I've Been Doing A Bit Of Bonding & Re-bonding.

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Stewybus

Stewybus

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After the sudden death of Mousey last week I needed to do something to take my mind off it.

I'd been thinking about getting my 3 groups into 2 so started on Sunday.

My groups then were
a)Rex, Minky & Minnie
b)Mitch & Mother (Mousey had been in this group)
c) Rhubarb & Custard (my new girls)

As Minnie is now about 5 years old & set in her ways being a bit feisty with new piggies I re-bonded her with Mitch & Mother which turned out to be trouble free. Minnie was ginger when I got her from Bekki last April but she's a lot darker now. I don't know if it's just her winter coat or something to do with her diet. Here they are:-



The easy part done I then got the remaining four, Minky, Rex, Rhubarb & Custard & put them into the neutral run. It went pretty well without incident as seen below:-



After 4 hours I put them all into the run which had been previously occupied by Mother & Mitch but had been thoroughly cleaned out. Again they were generally OK as seen below:-



Anyway the 2 groups have been fine till today when after floor time both Rhubarb & Custard (separately not together) had goes at Minky causing her some distress. I couldn't allow this as Minky is my long tern head tilt piggy & so no good with other piggies so I did a bit more re-bonding by putting her in with Minnie, Mother & Mitch. She had been with Minnie till Saturday & the other 2 for 3 months over the summer. Anyway they've been together now for nearly 5 hours as if they'd never been away from each other. Here's most recent pic of them followed by pic of Rex, Rhubarb & Custard in their runs.



In this pic Custard is slightly camouflaged near top middle of pic.



It now seems that I've got 2 happy groups. Hope it will remain like that for a long time to come.
 
Minnie looks massively different! I dont know if diet does it she didnt change colour in the couple of months she was with me at all ill see if I can dig a photo of her crazy gingerness out from when I got her and bonded her to my little twirl! Fur colour in hamsters who are "ginger" types (cinammon or heterozygous sable) does change with age as it does with humans too! Ill pass the photos on to Nicola who had her for several years before my short ownership of the ginger ninja she will be pleased to see her with others :-) Mother looks a bit darker than previously in her face also?
 
Here's a picture of her about 6 or 7 months ago. She's definitely ginger there.:-

 
Claire W said:
Your piggies are lovely.

Fingers crossed that everything works out for you.

Who's the piggy on the right hand side in the first photo? She looks like my Erika :)
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That's Mitch, with Minnie on the Left & Mother in the Middle.
 
Well done Stewy - your patience has been rewarded. Of course, I'm sorry for the reason you decided to do this, but it all seems to be working out nicely now.
 
Wish I could bond my two quartets but one in each group is very balshy and they attack each other on sight.Wanted to give them run of the room but is not to be
 
Congratulations on your 2 groups. Patience pays off sometimes. Hope they are happy together
 
madguinealady said:
Wish I could bond my two quartets but one in each group is very balshy and they attack each other on sight.Wanted to give them run of the room but is not to be
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I would eventually like to get the 2 groups together but would only consider this if Minky was to get a lot better so maybe it won't get off the ground. I know a group of multiple males & females is rare but Gwen at Bunny Burrows has a group of 4 neutered males & 15 females which works fine. They've got lots of space which is the essential thing. Does anyone else know of mixed groups like that?

jenniferanneharris said:
Such cute piggies :luv: Well done you! Sounds like you have had a busy day :D But looks like it all paid off :D
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Well it's been over the weekend then again today but it was really easy today because Minky & the head female Mother have always got on well together & I've never had trouble putting them back together after several separations during Minky's illnesses since last May.
 
Stewybus said:
I would eventually like to get the 2 groups together but would only consider this if Minky was to get a lot better so maybe it won't get off the ground. I know a group of multiple males & females is rare but Gwen at Bunny Burrows has a group of 4 neutered males & 15 females which works fine. They've got lots of space which is the essential thing. Does anyone else know of mixed groups like that?



Well it's been over the weekend then again today but it was really easy today because Minky & the head female Mother have always got on well together & I've never had trouble putting them back together after several separations during Minky's illnesses since last May.
Click to expand...

There is the happy pants ranch piggy group. She has 2 males with 30 plus females which works. I've got a group of 7 males and plan to add 2 more in next few months to it. So know how hard it is to get right combination, you did right thing putting Minky first :)
 
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