Piggies Acting Strangely in CNC Cage

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Marty

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I wondered if anyone's had any experience of this:

When Blaze and Scampy fell out earlier in the year we set up a CNC cage on the floor in our living room separated by a divider. They seemed reasonably happy with this set up apart from Scampy ocassionally sitting on top of his stick house looking up at the wall but we put this slightly odd behaviour down to the fact that he had fallen out with Blaze and wanted to "ignore him".

When the summer came we moved the cage to the other end of the room away from the direct sunlight as we didn't want them getting "cooked". Scampy's behaviour towards looking at the wall seemed to increase, and Blaze started to do it too, and then of course, Scampy died :(

We then added Oscar as a new companion for Blaze, and changed the bedding to in the CNC cage to vetbed, minus the divider. Blaze started to act a little strangely, attempting to burrow in to the corner of the cage where we had put the hay. Now he has died too.

Yesterday we disinfected everything, Correx, grids, connectors and then re-setup the CNC cage at the same end of the living room and put Pepe and Dylan in it, separated by a divider. They are normally more than happy to share a similar sized run (made up of the same grids and connectors) at the sunnier end of the room and although Pepe does a bit of rumble strutting it doesn't normally last long. However in the CNC cage Pepe is acting very strangely. He is constantly rumble strutting, he is hardly eating any of his food and he is sitting hiding underneath the hay rack. He's always been a bit of a handful to pick up (because of his history) but he seems even worse now. Dylan on the other hand seems fine.

This may sound stupid but we are now really concerned that it's something to do with either the CNC cage, or the location of the CNC cage, that is affecting and eventually killing our piggies. Becaause the cage is on the floor the sides of the Correx base are fairly high as we didn't want them to getting any respitory problems.

Vedra checked all three of our boys out on Friday (the day after Blaze died) and couldn't find any obvious signs of any problems, although she took a throat swab from Pepe as he seemed a little warm (although we're certain that was because he had buried himself in his carry case as he doesn't like car journeys).

Any thoughts, observations or ideas would be appreciated. We can put them back in the cages but the whole point of putting them in the vacant CNC was to let them interact more as both clearly enjoy each others (if separated) company when we put them in the run.

Marty
 
It might be an idea to put them back in the old accomodation to see what happens.Piggies,boars especially are by nature very inquisitive and they may be feeling closed in if the walls are high.This is just a thought ,but in the wild pigs like to be able to see any predators approaching,and birds,snakes etc,could appear over a high wall.The walls therefore could be making them stressed.This is clutching at straws,but when pigs have mystery illnesses,we have to try and think of everything,even though it is very unlikely.I do not know what the cnc cages are like as I house my pigs in open topped pens indoors.The walls are just high enough to stop them getting over.,and they have mesh windows so the pigs can see into the surrounding pens.I have a boar,Hairy Harry,who insists on a pen to himself,he is next to the girls pen,but if I move him into another pen away from the girls,I get a similar problem,he sulks and will not eat and sits around in his sleeping box.Move him back next to sows and he is back to normal.

I would be interested to know if moving your pigs back,makes any difference.I hope it does.
 
Hi Mary

We've just raised the CNC cage a foot or so off of the ground and already Pepe seems happier, I think you may be right, he may not have felt safe and ground level. Just that extra foot has given them more light as well. I'll see how they get on for a day or so and take it from there.

Thanks for the advice

Marty
 
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