silver meets the girls

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Pepperdog

Pepperdog

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Well its been half an hour so far, apart from initial squeals and marking all things progressed into a mass popcorning session :)) which had me rolling around with laughter, I thought it safe to introduce some grass for them to nibble on and silver stayed away from the girls completely while they carried on their nom nomming. Then silver decided he really did like minty (the other abbey) and all hell broke lose for a brief moment, teeth chattering from silver, dominance from minty, a scuffle (no blood) and after both seperated they calmed down and all are munching away calmly.

Some interesting behaviours so far.

* silver has tried to mount all 3 of the girls, sometimes getting quite rude but each time backing off when they tell him enough

*silver has taken a shine to minty, she is possibly on heat, but it might be as she is second in command he is just picking on her (or that he really likes her). She tells him to back off, lots of squeeling, lots of nose nudges and interestingly when he walks away she then goes to find him and is interested in him.

*after minty gets picked on she seeks out boss pig crystal who then grooms her and calms her, these two have a very close bond

*lots of marking by silver and crystal and also now minty

*fudge is as ever taking everything in her stride, she tels silver to mind his manners then just stays out the way, she seems to have accepted him at the moment easily enough

*crystal has told silver to mind his ps & qs, she has had him trying to mount her and she has nose nudged him off, she has stood in a face off (no teeth baring or chattering, just lots of noise) and he has backed off.

By squeeling I am refering to the louder wheek, not one for food, the "gerrofme" wheek
 
he has flaked out exhausted :)) the girls are eating (again).

I was worried as it all went very quiet so had a look and he is asleep.

My heart is still in my mouth worrying how they will all get on.
 
I know I am talking to myself :p , thought I would do this thread as a sort of "live" bonding updates.

Anyway, more noises from minty who is lying down now as is crystal so the fact that they are wanting to chill out is a good sign. Then poor silver wanted to find a place to rest, crystal said go away, he tried to hump fudge, minty then said go away, back to crystal and the same response so he then braves it and goes over to minty, carefully passes her much noise from her, he lies down next to her (think he may have attempted a bit of grooming, but couldnt see), and it went quiet -c

They are still telling him to leave them alone, he is being respectful with a bit of rumbling now and again but on the whole they have not been aggressive towards him, seen dominance and putting him in his place but nothing more.

Touch wood he is welcome
 
No experience myself but it is all sounding positive! Keeping paws and fingers crossed here! :)) :))
 
aww it all sounds so fascinating to watch!
All paws crossed here for a happy family! :))
 
it has been really interesting, scarey in moments, worrying and then hillarious.

Crystal is asleep - eyes closed asleep
fudge is in a cozy settling down to sleep
silver is in the corner (litter tray bed thingy) asleep
minty is munching on hay
 
Aww, it all sounds very good indeed! Where are you bonding them? If it's on neutral ground then just be weary of when you put them back into their pen as my gang were great in neutral territory but then it kicked off when they were back in the cage rolleyes

I'd give them a couple of days in neutral territory before moving them :)

Can't wait for pics! xx>>> Silver must be in heaven!
 
Guinea pigs <3 said:
Aww, it all sounds very good indeed! Where are you bonding them? If it's on neutral ground then just be weary of when you put them back into their pen as my gang were great in neutral territory but then it kicked off when they were back in the cage rolleyes

I'd give them a couple of days in neutral territory before moving them :)

Can't wait for pics! xx>>> Silver must be in heaven!
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I would not recommend it at all, but as I have been swapping beds back and forth since he moved here, and my plan to put them in the run on fresh grass was scuppered by rain last night, plus I have no other safe place to bond them without the dog "helping". I removed the divides :x I have been very careful and have watched everything they did for the first half an hour. Again, nobody else do what I did, I was ready to step in and separate if I needed too, the pen is very large anyway, no places where pigs can be cornered, lots of escapes and just went for it :red

So they are all in the pen together where the girls live, sadly the neutral ground option was not available, I know I will get severely told off for not doing it on neutral ground but I wont be moving them today at all and maybe if its not so wet out, they get some time in the run tomorrow
 
Pepperdog said:
I would not recommend it at all, but as I have been swapping beds back and forth since he moved here, and my plan to put them in the run on fresh grass was scuppered by rain last night, plus I have no other safe place to bond them without the dog "helping". I removed the divides :x I have been very careful and have watched everything they did for the first half an hour. Again, nobody else do what I did, I was ready to step in and separate if I needed too, the pen is very large anyway, no places where pigs can be cornered, lots of escapes and just went for it :red

So they are all in the pen together where the girls live, sadly the neutral ground option was not available, I know I will get severely told off for not doing it on neutral ground but I wont be moving them today at all and maybe if its not so wet out, they get some time in the run tomorrow
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Ah well you've already skipped that stage then! Even better :)) i'm sure everything is going to be fine!
 
