Some Advice On Bonding Please.

[Patch & Pi]

whilst we have had piggies for a long time we have never had to do bonding before this as we have always had long time living piggies and when we lost Scampi, we didn't get a new companion for Sandy as she was already 9! we decided that at that age an introduction would do more harm then good.

anyhoo we lost Patch 2 weeks ago, and although I'm not ready for a new piggie Pi was not coping on her own, they are only 3, so this was far to young to be a lonesome girl. So we went Piggie speed dating today, and it seemed to go well. After the rescue lady Christine spent some time chatting with us and fussing over Pi we met the dates, and decided on a neutered male to do the introductions with.
Me and the worker stood by the intro run and introduced the piggies. They started to nuzzle, jump and play immediately. so we agreed to take him especially as when we separated them they cried and tried to get back together. They traveled home together in the same carry case (we had a spare with us just incase) and snuggled up the entire way. once we got home and we got sorted (prepared an oven glove, blanket, veg ect as recommended on another thread) we put them in our run together. me and Phil sat next to the run ready with gloves and towel.
all was fine and they were playing, eating together. We were starting to think we would have the worlds easiest intro what fools we are. Pi and the now named Gandalf (he is a grey piggie) were playing so well until gandalf decided to have a look in the hutch, as soon as He went in the bedroom Pi went mad. She started chattering, fluffing up and coming at him side on. He backed off and went back outside, she followed and all immediately settled back to harmony. unfortunately every time he went near the bedroom she would go for him, she hasn't drawn blood but did come out with a mouthful of grey fur. At that point we separated them as he looked very stressed and has been put in the indoor hutch for some TLC tonight.
the rescue did say that as she was a dominant piggie, they might fight when we got them home.

my questions are:
did we do the right thing separating them, should we have left them or should we have separated them sooner?
would buying a hutch with 2 bedrooms be a good idea as this is the only area they fight?
or is this a complete fail and we shouldn't put them through it again?

 

[Wiebke]

I would go for a hutch with two bedrooms. They have clearly bonded and the bond has not broken, but you need to work around her bedroom issu, either by providing other hideys for his and/or more than one exit to the sleeping area, even if it is temporary so he cannot be cornered in there, which is the one big flashpoint for scuffles and fights. Some piggies are more dominant and territorial than others, and Pi is obviously one of them.

She may relent eventually after they have sorted out the dominance and she is comfy with him being with her. I would continue to keep them in a neutral area and make sure that there are no hideys and places with only one exit; cardboard boxed . Chucking underpiggies out of the prime (or any) sleeping area is part of the dominance ritual, which they need to work through in order to establish a hierarchy. The other trick of a very dominant piggy can be to "lock" an underpiggy into a space by blocking it, hence two exits on different sides.

You can try again tomorrow and take your time. Thankfully with mixed gender bondings separations when things get tense and you have to separate, it doesn't mean that you have to start right back at the beginning.

 

[Patch & Pi]

Thanks for the reply, so after 4 days we now have 2 piggies in 1 hutch fingers crossed nothing goes wrong tonight.
We decided to try again Monday, in a different neutral place the indoor run. After an hour we were all very stressed and distressee, So decided to stop, and try next door runs, only have 1 outdoor run, used indoor run as second run which meant sitting on the floor for a few hours. This went well, by the end the were sat next to each other against the bars. Tuesday we did the runs again, calmer more chilled piggies. Today collected and set up new outdoor run, 4 towels and oven gloves placed them in fingers crossed, only needed to intervene twice to check nips (horrible horrible feeling to put him back in after checking he was OK, no blood drawn just a bit of fur fluffed). After that it settled eventually added 2 tunnels she picked 1 him the other. After another hour introduced a brand new hutch with a bedroom and separate hidey hole (double exit just in case) after another hour both pigs settled and a display of popcorning we moved away. So just waiting to see in the morning, keeping fingers crossed, fortunately we know that we can hear them from the bedrooms (patch used to "sing" to us in the morning if she felt we hadn't brought her veg out soon enough, plus dealing with fights during the teen years!)