New pig advise

[WandaStevie]

Hello all!

Until recently I had 2 sister piggies Wanda and Stevie, but sadly Stevie passed away suddenly. It was honestly a shock.

Wanda initially seemed confused without having her sister around, but she started eating less despite us paying her a lot of attention and care. I knew I needed to get her a friend.

Having read about bonding and bereavement, I found a baby sister for her - Frannie.

We introduced them in neutral territory and Wanda became super animated smelling her and ?grooming her. Some time later we put them in the cage together and they seemed to get along well.

This was 3 days ago now.

Whenever we take them both out the cage and are petting Frannie, Wanda starts nipping her and lunging for her. Otherwise she seems quite protective of Frannie. Is this normal behaviour?

On top of that Frannie is understandably very scared still as she’s only been with us 3 days, but I have not seen her eat anything and I cannot judge if she’s eating as Wanda shares the cage with her, but we give them access to hay, dry food and hay. She’s still producing poops. Whenever we pick her up she tries to absolutely leg it, going as far as trying to jump out of my arms. Is this normal for some pigs? None of my previous ones were like this.

Thanks all!

 

[fluffysal]

I'm afraid I have no advice just bumping your post.

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m sorry for your loss.

When new piggies are introduced to each other, it takes two weeks for the bond to be fully formed. If wanda is the dominant piggy then it is very important that you do everything for her first. She is simply asserting her dominance over Frannie.

Ensure you weigh them both every week as part of routine care and as the only way to monitor hay intake. Ensure you put hay in all the hides etc so that frannie doesn’t need to come out if she doesn’t want to. You can also cover part of the cage with a sheet to help frannie feel more secure.

Three days is no time at all and it can take weeks, months, sometimes years for piggies to settle in, and a lot is piggies never like being handled.
The best thing is to first gain her trust by offering food from your hand rather than trying laptime or trying to handle her when she is still settling in

 

[WandaStevie]

I’m sorry for your loss.

When new piggies are introduced to each other, it takes two weeks for the bond to be fully formed. If wanda is the dominant piggy then it is very important that you do everything for her first. She is simply asserting her dominance over Frannie.

Ensure you weigh them both every week as part of routine care and as the only way to monitor hay intake. Ensure you put hay in all the hides etc so that frannie doesn’t need to come out if she doesn’t want to. You can also cover part of the cage with a sheet to help frannie feel more secure.

Three days is no time at all and it can take weeks, months, sometimes years for piggies to settle in, and a lot is piggies never like being handled.
The best thing is to first gain her trust by offering food from your hand rather than trying laptime or trying to handle her when she is still settling in

This is super useful thank you so much!
I’ve never had to bond pigs before so it’s a new minefield to navigate!