JennaG
New Born Pup
Hello, we sadly lost one of our two female piggies a couple of weeks ago. At the weekend (2 weeks later) we brought home another female piggy from a rescue to try and bond with our remaining girl. We set up side by side enclosures for them and swapped bedding and hideys around so they could smell each other as much as possible. The new piggy seemed like the most sociable and dominant while our original girl seemed less interested, but when they interacted through the bars they seemed curious but ok.
So last night we put them together into a large neutral space. For the first 5-10 minutes they seemed pretty ok and while there was a bit of rumbling and nose butting they were eating together. But the situation deteriorated and eventually our original piggy behaved like a total bully and was chasing and intimidating the new piggy so that she was terrified.
Our piggy was submissive in her previous pairing but she now seems to want to be dominant, and I think the new piggy might also want to be dominant so I don’t know if this will work or whether they need more attempts. They are next to each other again and they both sometimes rumble at each other and don’t seem to be showing any particular signs of friendliness. Is this a normal part of the bonding process or is this a pairing that’s not likely to work out? They are both a similar age (about 3.5 years) but our original girl is a lot bigger. Should we try them together again? We’d be so sad to give the new piggy back to the rescue, she is a gorgeous little thing, but they do need to get along.
Sorry for the long post, any insights are most welcome! Thanks.
So last night we put them together into a large neutral space. For the first 5-10 minutes they seemed pretty ok and while there was a bit of rumbling and nose butting they were eating together. But the situation deteriorated and eventually our original piggy behaved like a total bully and was chasing and intimidating the new piggy so that she was terrified.
Our piggy was submissive in her previous pairing but she now seems to want to be dominant, and I think the new piggy might also want to be dominant so I don’t know if this will work or whether they need more attempts. They are next to each other again and they both sometimes rumble at each other and don’t seem to be showing any particular signs of friendliness. Is this a normal part of the bonding process or is this a pairing that’s not likely to work out? They are both a similar age (about 3.5 years) but our original girl is a lot bigger. Should we try them together again? We’d be so sad to give the new piggy back to the rescue, she is a gorgeous little thing, but they do need to get along.
Sorry for the long post, any insights are most welcome! Thanks.