How fast can bonds break (scared, what have I done?)

Scooter Pie

Scooter Pie

Teenage Guinea Pig
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Today I attempted a bonding session with my two bonded sow pairs. They have lived in the same room almost a year and recently became adjoining neighbors through the bars.

I am seriously beating myself up now. Ive read all the guides. It did not go well.

They ignored each other and ate, and pretty much as soon as they noticed each other it went bad and we separated them.

One pair is fine. The other two were teeth chattering at each other (which I have NEVER seen before, just some mild chasing and rumbling monthly)

Turns out one of them sustained a bite on her lip during the meeting. I dont know who did it. Just a small amount of blood when I patted it with a paper towel, and I put antibiotic ointment on it.

Could this have broken their bond in one sitting? They are both exhausted and sleeping now. I'm not leaving their side all day.

I feel HORRIBLE for trying this. I let my kids pressure me. To be fair, our goal has always been to have 3-4 together so noone was suddenly alone again.

The 4 of them were together 10 minutes tops. Ive now removed the bridge that connected their cages where they enjoyed eating hay together through the bars.
 
Don’t panic.
I’m not an expert so I’m not going to advise.
However, when I bonded 2 pairs - Merab & Jemimah with Priscilla and Phoebe, I aged about 10 years and found the bonding guides plus ongoing forum support invaluable.
Priscilla and Jemimah tussled, we had chin- offs, nips and pulled fur.
Priscilla had ATTITUDE while Jemimah had no intention of yielding her place.

It took 2 weeks nearly before they decided to be best friends.
So - please don’t beat yourself up.
One of the bonding experts will be able to give you more practical advice & help
 
Merab's Slave said:
Don’t panic.
I’m not an expert so I’m not going to advise.
However, when I bonded 2 pairs - Merab & Jemimah with Priscilla and Phoebe, I aged about 10 years and found the bonding guides plus ongoing forum support invaluable.
Priscilla and Jemimah tussled, we had chin- offs, nips and pulled fur.
Priscilla had ATTITUDE while Jemimah had no intention of yielding her place.

It took 2 weeks nearly before they decided to be best friends.
So - please don’t beat yourself up.
One of the bonding experts will be able to give you more practical advice & help
Click to expand...
Thank you...sitting by them with my knitting and things are quiet.

So you were eventually successful?
 
If anyone's reading this, Ive stopped panicking and after sitting with them and observing behavior for about 4 hours, looks like the girls are still friends. No more intense teeth chattering. That was scary 😭

I found a tuft of the other pig's fur in the pen where the failed meeting was. So both pigs were bitten (one just lost fur) and they must have just been really scared right afterwards 💔and were taking it out on each other
 
Take a deep breath. Bondings are just as stressful for the humans to watch as for the piggies. And a failed bonding session can just leave the piggies agitated for a bit. Sounds like things have calmed down again. You weren’t to know that it would fail. It could have been a huge success, so it was a good idea to try. Just a shame the ladies weren’t playing ball. Chalk it down to experience and put it behind you.
 
That’s good to hear they have calmed down now
I tried to bond a young male piggie earlier this year after Ginger and Posh’s lovely old boar Ted died. I thought it would be a doddle like it was with Ted, they were all very friendly at the bars, the girls seemed particularly happy, but what a shock I got :yikes:
Hector acted like a thug! The two girls were instantly irritated with each other and then all hell broke out with a cat fight with Ginger and Posh, while Hector stood by wondering what had happened, didn’t see that coming! Anyway the girls were fine after they had cooled off and Hector got a little lady of his own, so all’s well, bonding is never the same and that one was a no go!
 
Thanks so much. In the moments right afterward I thought there would be lasting damage. I never expected trouble between these two after they were back home together. They slept really hard for a while - eyes nearly closed!

The other unexpected thing was that it was the smallest of them all that said NOOOO to the others! Maybe she felt threatened by the other two's size. One is the biggest of the 4 and she's the one who got the bite!
 
Scooter Pie said:
Thanks so much. In the moments right afterward I thought there would be lasting damage. I never expected trouble between these two after they were back home together. They slept really hard for a while - eyes nearly closed!

The other unexpected thing was that it was the smallest of them all that said NOOOO to the others! Maybe she felt threatened by the other two's size. One is the biggest of the 4 and she's the one who got the bite!
Click to expand...
there‘s no accounting for their choices! I would have expected Posh the Boss to have fought Hector but no she went for her cage mate who is the very large underpig because she was getting the most attention from Hector :doh: Nowt so strange as piggies 😆 jealously or what?
 
I’m glad that the girls are friends again. We tried bonding Edward and Elizabeth with a mother and daughter pair back in October. Well, Elizabeth went for Edward :( Thankfully their bond wasn’t broken as Barbara split them straight away but it was a failed bond. Fast forward to March and we tried again with two different sows and the bonding was a success
 
Merab's Slave said:
Yes, they settled into a very happy herd of four.
Priscilla and Jemimah developed a strong bond which lasted until Jemimah’s death last year.
Click to expand...
I never realised you bonded your girls. Lovely Jemimah, was looking at some photos the other day and thinking back at Bill, Ted and Jemimah 😊
 
Bill & Ted said:
I never realised you bonded your girls. Lovely Jemimah, was looking at some photos the other day and thinking back at Bill, Ted and Jemimah 😊
Click to expand...
Yes - when Keziah died I was concerned that Jemimah could end up on her own as Merab was a few years older. I saw these 2 piggies needing rehoming so Priscilla and Phoebe joined the family and after they had settled I bonded the 2 pairs.
Stressful but successful.
It’s hard to believe that Bill, Ted and Jemimah are no longer with us.

@Scooter Pie - sorry for the minor derailment of your thread.
 
Merab's Slave said:
Yes - when Keziah died I was concerned that Jemimah could end up on her own as Merab was a few years older. I saw these 2 piggies needing rehoming so Priscilla and Phoebe joined the family and after they had settled I bonded the 2 pairs.
Stressful but successful.
It’s hard to believe that Bill, Ted and Jemimah are no longer with us.

@Scooter Pie - sorry for the minor derailment of your thread.
Click to expand...
💕Not at all! I love reading these stories. I went from 2 to 1 to 3 to 4 :) all because of my first two 💕
 
@Scooter Pie
Sorry it didn't work . I'm no expert but I tho once fight blood then it's a massive no.
I tried twice and oh I failed big time . .
It's hard as you love each individual piggie and putting them into a situation where you see them stress make humaoooon slaves stress also.
You tried . Hope all calm now.
 
Would you consider putting the grids back so they can still be neighbours? Whilst our bonding wasn't successful they currently seem to enjoy the interaction through the grids.

Sorry should have also added that our girls were a bit off with each other for a short while afterwards but very soon back to normal.
 
I will think about it for the future...I needed to redesign the meeting point anyway, as it was only one square wide and got dirty too fast.

And I had it one square apart with two grids...when we had it with just one grid and they could really sniff each other, there was some chattering and snorting, and the other pair was chinning off with each other!

Maybe that was a sign. Because I had read that how they interact through the bars wasn't exactly how they'd act together, we still wanted to try.

But it was cute to see them close together!
(little Kona on the right, the mean one today, and Cinnamon on the left, who had some of her mullet clipped off!)2C811F78-C353-46EC-8570-308336175E7A.webp
 
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