Thanks for this thread, I'm reading it with interest as next week Rocket's 6 week solitary will be up and assuming his head tilt has gone he'll be able to go in with the girls ( Moonpig and Livvy Lou). He's spent a lot of time getting to know them through the bars and I'm building them a new cage to go into together so everything will be neutral. Your 4 sound as if they're settling in together nicely. :)
 
He's gorgeous. I love abbys. Miss my boys. I may have to do a bit of pignapping.....;)
 
well had a moment there when fudge put him in his place - thought I might have to step in, but again after the initial scuffle they went back to normal. To be fair to her, he had really annoyed her rolleyes and she snorted at him (she has snorted at me before), but it all calmed right down.

The girls are very confident and a nice little group, even though they have their moments with each other, its never come to blows. I think they are a great group and flash made them so complete but he sadly left us and I know they were missing the male in their lives and yes it was a risk to find another male. Flash although very skitty with humans was extremely confident with pigs, silver is young and a bit gentle so I worried they would be too much for him, but he has found his testosterone and has manned up to his job, but at the same time he is very respectful towards each of the girls and that is just what they need.

I have photos, and a short vid of minty shouting at silver, uploading now.
 
It sounds like it's all gone smoother than when I introduced Archie, but he was a little menace and was too big for his boots :)) But this is my 3 now...
DSCF3338.jpg


This one was taken not too long after they'd all been bonded
DSCF1874.jpg


As long as Silver knows his place they should all stay happy :)
 
photos, apologies for the blurry ones, light isnt great in the spare room for the camera.

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silver is in the far corner behind crystal who is nomming grass

mintys bum, fudge having a groom, they cant hate him much if they are gathering around him like this
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minty cant dislike him if she keeps going up to him?
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they looked quite relaxed really to me
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The whole pen - size wise, this is a double bed with puppy panels so it looks small in photos but it is quite big, plenty enough space and well positioned beds for them to use
7319695540_ce4bf9727e_z.jpg


and you can see minty shouting at silver in this vid, all he wanted to do is sleep in that cozy, he gave up and went back to the corner, you can see the white bit on his nose.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33948186@N08/7319678812/in/photostream/

all were asleep in beds when I just checked bar silver who was under the ramp looking at all three of them asleep in different beds (minty and crystal chose the litter trays)
 
Poppy'sMum said:
They are kind of special, like pigs on speed lol :)) How's Rocket doing?
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He seems to be on the mend thanks, has much better balance ( no longer flopping about like a fish when he's put back in his cage - very upsetting to see ) and I think his head tilt has nearly gone. Hopefully it will go completely if he's done this well on Septrin in 5 days. Keep everything crossed! x
 
AndreaJane said:
Lol, Rocket joined in with the wheeking. :))
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I was quite surprised, minty is such a laid back and quiet piggie, yet she is the most stroppy it seems :)) The other two have a lot of character that I love, minty is a really quiet pig that will cuddle (once caught), similar to silver, but my god is she giving silver a hard time.
 
just went out into the hallway and they were all like this

7319824334_fb86c305f5_z.jpg

being cautious crystal is watching from a distance, she also will enjoy her own space from time to time
7319822128_64e1eb2dca_z.jpg


yep this is from left to right, fidget bum fudge, moody minty and silver
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Do you think they like him, have accepted him? I think its looking good.
 
crystal had moved up and fudge was having a drink when I went out there again.

I repeat that I would not recommend bonding them in a pre-existing pen like this, it could have gone very wrong, but then most people wont have a dog that would hurt them potentially and are able to find a neutral place to bind them, this is bar far the best way to introduce piggies. I have done it this way three times before and again in very large pens so there was space to get away from each other if they need to, larger pen then the one I am using this time round.
 
I wouldn't stress about it being a neutral space when they have had the time to get to know each other and have been swapping cozies etc in the meantime. When you have a group it's more straight forward to do it the way you have - as long as it suits the pigs that's fine.

