Wiebke's Tribe: Sows and the City Boars

Sorry for your loss. Tudur was such a handsome lad. I’m sorry you and your piggies didn’t get to have longer with this lovely boy. Sleep tight Tudur x
 
It's been a bit of a wild weekend with bonding Tudur's two 5 years old widows Carys 'Love' and Heilin 'Generous' with their neighbouring group consisting of my third 5 years old sow Begw ('Little Pearl'/Peggy), her nearly 4 years old bestie Beti (Betty) and young Brangwyn 'White Raven'. The bonding has turned into a two days affair to allow them to work through the rough part of the hierarchy establishment after Carys got herself into a bit of a knot for a while. No real aggression, though, so I could allow them to work it all out in their own time.
She's currently coming into a strong season so there will be plenty of fun and games for the next hours (her arthritis notwithstanding) but the shared excess of pheromones and emotions helps to bond them all more closely.

Bran will have to take on Tudur's job as custodian of older ladies but he is getting the biggest group in turn. Having my three very similarly aged ladies all together is going to make medicating and vet visits much easier on me - I'll only need one carrier for my oldies and not two.

Sorry, no pictures yet as my old and rather frail computer went completely belly up right in the thick of the bonding and my new one (my big birthday present) is not yet fully set up. Just my usual bad timing...
 
I’m so sorry Tudur has left for the rainbow bridge.

Good luck with the bonding. 🤞🏻
 
I'm so sorry that Tudur has had to leave for the Bridge, far too young. He was a cute baby and a very striking adult, and he managed to pack a lot of love and fulfilment into those few short years with you and the Tribe. Sending hugs to you and your hub on the loss of your special boy :hug: and hoping that the bad start to the year is a blip 🤞🙏
 
Hope that the group bonding goes/continues well and Brangwyn enjoys being husboar to all those ladies - with them being older he might end up a bit hen-pecked!

And good luck with your new computer - funnily enough our old PC is also on its way out so I had to spend time before Christmas getting all our stuff off it and getting a new one ready. Still using the old one as hubby hasn't got round to checking the new one works for all his stuff, but it's so slooooow at times and frequently behaves like a terminal crash is imminent...
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
Hope that the group bonding goes/continues well and Brangwyn enjoys being husboar to all those ladies - with them being older he might end up a bit hen-pecked!

And good luck with your new computer - funnily enough our old PC is also on its way out so I had to spend time before Christmas getting all our stuff off it and getting a new one ready. Still using the old one as hubby hasn't got round to checking the new one works for all his stuff, but it's so slooooow at times and frequently behaves like a terminal crash is imminent...
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Been there, only that mine crashed for good before hub had transferred it all; thankfully the disks are not corrupted but retrieving it and installing it all is a lot more work; especially when things are not working the way they should. It took us three days just to get the email working properly again due to a more unusual hang-up somewhere.
Tomorrow we are getting new broadband laid in so no longer working with a creaking and wheezing snail will be heaven once it is all sorted! I need my large screen for my poorly eyes. :(
 
It's been a rather busy and hectic week at the Tribe!

An official hello to my two widowed returnees, Esme from @Claire W and Myrddin/Merlin from @Bradshaw Piggies .

Esme has spent several holidays with her mates with me and is familiar with her new home and piggy neighbours.
She is a 'snail pig', moving around the cage inside her little dome. I am hoping that she is going to find a mate with the Tribe; but if not she will have plenty of next door company. I did promise Claire a long time ago that any last standing piggy of hers would find a forever home here if she wanted.

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Myrddin (Welsh original form of Merlin) is the third baby boy from my Cornish family who has been a great companion for his various bereaved old mates with Bradshaw Piggies but has now returned after the sudden death of his last mate, Rufus. He is going to be neutered and then going to find a wife or several among the Tribe sows in due time. He is the oldest, smallest and least dominant of Barcud's three sons.

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After his bonding with dad Barcud lasted all of five minutes (Barcud just didn't want him under his paws) he is now living next to his full sister Blodyn 'Flower' and his half-brother Baeddan 'Boar' (picture from when they met). He has however got dad's big tunnel as his favourite den!

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I am also happy to announce that Tudur's two widows, tricolour Heilin 'Generous' and long-haired Carys 'Love' have merged with their neighbours, blonde Brangwyn (the fourth of Barcud's babies), black Beti and black and white little Begw.
This is a picture from their bonding.
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Over the last week Esme has discovered the joys of life underneath her bobble mats but this morning she has worked out how to combine subterranian life with being wedged into her beloved dome.

The lady was not available for any further comments.

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Wiebke said:
Over the last week Esme has discovered the joys of life underneath her bobble mats but this morning she has worked out how combine sub-mattian life with being wedged into her beloved dome. The lady was not available for any further comments...

