On Saturday, we finally got a friend for our recently adopted 2.5 year old boar Winston, which was a 15wk old boar.
Winston was lovely at the start, some of you may remember me adopting him around may/june. Since then, he's grown a bit more aggressive. He'll chatter if you put your hand in the cage or try and pick him up, and he'll constantly nip you wherever he can when you hold him. We put it down to not liking being held.
We introduced them, following guidelines here and although there was chattering, attempts to hump, etc. there was nothing vicious and we tried them in the cage together after scrubbing it out. There was some constant chattering after a few hours so I bathed then together, which seemed to work out.
Yesterday I noticed that the new pig wouldn't come down from the top of the brown logs much. When he did come down, he'd be chased and chattered at by Winston until he hopped back up on the logs. I decided I'd give it a couple more days before trying them in seperate cages, leaving the new pig in the shared cage and then reintroducing, as again there hadn't been anything vicious.
Just as I thought the new pig was gaining more confidence and coming out more, they've just had a massive fight in the cage. I seperated them and took the new pig out as he was squeaking quite loudly and noticed a wet patch on his side. Winston has given him quite a big bite for such a small pig on his side and it's bleeding!
I do have an old pet shop cage that we managed to set up quite quickly for the new pig when it's clean, but it's too small for more than a few days really.
First and foremost, what can I do for the hurt pig? Stupid comment but I wasn't sure whether to take him to the vet or not, as I wasn't sure what they could do for a bite like that. Is there anything I can do at home? I can try and take a photo of the bite if it helps.
Second, this is the worst possible outcome that could have come out of the introduction of the pigs. I thought I could give them both a better life together but now I feel it's my fault he got hurt. I promised DH before we got him that there would not be 3 cages in the house, so now I'm at a point where I can't have 3 cages, but they can't live together either. I don't know what to do. DH wants to give up Winston for adoption, I'd feel so guilty if we had to do that.
I just need some help with the baby pig, and some advice
Winston was lovely at the start, some of you may remember me adopting him around may/june. Since then, he's grown a bit more aggressive. He'll chatter if you put your hand in the cage or try and pick him up, and he'll constantly nip you wherever he can when you hold him. We put it down to not liking being held.
We introduced them, following guidelines here and although there was chattering, attempts to hump, etc. there was nothing vicious and we tried them in the cage together after scrubbing it out. There was some constant chattering after a few hours so I bathed then together, which seemed to work out.
Yesterday I noticed that the new pig wouldn't come down from the top of the brown logs much. When he did come down, he'd be chased and chattered at by Winston until he hopped back up on the logs. I decided I'd give it a couple more days before trying them in seperate cages, leaving the new pig in the shared cage and then reintroducing, as again there hadn't been anything vicious.
Just as I thought the new pig was gaining more confidence and coming out more, they've just had a massive fight in the cage. I seperated them and took the new pig out as he was squeaking quite loudly and noticed a wet patch on his side. Winston has given him quite a big bite for such a small pig on his side and it's bleeding!
I do have an old pet shop cage that we managed to set up quite quickly for the new pig when it's clean, but it's too small for more than a few days really.
First and foremost, what can I do for the hurt pig? Stupid comment but I wasn't sure whether to take him to the vet or not, as I wasn't sure what they could do for a bite like that. Is there anything I can do at home? I can try and take a photo of the bite if it helps.
Second, this is the worst possible outcome that could have come out of the introduction of the pigs. I thought I could give them both a better life together but now I feel it's my fault he got hurt. I promised DH before we got him that there would not be 3 cages in the house, so now I'm at a point where I can't have 3 cages, but they can't live together either. I don't know what to do. DH wants to give up Winston for adoption, I'd feel so guilty if we had to do that.
I just need some help with the baby pig, and some advice