Suzy x
 
They appear quite settled, I wouldnt change what you've started, if it was going to go very wrong i think it would have done so by now, I'd carry on as you are. I love the pic of them all in their individual beds :))
 
They have been a bit less noisey and more settled over the rest of the day, he is chattering his teeth a little bit, but he is on his own and not facing anyone so I think he is just a bit frustrated on the whole.

Just put veg in and the girls are all nomming away, he is hiding in the corner, but he was doing that earlier when I put the grass in and he did come out for some food a little later on so I am not worried that he is going to starve, mind you flash used to spend a lot of veg time rumblestruting around the girls, and he was plenty well fed.
 
Shellza said:
It sounds like it's all gone smoother than when I introduced Archie, but he was a little menace and was too big for his boots :)) But this is my 3 now...
DSCF3338.jpg


This one was taken not too long after they'd all been bonded
DSCF1874.jpg


As long as Silver knows his place they should all stay happy :)
Click to expand...

Eeeeeek ARCHIE! x)

Jess I think it looks very positive indeed! The fact that they are all sitting near each other is great and feel comfortable to sleep is great. Hopefully he'll feel confident enough to come and share some food with them soon and that will cement the bond a little bit more! As others have said don't worry too much about the neutral space, it's working in the pen and that's all that matters!

It really is dependent on the piggies as mine were sniffing through the bars for a few days and I swapped cosies etc but they still kicked off when I put them into the cage mallethead anyhow, i'm sure you can remember my bonding was a bit of a nightmare and took several sessions over months before I got it to work, lets just say Mabel is a highly strung piggy! :p
 
thank you all

He is looking a bit lost in there at the moment which is normal really, he wants to prove how manly he is, they dont want to know and just want him to stop mucking around and settle. All three girls are acting as normal as I would expect, they are not 100% trusting of him, but after his excapades today I dont blame them, but they have slept, they have eaten and are eating and are happy to have him lie near them.

I was mostly worried that when he met them, one or more girls would have a full on fight with him, this has not happened, two scuffles but no blood fights and a lot of unrest earlier today, now its night time and they are settling down and I hope tomorrow brings more positive moments.
 
day 2

This morning at 7am there was a scuffle between minty and silver, again no blood drawn but I was worried that they seem to be banging heads with each other all the time - maybe its just an abbey thing :{ So I cut them some grass to amuse themselves, the girls were nomming at the plate and silver nomming at the holder on the side.

Then I have popped my head in to see over the course of the day mostly lounging piggies with one eating something somewhere, the others are asleep.

Just now I went in to check on them all, silver ran in fright right into minty who was quiet - might be that she was sound asleep but he ran between fudge and minty (fudge is lying in a litter tray that silver has decided needs to be moved into the pen a bit more rolleyes), it caused fudge to get up so I doubt minty was unaware of silver being that close. It has been very quiet in the pen since this morning, almost back to normal with them all so it might be the dominance displays have all been pretty much settled.

They will remain in the pen for today, tomorrow and tues (at work so cant keep eye on them), I planned to move them to the hutch tomorrow but as silver and minty have had a rough time of getting happy in each others company I will let them stay longer in the pen before moving them out weds to their summer home.

Crystals skin flaired up during yesterdays upheaval so I have to attend to her sore patch before putting her out, it was healing again, but she is a little sore round her bum so I will settle this back down, and will continue to help her through her problem. She had accepted silver pretty much right away, but the other two were a little upset when she took herself away for a proportion of the day yesterday to stay out the way which didnt help matters as this left minty, second in command to deal with the new arrival.
 
and now I am confused @)

Minty still will wheek at silver when he comes close, its not as loud as it was yesterday but she is still very uninviting, as is crystal, fudge tells him to bog off when he attends her bum area but is quiet - which is normal for her, she only wheeks loudly at me for veg :))

So a few more "stay away" from minty and I look in just now to see minty in the corner and silver lying on the floor next to her both look perfectly relaxed to me.

Am I right in thinking that when it comes to food time and when he is being rather randy, all of them are telling silver to stay away, they are not quite ready it seems to share a bowl of food with him - I can put in two bowls of veg so he can feed away from the ladies, there are 3 hay racks, 3 food bowls already just the one veg plate put in twice a day. Oh and 2 water bottles, I never have one of anything as there are 4 of them.

But that he is accepted and they are relaxing and happy to sleep near him is a sign that he is part of the gang, just not fully fledged yet.
 
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