had the whole chasing and mounting thing, until they fell out there was just them rumbling at each other, so all this is probably normal between Blaze and the baby, it's hard to watch though. The mountings seem to have decreased, as Blaze has tried, but Oscar has managed to leg it! Julie is at home today and tomorrow so she can monitor more closely.

We've decided that we won't persue a spayed sow just yet - we want to give Oscar and Blaze the best chance possible - we haven't witnessed a fight yet so we are prepared to separate if need be, but think both piggies would be happier if they could work it out!

 

[karenrgpr]

I think as long as you prepare yourselves for whats to come and have your own plan of action eg we'll seperate if/when x happens, then it makes things easier all round. Get some Rescue Remedy (Bachs) and put a couple of drops in their water and some on their skin (the bald patch behind their ear (obviously if they react to it- which they shouldn't) then discontinue using it). RR has been helpful where pigs have previously got on but because of a change in circumstances- eg cage, all is not well