C&c Cage Too Big For Baby?

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schnicksy

schnicksy

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yesterday I adopted a 6 week old piggy from Blue Cross. She's currently in my old Ferplast cage until she's ready to meet my original piggies in a couple of weeks.

Anyway, I discovered tonight Molly in an escape artist. She climbed out the cage, jumped down from the table and hid. After a lot of panicking, I found her hiding in the corner of my piggies C&C cage. She fits through the gaps in the cubes.

Does anyone have an ideas how I can modify the cage so she won't escape when she joins them? I am guessing I'll need to make the sides higher too so she doesn't climb out too!
 
schnicksy said:
yesterday I adopted a 6 week old piggy from Blue Cross. She's currently in my old Ferplast cage until she's ready to meet my original piggies in a couple of weeks.

Anyway, I discovered tonight Molly in an escape artist. She climbed out the cage, jumped down from the table and hid. After a lot of panicking, I found her hiding in the corner of my piggies C&C cage. She fits through the gaps in the cubes.

Does anyone have an ideas how I can modify the cage so she won't escape when she joins them? I am guessing I'll need to make the sides higher too so she doesn't climb out too!
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Hi!
A) any baby at that age is ABSOLUTELY desperate for company! Please leave her in the pen with your other piggies. She's met them anyway. Any good rescue will rehome only quarantined or rescue born healthy babies, so a quarantine is not necessary. Now that they have met, it is moot anyway.

B) I used cardboard and correx offcuts to shore up the baby pen for as long as my surprise baby Tegan was small enough to walk through until she'd grown large enough to not get head stuck any more. I just pegged or cable tied the pieces to the grids for the time being.
upload_2016-9-5_19-4-41.webp
 
Wiebke said:
Hi!
A) any baby at that age is ABSOLUTELY desperate for company! Please leave her in the pen with your other piggies. She's met them anyway. Any good rescue will rehome only quarantined or rescue born healthy babies, so a quarantine is not necessary. Now that they have met, it is moot anyway.

B) I used cardboard and correx offcuts to shore up the baby pen for as long as my surprise baby Tegan was small enough to walk through until she'd grown large enough to not get head stuck any more. I just pegged or cable tied the pieces to the grids for the time being.
View attachment 51935
Click to expand...

I'll get the sides shored up and get her into the pen asap. I'm afraid of leaving her in there in case she escapes overnight. I should have a bunch of card I can use and then can introduce them properly tomorrow. I'm not sure they noticed her as she was hidden at the back. I've only adopted adults before so this is new.

I'm so afraid of doing the wrong thing I end up doing it anyway!
 
schnicksy said:
I'll get the sides shored up and get her into the pen asap. I'm afraid of leaving her in there in case she escapes overnight. I should have a bunch of card I can use and then can introduce them properly tomorrow. I'm not sure they noticed her as she was hidden at the back. I've only adopted adults before so this is new.

I'm so afraid of doing the wrong thing I end up doing it anyway!
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Babies usually fit in around any adults, so bonding a sow baby is not at all a problem. What you need to brace yourself is some initial heavy duty dominance behaviour, as they are firmly pushed to the bottom of the hierarchy. Don't worry about that; their mums have done the same at the end of the nursing period when babies lose their proteectyed status in the group. Baby will attach itself to one of the adults and follow her as little shadow, to feel safe and to learn the piggy ways from her adopted auntie. During that period, I would remove any hideys with just one exit, as throwing an underpiggy out of a hidey or off a bowl is stock-in-trade! Ideally you have as many bowls as you have piggies, and serve veg and pellets only in portions that can be eaten in one go several times a day. That way, you prevent food hogging by the dominant piggy.
Sow Behaviour
Illustrated Bonding Behaviours And Dynamics
 
Wiebke said:
Babies usually fit in around any adults, so bonding a sow baby is not at all a problem. What you need to brace yourself is some initial heavy duty dominance behaviour, as they are firmly pushed to the bottom of the hierarchy. Don't worry about that; their mums have done the same at the end of the nursing period when babies lose their proteectyed status in the group. Baby will attach itself to one of the adults and follow her as little shadow, to feel safe and to learn the piggy ways from her adopted auntie. During that period, I would remove any hideys with just one exit, as throwing an underpiggy out of a hidey or off a bowl is stock-in-trade! Ideally you have as many bowls as you have piggies, and serve veg and pellets only in portions that can be eaten in one go several times a day. That way, you prevent food hogging by the dominant piggy.
Sow Behaviour
Illustrated Bonding Behaviours And Dynamics
Click to expand...

