When do you move a pair of guineas from the bonding setup to their full time cage?

[Car.nelian]

Hi there! So i’m in the middle of introducing two sows, and they seem to be getting along pretty well. They’ve been hanging out together in the area i set up for them to meet for the last 3 hours or so, haven’t had any major disagreements, and have mostly just been hanging out. I think they’re still in the phase of figuring out who’s going to be the more dominant one in the relationship. I was just wondering when exactly i’m supposed to move them from the bonding area to their full time cage. I’ve been trying to figure out when it would be best to do so for a while now, but i keep finding different information.

 

[Piggies&buns]

It depends on how things are going. They need to work out who is going to be the boss before being moved though but that should have happened fairly quickly anyway. If you are not sure, then leave them in the bonding pen for a bit longer

Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics

 

[Swissgreys]

I usually work on the principle that if it seems to be going well and they have both slept and eaten then it's ok to move them back into the main cage.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi there! So i’m in the middle of introducing two sows, and they seem to be getting along pretty well. They’ve been hanging out together in the area i set up for them to meet for the last 3 hours or so, haven’t had any major disagreements, and have mostly just been hanging out. I think they’re still in the phase of figuring out who’s going to be the more dominant one in the relationship. I was just wondering when exactly i’m supposed to move them from the bonding area to their full time cage. I’ve been trying to figure out when it would be best to do so for a while now, but i keep finding different information.

Hi

If the bonding is on the mild side and the piggies are happy to sleep near each other and are still fine when waking up, you can move them to their cage. With more lively bondings, please wait longer and, if needed, even overnight in order to give them time to settle any disputed details as long as there is no real aggression in play.

Personally, I have come to prefer to give my piggies longer in the bonding pen; often overnight (with a fleece over the bonding run, so they have plenty of time to work through the roughest part of establishing the hierarchy and the move to the cage is much calmer and does not trigger a new round of dominance behaviours when your piggies still have to sort it all out in the cage. It means that they can get most of the hierarchical side of the group establishment out of the way before you fling the territorial part at them.

I know that most owners have the urge to see their piggies in their cage but unless it is a meeting of souls, I have found in well over 100 bonding attempts that it generally pays to take it slowly and allow your piggies to do not just the intro (acceptance and ideally leadership) but also the roughing out of the hierarchy and the dominance that goes with it on neutral ground so what is left in the cage is just the small print of their relationship (what shape it will take) and the territorial group establishment over the coming two weeks.

Please keep in mind that whole bonding process takes around two weeks. Our bonding guide link takes you through all stages, including the often overlooked post-intro dominance phase during which the group is fully established and settled.
Make sure that you do not have any houses and places with just one exit in the cage, leave off any bowls. Sprinkle-feed the 1 tablespoon of pellets per piggy per day and the veg around the cage - it will help minimise the usual dominance flashpoints and also encourages natural foraging enrichment behaviours. Two water bottles, well spaced apart and access to hay that cannot be blocked.

All the best!

 

[Car.nelian]

It depends on how things are going. They need to work out who is going to be the boss before being moved though but that should have happened fairly quickly anyway. If you are not sure, then leave them in the bonding pen for a bit longer

Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics

I ended up leaving them in the bonding area over night. Thanks for the link

 

[Car.nelian]

Hi

If the bonding is on the mild side and the piggies are happy to sleep near each other and are still fine when waking up, you can move them to their cage. With more lively bondings, please wait longer and, if needed, even overnight in order to give them time to settle any disputed details as long as there is no real aggression in play.

Personally, I have come to prefer to give my piggies longer in the bonding pen; often overnight (with a fleece over the bonding run, so they have plenty of time to work through the roughest part of establishing the hierarchy and the move to the cage is much calmer and does not trigger a new round of dominance behaviours when your piggies still have to sort it all out in the cage. It means that they can get most of the hierarchical side of the group establishment out of the way before you fling the territorial part at them.

I know that most owners have the urge to see their piggies in their cage but unless it is a meeting of souls, I have found in well over 100 bonding attempts that it generally pays to take it slowly and allow your piggies to do not just the intro (acceptance and ideally leadership) but also the roughing out of the hierarchy and the dominance that goes with it on neutral ground so what is left in the cage is just the small print of their relationship (what shape it will take) and the territorial group establishment over the coming two weeks.

Please keep in mind that whole bonding process takes around two weeks. Our bonding guide link takes you through all stages, including the often overlooked post-intro dominance phase during which the group is fully established and settled.
Make sure that you do not have any houses and places with just one exit in the cage, leave off any bowls. Sprinkle-feed the 1 tablespoon of pellets per piggy per day and the veg around the cage - it will help minimise the usual dominance flashpoints and also encourages natural foraging enrichment behaviours. Two water bottles, well spaced apart and access to hay that cannot be blocked.

All the best!

I ended up leaving them in the bonding area over night. They seemed ok taking a nap next to each other last night, and they ate dinner together as well. Right now, I’ve seen each of them go up to the other to interact, and i’ve seen no major aggressive behavior, just a bit of teeth chattering, raising their heads at each other, and some rumble strutting from them older of the two. The main thing that I was concerned about is my younger girls reaction to the older trying to mount her. She hasn’t snapped at the older, but she will start complaining pretty loudly, and will try running away from her. That’s been her reaction from her very first attempt last night, to this morning.
And yes, I read over the info in the link for bonding. It really helped me understand a lot of what was going on, so thank you!
I tried to set the area up properly before introducing them. The area they’re in at the moment has about twelve sq ft of space, two water bottle at opposite ends of the pen, I didn’t initially remove their bowls but I did after reading your reply, and scatter fed them instead, and an area for hay in the center of the cage. I let them sit in their with just that for the first hour or so while they were introducing themselves, and added a tunnel and a hide with three exits after they’d settled down a bit.

 

[Wiebke]

I ended up leaving them in the bonding area over night. They seemed ok taking a nap next to each other last night, and they ate dinner together as well. Right now, I’ve seen each of them go up to the other to interact, and i’ve seen no major aggressive behavior, just a bit of teeth chattering, raising their heads at each other, and some rumble strutting from them older of the two. The main thing that I was concerned about is my younger girls reaction to the older trying to mount her. She hasn’t snapped at the older, but she will start complaining pretty loudly, and will try running away from her. That’s been her reaction from her very first attempt last night, to this morning.
And yes, I read over the info in the link for bonding. It really helped me understand a lot of what was going on, so thank you!
I tried to set the area up properly before introducing them. The area they’re in at the moment has about twelve sq ft of space, two water bottle at opposite ends of the pen, I didn’t initially remove their bowls but I did after reading your reply, and scatter fed them instead, and an area for hay in the center of the cage. I let them sit in their with just that for the first hour or so while they were introducing themselves, and added a tunnel and a hide with three exits after they’d settled down a bit.

Hi

Your younger girl's reaction to the dominance mounting is very normal (submissive protest) and totally non-aggressive, so nothing at all to worry about. They are now ready for the cage. Just let them get on with it. Things will settle down. The first day after the bonding is generally the worst re. group establishing dominance; it should gradually settle down from there.

Brace yourself for some major drama during the first season together but if there has been no aggression in the bonding pen, then there won't be any then.
Our sow guide contains a chapter on what to expect in terms of dominance during any group establishment/re-establishment and stronger seasons as a bit of a follow on from the bonding guide. Dominance mounting by sows often throws new owners!
Here is the link: Sows: Behaviour and female health problems (including ovarian cysts)

Glad that the bonding guide has been helpful.