Roger & Roland the Pigs
New Born Pup
Very sadly my guinea pig Roger passed away last afternoon, he made it till exactly three years and had the best time being the cheeky pig he was, I am devastated about his passing but grateful he did not suffer very long.
I am now left with Roger's brother, Roland (M), and my quite recently rescued piggle, Nugget (M). Roland is now three and Nugget's age in unknown, but I suspect he is about one or two years old. Roger and Roland lived in a pen together and Nugget had been their bar buddy in a smaller cage for quite some time with no issues. After Rogers passing I let them both see his resting body for a few hours, so they could understand. They both inspected it and seemed to return to normal behaviour. Last afternoon, I opened the gate between Roland's and Nugget's pens to let them interact and carefully observed. Feeling that there were no dangerous hostilities I left them together overnight. They have plenty of space now in a 3x6 C&C cage. I checked on them this morning and nothing was out of order. I'm going to continue letting them interact and share the huge combined pen for a week, unless I see any hostilities (which I think is unlikely). Then I am going to reduce the cage size to a 3x4 grid. Is this a suitable course to take? Then, I would have a spare 2x3 cage, which I could expand slightly if necessary to accommodate two pigs. My question is, would it be wise and fair to my existing two to try and foster/ adopt another piggie, I know how many piggies in rescues there are that need a home, but I just don't know whether it is a good idea since a new piggie would have to be housed next to Roland and Nugget. I don't want to cause stress or anger for any pigs involved.
Thank you.
I am now left with Roger's brother, Roland (M), and my quite recently rescued piggle, Nugget (M). Roland is now three and Nugget's age in unknown, but I suspect he is about one or two years old. Roger and Roland lived in a pen together and Nugget had been their bar buddy in a smaller cage for quite some time with no issues. After Rogers passing I let them both see his resting body for a few hours, so they could understand. They both inspected it and seemed to return to normal behaviour. Last afternoon, I opened the gate between Roland's and Nugget's pens to let them interact and carefully observed. Feeling that there were no dangerous hostilities I left them together overnight. They have plenty of space now in a 3x6 C&C cage. I checked on them this morning and nothing was out of order. I'm going to continue letting them interact and share the huge combined pen for a week, unless I see any hostilities (which I think is unlikely). Then I am going to reduce the cage size to a 3x4 grid. Is this a suitable course to take? Then, I would have a spare 2x3 cage, which I could expand slightly if necessary to accommodate two pigs. My question is, would it be wise and fair to my existing two to try and foster/ adopt another piggie, I know how many piggies in rescues there are that need a home, but I just don't know whether it is a good idea since a new piggie would have to be housed next to Roland and Nugget. I don't want to cause stress or anger for any pigs involved.
Thank you.
Boar bonding should be a one time only introduction in an entirely neutral space. They will need to accept each other and then establish dominance. Then it takes around 2 weeks to fully settle. Please do have a read of our bonding guides. These explain more about introductions and bonding.
