How long did it take for your piggies to gain more confidence / come out of their shells?

jazzpiggie

jazzpiggie

New Born Pup
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So far I think our boys are settling in well! It has been nearly two weeks since we brought our babies Felix and Fergus home.

As anticipated they are still quite skittish, however they will run up and eat veggies from my hands and will try to sit in the dustpan as I sweep up their cage during spot cleans XD

Their enclosure is set up in the study where I work from home so they constantly hear my chatter/music/typing all day long. They do come out of their little hideys to munch on food and wander around now despite the background noise of me working, which I take as a win! However they still do bolt at any unexpected movements (eg me standing up from my chair and walking in or out of the room) and as expected aren’t huge fans of being handled just yet.

I suppose the only reason for my post is as the last time I had pigs before now was 13 years ago, and all I can remember is having super confident piggies that would wheek at the top of their lungs if they knew I was around 🤣 I know it would’ve taken them some time to get to that level of confidence but being 13 years ago my memory is rather hazy. And then I also realise that each piggie has their own personality and some are naturally more shy than others.

Would you say we’re on the right track in terms of how things are going?

I’m also bearing in mind that our boys are still tiny babies so I’m not sure if that naturally makes them more timid than my previous older piggies.

Any input is appreciated! :clap:

Pls accept this low quality photo of Fergus and piggie tax :luv:
 

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It sounds like they are doing brilliantly!
Running away at unexpected movement is likely something they will do forever - they’re prey animals and anything like that is going to scare them.

They definitely are all individual.

I currently have three piggies (all living separately), my fourth passed away two weeks ago.
My rainbow bridge piggy Dexter was taking food from me after 6 weeks with me.
His cagemate, Popcorn, (6 yrs old) took a year and a half before he took food from me for the first time. He has always been very nervy. He has come a bit out of his shell since Dexter passed but still doesn’t really want me to touch him and is still the most nervous of my three.
The other two are 18 or so months old. They were confident from day 1, taking food from me, interested in what I was doing, yelling at the top of their voices etc. As they have got older, Hugo has decided he doesn’t want to be touched but Wilbur loves nothing more than stroking and a fuss.
 
Comet was very confident from the beginning, Blitzen took a lot longer. He always preferred to let Comet deal with the Human, so when he finally took god directly from me it felt incredible, and also awkward because I really wanted to whoop out loud and that would've been very unhelpful under the circumstances, lol.

With the goblins, they still don't like me handling them but they'll beg for food from me, I've been nose to nose giving them food (unintentionally) and Cam loves to run around my feet when he gets half a chance, but it's been two years and I don't really know where that shift happened. It's been slow and steady since I adopted them when they were older and I wasn't their first home.
 
It sounds like very fast progress to me. My boys still always run away at a sudden noise and they hate mobile phones! They both growl if you use one in the same room.
Dignified Sir George is a very laid back lil dude and has always taken things in his stride. He was happy climbing on me and sitting on my lap after about six weeks. It took another couple of months for him to be comfortable with being picked up but being the chilled personality that he is once you had him he was calm about anything whether it was weekly checks or lap time.
Mischievous Master Boris is totally different. He was about 4 months old when we got him and was quite happy to take food from our hands and climb all over us right from the start. He can still be a nightmare to catch, weekly checks are always ok but lap time was always short until recently as he would never settle. I don't know if it's because he is now an adult but suddenly over the last few weeks he's started getting very cuddly and has even gone to sleep on us!
 
It took Phoebe nearly 6 months to stop running away every time I went into the room.
Others it’s been a varying amount of time.
Yours sound as if they’re settling very happily
 
Piggies&buns said:
It sounds like they are doing brilliantly!
Running away at unexpected movement is likely something they will do forever - they’re prey animals and anything like that is going to scare them.

They definitely are all individual.

I currently have three piggies (all living separately), my fourth passed away two weeks ago.
My rainbow bridge piggy Dexter was taking food from me after 6 weeks with me.
His cagemate, Popcorn, (6 yrs old) took a year and a half before he took food from me for the first time. He has always been very nervy. He has come a bit out of his shell since Dexter passed but still doesn’t really want me to touch him and is still the most nervous of my three.
The other two are 18 or so months old. They were confident from day 1, taking food from me, interested in what I was doing, yelling at the top of their voices etc. As they have got older, Hugo has decided he doesn’t want to be touched but Wilbur loves nothing more than stroking and a fuss.
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Thank you for your reply! That definitely makes me feel like I'm on the right track :yahoo:

They truly are all individual, sweet creatures ❤️ I am sorry to hear about your recent loss x
 
Lorcan said:
Comet was very confident from the beginning, Blitzen took a lot longer. He always preferred to let Comet deal with the Human, so when he finally took god directly from me it felt incredible, and also awkward because I really wanted to whoop out loud and that would've been very unhelpful under the circumstances, lol.

With the goblins, they still don't like me handling them but they'll beg for food from me, I've been nose to nose giving them food (unintentionally) and Cam loves to run around my feet when he gets half a chance, but it's been two years and I don't really know where that shift happened. It's been slow and steady since I adopted them when they were older and I wasn't their first home.
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Haha :yahoo:cheering internally so as to not scare them :xd:

They sound like such cute fuzzballs!
 
fluffysal said:
It sounds like very fast progress to me. My boys still always run away at a sudden noise and they hate mobile phones! They both growl if you use one in the same room.
Dignified Sir George is a very laid back lil dude and has always taken things in his stride. He was happy climbing on me and sitting on my lap after about six weeks. It took another couple of months for him to be comfortable with being picked up but being the chilled personality that he is once you had him he was calm about anything whether it was weekly checks or lap time.
Mischievous Master Boris is totally different. He was about 4 months old when we got him and was quite happy to take food from our hands and climb all over us right from the start. He can still be a nightmare to catch, weekly checks are always ok but lap time was always short until recently as he would never settle. I don't know if it's because he is now an adult but suddenly over the last few weeks he's started getting very cuddly and has even gone to sleep on us!
Click to expand...
Thank you for your reply! I love their different personalities!

Our Fergus (in the picture above) is definitely the shyer of the two, but he seems to follow Felix's lead. If Felix comes out to roam and munch, then so does Fergus :xd:
 
It sounds like they are doing well! They are prey animals, a lot of more cautious pigs will startle at unexpected noises and sudden movements for their entire lives. It's part of what kept them alive as wild animals.

I think personality has a lot to do with things too... I've had pigs who are naturally very confident and pigs who are naturally very cautious. Right now I have one of each, Misa has literally had a lot of swagger and confidence ever since we got her as a baby and Tomie is naturally very cautious and alert. Generally I do think that pigs mellow out over the first year or two and naturally calm down a bit during that time, but individual personality differences do stay over time. I do think having a more confident pig helps a more cautious pig to relax a bit too. Tomie definitely follows Misa's lead with things and if Misa is comfortable, Tomie is more comfortable too.
 
Like written above, it can vary a lot how quickly piggies adjust to their new home. Two weeks is a very short adjusting period.
My piggies are older (from 1.5 to 6 years) and very confident. But I still get the bolting flight reaction from time to time.
 
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