Three's A Crowd...? (bonding Advice)

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After Errol sadly left us on Tuesday, we decided to try and move his wifelet Sephy in with another of our pairs, Logan and Xena. Sephy used to live with Xena, but they constantly had tiffs and fell out. However we are hopeful that after a year apart and some growing up Sephy could be moved in with them.

The 'nopigs land' introduction went really well, a lot of rumbestrutting and chasing from Logan but Sephy and Xena just had a little sniff, then did a wash for each other and laid down. Then Logan calmed down a bit and they all laid down together very nicely, looking extremely cute!

However, since they have moved into their new cage, Xena has realised she might be relegated to number 3 and her and Sephy have been constantly chasing each other with a lot of squealing, with little bouts of calm where they lie down at opposite ends of the cage. It's now been 24 hours and the squealing hasn't stopped... How much longer could this go on and is there a point where we give up trying them as a three?

 

[Swissgreys]

When I went from a 3 to a 4, I will be honest and say the squealing and chasing (between the girls) went on (off and on) for 4 - 5 days.
But in between they were relaxed, everyone was eating, sleeping, etc. so I left them in their cage to sort it out.
It did eventually settle, so I would say it is early days yet!

 

[Wiebke]

After Errol sadly left us on Tuesday, we decided to try and move his wifelet Sephy in with another of our pairs, Logan and Xena. Sephy used to live with Xena, but they constantly had tiffs and fell out. However we are hopeful that after a year apart and some growing up Sephy could be moved in with them.

The 'nopigs land' introduction went really well, a lot of rumbestrutting and chasing from Logan but Sephy and Xena just had a little sniff, then did a wash for each other and laid down. Then Logan calmed down a bit and they all laid down together very nicely, looking extremely cute!

However, since they have moved into their new cage, Xena has realised she might be relegated to number 3 and her and Sephy have been constantly chasing each other with a lot of squealing, with little bouts of calm where they lie down at opposite ends of the cage. It's now been 24 hours and the squealing hasn't stopped... How much longer could this go on and is there a point where we give up trying them as a three?

The squealing is likely submission squealing; the dominance phase can last up to two weeks, but it should start claming down after a few days. As long as there are no actual tussles and dominance is in the accepted limits, I would give it some more time. This phase is always unpleasant and nerve-racking, and I am always glad when the very worst is over after 3-4 days with group bondings.