How long does it take 2 female piggies to bond?

currynugget

currynugget

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Hi all, I recently had to put down one of my piggies and decided to adopt another girl because I don't want my other one at home feels too lonely.

So we adopted a one year old piggy to accompany my (at least) 5 year old one at home. When we tried to match them, they did sniff at each other which is a good sign so we decided to bring her home.

At the moment, she is still quite scared, she's just hiding if she could. She would sometimes eats hay and veggies but I think she's too scared to move around. My 5 year old one, she would sometimes approach her, and yes sometimes she would chatters her teeth at her and vice versa, but I noticed that sometimes she just wants to get to know her and she wasn't being aggressive. However, it looks like the new piggy is just too scared with her approaching her and would run away.

Any advice? Is this normal?
 
Good luck with the bonding. It sounds positive as they are not fighting.
 
All the best! Bonding can take overnight if needed. If you have a piggy on edge; then it usually helps to cover the top of the cage with a sheet or towel so you can still them interact from the side but they feel protected in unfamiliar territory.
Please take the time to read our very practical and detailed bonding guide, which takes you through all stages of the process.

Be aware that acceptance may not happen. By far not all bondings will come off. There is no measure with which you can force piggies to do that; ultimately, they have to want to be with each other. The guide will tell you for every stage of the ca. 2 weeks process whether your girls are still on course or not.

As long as your girls are not interacting, the process hasn't started yet.

All the best!
 
My 2 girls took weeks and I was a mess... but they ended up fine. Pic is below - the black one is my gentle boy, George, and the black and white is Flora - she's the smallest. They were a friendly pair, and then fluffy Louise joined them after her friend Zara passed. I knew Flora would be boss girl as she is assertive and Louise is timid. I also knew that George had an eye for Louise as ever since she arrived he'd been smitten! Our problem was that Louise was SO timid that she just hid away all the time and so Flora couldn't seem to get the message that Louise was submitting so there was a lot of teeth chattering by Flora. Also in her previous home Flora had been bullied and prevented from eating (she fattened up considerably when she came here) so I think she was more of a bully than she needed to be to show dominance. We stuck it out and eventually things settled. There was never any fighting or biting - but it took weeks before Louise was brave enough to come out into the open. Then Flora nose-bumped her for a few days, Louise promptly collapsed into a squeaking heap and things were fine.
PS: this shows one of my two cages which are open-plan and they move between them - there is plenty of room and actually the 3 usually sleep separately. But when Louise was a bit unwell one time Flora snuggled her in the evenings 💕
3s not a crowd.webp
 
Hi all, thank you for your reply.

I do have one more question tho. This is her second day and basically Dango, the new piggy, she isn't eating much because she's still stressed and not familiar.

Anyone has any suggestion on what I can do?
 
Is she hiding away?
Make sure she has food and drink very near her - even if you are stuffing hay into her hidey and sprinkling pellets in there too!
You can add/move a water bottle to very close to the hidey so she doesn't have to appear in order to drink.
Check the hidey for poops if she emerges... as long as she's producing nice moist poops she's physically doing OK. It is stressful for them but you can't really avoid that, it's all part of the process x
 
Free Ranger said:
Is she hiding away?
Make sure she has food and drink very near her - even if you are stuffing hay into her hidey and sprinkling pellets in there too!
You can add/move a water bottle to very close to the hidey so she doesn't have to appear in order to drink.
Check the hidey for poops if she emerges... as long as she's producing nice moist poops she's physically doing OK. It is stressful for them but you can't really avoid that, it's all part of the process x
Click to expand...
Yeah she's mostly just hiding. We can tell that yesterday she started to open up (eating together with my other piggy), but not for long.
I did put hay very near her hidey and sometimes put veggies inside her hidey too.
Hopefully it's just all the process
 
I wonder if she is also a bit nervous of you/your house, simply because it's all new to her? I had two boys from a local rescue and for the first six weeks or so they would hide away if anyone moved or spoke in the house. I got used to seeing them disappearing into their hidey when I came down in the mornings, but then one day they came running over to me instead and I realised they had got their confidence back, and had become normal piggies, screaming for their breakfast :)
 
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