HELP! I have a Houdini piggie!

[Rhinerah]

So, with the birth of three pups, three weeks ago, my brood has grown to six healthy and happy piggies. Of the three that were born, we have two females and one male. I have checked and rechecked and triple checked their bits to ensure I am correct in this! Knowing that the risk of pregnancy is increasing by the moment, I took the little guy (Nigel) and put him into the adjoining partition of the large C&C cage to begin life as a boar mate with his father.

This has been somewhat traumatising for him (AND ME) as he cries and cries and tries to climb, dig, and I'm sure TELEPORT himself back into the bigger part of the cage with his mum Ingrid, his sisters (unnamed as I am hoping to re-home them....*sigh*) and his Auntie Penny... every time I have done intros with his dad over the past few weeks.

I decided that tonight was indeed the night that we were going to pull off the big switcheroo! I put his favourite alfalfa hay in with the grasses in the hay rack, laid out fresh flat parsley (like an olive branch? lol) and placed him in. His father, Mr. Hazel purred and sniffed and chased and popcorned and all Nigel could do was cry and dig and climb and cry. I had to leave for a short while to run an errand and when I returned....TAH FREAKING DAH! Guess who was miraculously back in the other part of the cage?

I have two grids side by side separating the cage extension and as you can see in the pic, we have coro placed most of the way up so that the wee ones don't strangle themselves going from A-B. I even moved the coro onto the boy's side so that he couldn't scale it by using the grid work as footholds.


Now I come to the decision. Do I put him into a separate store bought cage I have on hand for incubation if necessary until I can rig up something else? Will this traumatise him more? I do NOT want any more babies and I know this is a crucial time. They are 3 weeks and 3 days old today. I have convinced the OH to help me build another cage for the boars entirely that will also use the C&C. This will have to happen after I finish work tomorrow evening.

I am at a loss. Help! :red

 

[Rhinerah]

Also, if I do put him in the incubation cage, would it be better to keep him in the same room with the other piggies, or to put him in my bedroom? Ack...this is heartbreaking for me. I love this little orange troublemaker!

 

[sunnypig]

Maybe you could try putting him back with his dad, but let him see the others through the grids, and pig-proof them, but leave a little window so he can see and sniff and what not. (:

 

[Rhinerah]

Good idea. It's just for this one night, and I've run out of cable ties for any further piggie proofing though lol. I've got to get some sleep now, or I'll be ridiculous at work in the AM, so I've put him in the incubation cage on his own with the wooden hut from the girls cage and plenty of hays and his favourite tunnel. He is in my room (for now) since his wheeking was causing all the pigs to create a big ruckus.

 

[Rhinerah]

Nigel has ventured out of the hut to enjoy some cucumber as a bed time treat.
x)

It's going to be a long night if he keeps crying for his mum! I have been observing that she has already begun the weaning process and has consistently denied him any milk over the past two days, so hopefully I am timing this all properly.

Never again!

 

[sunnypig]

Nigel has ventured out of the hut to enjoy some cucumber as a bed time treat.
x)

It's going to be a long night if he keeps crying for his mum! I have been observing that she has already begun the weaning process and has consistently denied him any milk over the past two days, so hopefully I am timing this all properly.

Never again!

he's so cute!x)