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My Max used to do this with fleece 🌈
 
Esme would like to announce that she is now Mrs Brangwyn. She has over the last 24 hours joined her neighbours as an age mate to Beti (who is just 4 months older). The bonding has had its moments but it has never gone right up to the wire and there was never any real aggression or over the top fear-aggression although we have had a few face-off with Brangwyn (who is the undisputed and very able leader despite his smallish size) and Beti as the disputed top lady behind him.

Beti has now won out against Esme, so I have just moved them to their extended and rearranged pen after a night in the bonding pen to allow the worst of the dominance to be sorted out there. Currently, they have all huts and shelters with more than one exit before I reintroduce the fleece caves and perhaps even Esme's dome in a week or so. All mats are nicely weighted down, so no crawling underneath! :D

Anyway, I am very delighted about the outcome. It was my preferred option.

Esme being checked out by The Boss (Brangwyn)
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During the acceptance and then leadership sort-out
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Esme being ostentiously welcomed as an accepted member of the group by gentle Carys (who gave her her famous eye lick) and Heilin during a rest in between rounds of group hierarchy establishment
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The new pen with all open - temporary - furnishings.
Please keep in mind that none of the sows is young (three are 5 years old and two are coming up to 4 years) and that what they rate a cage for is mainly having each a cosy sleeping place, easy access to hay trays for arthritic piggies and an open place for sprinkle fed meals to ensure that they all get their fair share.
Space is much more of a consideration for younger piggies. The cage has direct access to the shared roaming ground to allow foraging and visiting the other groups or - for younger piggies - a full-out speed run so there is regularly plenty of space to exercise. ;)
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Such a lovely story. I’m so pleased Esme has been accepted and a she has lots of piggy company. @Claire W I hope you seeing her happy eases your heavy heart a little. ❤️
 
I am totally gutted about losing yet another of my Tribe boars over the weekend.

Llelo deteriorated unexpectedly and very quickly over the course of Friday and Saturday but was still around by Monday morning - very weak and unable to take on enough feed and clearly in discomfort despite me putting him on metacam straight away - so I had to make the heartbreaking decision to cut short any further unnecessary suffering and to have him sent to Rainbow Bridge. He had been perking up a little on Sunday but not enough to change the outcome.


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(Llelo is the baby on the left)

Llelo has always held a special place in my heart since he was born here on the last day of August 2018 when I emergency holiday boarded a local woman's pet shop bought guinea pigs after I was asked to have a look at one of them - she turned out to be in the very last stages of a pregnancy and gave birth to three baby boys within less than 24 hours after their arrival here.
The baby diary guide thread is following their first days: First baby days: a video and picture diary (only visible to registered members)

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Llelo returned here after weaning to live with my neutered ex-single Dylan who had sadly narrowly failed to find favour with my other fickle ex-single Beryn. I renamed baby Beetroot Llelo 'Little Llewelyn' in memory of my Tribe founding patriarch Llewelyn (2007-2011), who also had a mainly white and a mainly ginger side.
A video of their bonding can be be found in the baby bonding chapter of our Bonding guide.

Dylan had never lived with another piggy before but turned out to be a very caring uncle boar with young Llelo, who was keen to learn the boar ropes from him, including practising just the right hip swing in exactly the same place when rumble-strutting past the sow cages; it was so cute watching little Llelo practise his achievements on Dylan and giving Dylan the exercise he needed for his atrophied back muscles after years in a hamster cage.

Sadly, as a teenager Llelo proved to be just too quietly confident; the less willing to provide abject submission the more an increasingly frantic Dylan insisted on it. About halfway through Llelo's post-neutering wait I had to sadly split them even though there was never a fight but their relationship was becoming increasingly acrimonious.

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Llelo had just finished his post-neutering safety wait when Miaren 'Bramble', one of his potential brides, managed to wiggle through a loose connector, have a look at the real estate and its owner, liked what she saw - and never left the cage or the rather stunned boy. Or acknowledged her feuding sister and old group mates... :D

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Only days before I had to emergency pts Miaren after a sudden massive weight loss when one of her kidneys went badly wrong in 2022 I had bonded them with their neighbouring sow pair Brathlys 'Scarlet Pimpernel' and young Melangell 'Sweet Angel' (who had engaged in some heavy duty flirting through the bars with Llelo).

Brathlys passed away last August, aged ca. 6 years, but Melangell stayed with Llelo until the end.
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Llelo celebrated his 5th birthday at the end of last August. He was a quiet and rather unassuming boar who deeply loved the three ladies in his life.
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PS: I have moved Melangell next to Myrddin/Merlin so they can hopefully become good friends though the bars over the coming weeks until Myrddin is ready to meet and live with a sow.
 
I’m so sorry to read this Wiebke - just heart breaking - he was a beautiful boy
Run free at RB lovely Llelo ❤️
Take care of yourself Wiebke
 
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