Featheryfriend
Junior Guinea Pig
The four new sows arrived late last week! They are some rather goofy-looking girls, it's great. Especially the big grumpy Peruvian, who I named Cherry. I'll probably be giving haircuts today now that they're settled in, we've doubtless got a few tangles going on.
They spent one night in a travel cage, but since then they've been hanging out in a big playpen. They can continue to stay in the playpen for now if that's what's best, but I'm debating where to put them and could use opinions.
To explain the situation for those unfamiliar: Me and the piggies are moving! I am going to have more space to dedicate to the piggies and their runs soon. I am going back to college and moving in with family until I graduate. To facilitate this, we are building a new room onto my mother's house / converting most of the garage. We're doing this the anarchist way and not bothering with tedious permits or the HOA (as is often done here in the Wild West) so we're hoping to have the construction done within 4 to 8 weeks.
My boyfriend does light carpentry and I'm going to work with him to build me some furniture, including a new and improved piggy palace. It's going to be a super fun project to do together!
So I accepted these sows on the premise that they had nowhere else to go and I am soon enough going to be able to construct runs that are larger in all dimensions. Right now I have three main C&C runs, they are 10 grids x 2 grids (27 square feet) and contain 9 piggies each. The new runs are going to be the equivalent of 12 grids long and probably around 2.5 to 3 grids deep (42 to 49 square feet). And there will be four runs instead of three.
The four sows were originally two pairs - a couple of buddies and a mother-daughter duo. They are presently getting along well enough, but I'm not picking up on any particularly special bonds between the pairs, so I wouldn't hesitate to split them back up and put them in two different herds if it made sense to do so.
I am wondering if it would be permissible to plunk these girls into my already-full runs for this limited time period so they can go ahead and bond with their permanent herds. 11 pigs in a 10×2 grid is obviously a crowd, and of course I'd have to amp up the cleaning schedule to keep things fresh.
Would I be asking for herd dynamic trouble though? My herds are thankfully harmonious with stable hierarchies. The only time we have squabbling is when someone is having a strong season and being a nuisance. To be honest, they mostly tend to occupy only their favorite two-thirds of their space, and I have to lure them to the other end with hay or new objects. Often there are several pigs happily squished into the small lofts together and several more inside the hay piles. I am minimalistic about hideys, as I think it's better to preserve room for zoomies.
So, my intuition is that cage size guidelines can be a bit more flexible once you've reached a certain scale. (I wouldn't dream of overpacking pigs into a more typical-sized cage for more than a brief period. And I'd never ever try it with boars!) But I want to know if anyone thinks it would be inhumane or risky for herd stability to move them in now. Like I said, they can always stay in the playpen for a few weeks, that's fine. But then they'd be waiting a while to enjoy the myriad benefits of being in a busy herd. Neither situation being quite ideal, what would be best for them?
I'm glad they're here with me though, it sounds like they were having a pretty rough and tumble life before this.
They have been shuffled around so much that all background information on them has been lost, except for the birth date of the adolescent daughter pig. No clue on the ages or health history of the other three.
They spent one night in a travel cage, but since then they've been hanging out in a big playpen. They can continue to stay in the playpen for now if that's what's best, but I'm debating where to put them and could use opinions.
To explain the situation for those unfamiliar: Me and the piggies are moving! I am going to have more space to dedicate to the piggies and their runs soon. I am going back to college and moving in with family until I graduate. To facilitate this, we are building a new room onto my mother's house / converting most of the garage. We're doing this the anarchist way and not bothering with tedious permits or the HOA (as is often done here in the Wild West) so we're hoping to have the construction done within 4 to 8 weeks.
My boyfriend does light carpentry and I'm going to work with him to build me some furniture, including a new and improved piggy palace. It's going to be a super fun project to do together!
So I accepted these sows on the premise that they had nowhere else to go and I am soon enough going to be able to construct runs that are larger in all dimensions. Right now I have three main C&C runs, they are 10 grids x 2 grids (27 square feet) and contain 9 piggies each. The new runs are going to be the equivalent of 12 grids long and probably around 2.5 to 3 grids deep (42 to 49 square feet). And there will be four runs instead of three.
The four sows were originally two pairs - a couple of buddies and a mother-daughter duo. They are presently getting along well enough, but I'm not picking up on any particularly special bonds between the pairs, so I wouldn't hesitate to split them back up and put them in two different herds if it made sense to do so.
I am wondering if it would be permissible to plunk these girls into my already-full runs for this limited time period so they can go ahead and bond with their permanent herds. 11 pigs in a 10×2 grid is obviously a crowd, and of course I'd have to amp up the cleaning schedule to keep things fresh.
Would I be asking for herd dynamic trouble though? My herds are thankfully harmonious with stable hierarchies. The only time we have squabbling is when someone is having a strong season and being a nuisance. To be honest, they mostly tend to occupy only their favorite two-thirds of their space, and I have to lure them to the other end with hay or new objects. Often there are several pigs happily squished into the small lofts together and several more inside the hay piles. I am minimalistic about hideys, as I think it's better to preserve room for zoomies.
So, my intuition is that cage size guidelines can be a bit more flexible once you've reached a certain scale. (I wouldn't dream of overpacking pigs into a more typical-sized cage for more than a brief period. And I'd never ever try it with boars!) But I want to know if anyone thinks it would be inhumane or risky for herd stability to move them in now. Like I said, they can always stay in the playpen for a few weeks, that's fine. But then they'd be waiting a while to enjoy the myriad benefits of being in a busy herd. Neither situation being quite ideal, what would be best for them?
I'm glad they're here with me though, it sounds like they were having a pretty rough and tumble life before this.
They have been shuffled around so much that all background information on them has been lost, except for the birth date of the adolescent daughter pig. No clue on the ages or health history of the other three.
I called the vet already to schedule her and her daughter - I haven't looked yet but I'm sure she has them too. So they're certainly not hopping into the same space as my other pigs anytime soon. 