I didn't realise bonding a baby was so much easier than an adult. I read up on bonding when I introduced Rufus so thought it might be similar. I'm tracking down things I can use to shore up the sides. I am regretting going to the tip at the weekend!

Thank you so much for the advice. I'm getting it all sorted tonight for intros tomorrow. I think I'll run out of time before bed because of work.
 
schnicksy said:
I didn't realise bonding a baby was so much easier than an adult. I read up on bonding when I introduced Rufus so thought it might be similar. I'm tracking down things I can use to shore up the sides. I am regretting going to the tip at the weekend!

Thank you so much for the advice. I'm getting it all sorted tonight for intros tomorrow. I think I'll run out of time before bed because of work.
Click to expand...

Sow babies are usually fairly easy to bond, but it still depends on your two big ones and how maternal they are. Youngsters can't challenge for the existing sow hierarchy, so they are not seen a thread for any position.
 
I have never had problems bonding girls into the herd and I have a male in with them all.I currently have nine girls and a boy in a 24 square foot run.Maybe I've just been extremely lucky.Babies are even easier.I just cleaned out the run, rubbed the baby with hay from the litter tray and put her in.
 
@madguinealady it was that easy? It was a fiasco with my boar so I have expected the same. I'm currently finding enough cardboard or similar to put around the cage. Then I'll clean it out again and make it fresh and ready for her to join them.
 
Absolute doddle.Put jaz and Riley in with the gang couple of days ago and have had no agro at all.Heathcliffe rumblestrutted for a few minutes when Milo went in with him and within an hour they were either end of a strand of hay.
 
Really pleased to have read this thread.

I collected two 6 week old baby girls from the Blue Cross on Sunday. They are gorgeous, but terrified. I'd forgotten how small baby pigs are. I haven't had anyone younger than 12 weeks old for over 8 years now. I've left them alone apart from feeds and a quick peek to check they're both still ok morning and evening.

They are in a separate hutch from my neutered boar and his wife pig for now and I was going to see what the reaction from my 'big' pair was to the new youngsters by putting two outdoor runs next to each other on Saturday when I have more time to observe. I am hoping that my Lilith, who is the most confident pig I have ever met, will take to them and have some sort of 'auntie' instincts in her which would help them settle in and get used to the household routine.

On Saturday should I just pop them straight into the large run together with plenty of boxes with their sides cut out and let them get on with it whilst keeping an eye out for any aggression whilst observing and sitting through the hierarchy noise? Or should I follow the Blue Cross advice and go with the swapping bedding and hutches etc and meeting via the outside run for a week or so first?

Worst case scenario I've got two very large hutches, and there is room in the shed for both hutches for the winter if intros don't work. I really hope they do like each other and can all live together though.

@schnicksy I hope the meeting went well today.
 
@Tewdric I got mine from Blue Cross too - were yours from Burford too?

Mine will be meeting later today (after work) and I'll just stay up until I need to. I just need to finish attaching the card so she can't escape.

When I introduced Rufus to my original two, I just did it in one go. They could smell each other before and then just went for it! It worked out fine as they all got on so they stayed together.

Good luck!
 
schnicksy said:
I have a boy and two girls already bonded plus the baby girl. Does that make it more complicated? (He is neutered - he was 'done' before I rehomed him.
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No, not to my knowledge; I've never had any problems with my own groups in that respect. We tend to call neutered boars living with sows "husboars" on this forum; then there is no confusion! :)
 
@Tewdric I had Molly. Apparently she was the biggest and she's tiny! There has been lots of chutting so far but not major aggression. Flynn has been annoyed a couple of times (the dominant sow) but otherwise it seems to be going okay. I'll move them into their pen soon.

Good luck with yours. I hope it all goes okay.
 
Mine were only 0.4 and 0.3 Kg on Friday. Really tiny. They're both tucking into everything I put into their hutch, so I think they'll grow pretty quickly.

Hope tonight is peaceful for you.
 
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