We did intros last night

[fieryone]

ETA (Ugh. I put this in the wrong place)

Last night we introduced Doc (our neutered male) to the girls in the floor time pen. Things couldn't have gone better! They checked each other out and then went about their own business. Doc was popcorning like a madman and loved finally having some friends for probably the first time in his 2½ years. We did intros at about 7pm and by 1:30am when I went to bed, things were still well and I decided to leave them in there for the night and attach his pet store cage to our existing cage and all that in the morning.

Apparently something happened between Lola and Doc overnight or early in the morning because when I got up they were fussing at each other on and off and I guess they lunged and knocked over a pigloo in the incident. My husband who sometimes has a flair for the dramatic witnessed that so I don't know if it was as bad as he made it sound. No blood was drawn, just some teeth chattering and such.

Then we put them in the cage and Lola and Doc keep complaining to each other and it's making the other girls tense and Doc and Ethel (who seemed to be getting along the best) started fussing at each other. Lola lunged and took a mouthful of fur but there was no blood and I can't see a wound anywhere so it seemed to be just for show. There's still some fuss and noise but I'm leaving them to work it out. I'd like to go out today but I don't feel comfortable doing so quite yet.

Here are some pics from last night when we thought that things couldn't possibly go any better!





Aww

[sirigirl92]

wow, you have some gorgeous pigs!
I had a similar experience, did the same thing as you, and everything worked out fine.

[fieryone]

Update

I don't know what in the world happened between tonight and today but we've had several lunging episodes and Lucy and Doc had a tussle in the pet store part of the cage. Doc was tagged in the nose and is terrified so I took him and Ethel out and put them in the floor time area to see what happens. Lucy and Lola don't love each other and bicker, Lucy and Ethel definitely get along better than these two, but they don't fight. Any ideas? Take him out and leave the 3 girls and try again another time, try a two and two pairing, or what? This is a bummer because last night things really couldn't have gone any better.

[akstrohm]

I'm sorry to hear it isn't going well.

I would try a bit longer to make it work with all of them. How big is your cage? Do you have multiples of everything? And more than 4 hideys with multiple entrances/exits? If any one area is troublesome (i.e. the pet store cage), I would take it out, especially if one pig can corner another in the pet store cage.

If it absolutely won't work, I would split them in pairs. My guess is that they're still working things out, so I hope all four can eventually get along.

[fieryone]

Originally Posted by akstrohm

I'm sorry to hear it isn't going well.

I would try a bit longer to make it work with all of them. How big is your cage? Do you have multiples of everything? And more than 4 hideys with multiple entrances/exits? If any one area is troublesome (i.e. the pet store cage), I would take it out, especially if one pig can corner another in the pet store cage.

If it absolutely won't work, I would split them in pairs. My guess is that they're still working things out, so I hope all four can eventually get along.

Ethel got aggressive in the floor time pen so I put her back with the other two. I'm going to get some more coroplast in the next few days and expand the cage that way so that no one can get cornered in the pet store cage. I'm also going to remove pigloos and make more bent grid hideys

The main part of the cage is 2x5 so I figured adding his pet store cage would make it a little bigger than 2x6, but he got trapped in there twice. I had/have a hay rack, water, and food in the pet store cage and on the opposite side of the main cage along with 3 pigloos, a fabric drape, and a bent grid hidey. It's getting worse as the day goes on and his nose has a bloody spot and I don't want it to get worse in terms of blood so I'll try again in about a week or so I guess. Time to build his cage again

[akstrohm]

Yeah, definitely make sure you have a big enough cage that's not divided in any way, appropriate hideys (not pigloos) and multiple sources of hay and other food. I would not try again until you have all those things. They're critical to many pigs getting along.

[Peggysu]

Oh I'm so sorry. I've been there and it's quite heart breaking. Try again in a week, let things cool down. I hope it goes better next time. My boy is such a love like your boy, I have a soft spot for my boy like you have a soft for yours. Good Luck!!

[MissFormosa]

That little brown and white pig is so cute! I think in the second and last photo, there is some definite "stink eye" going on!

Husbands always are dramatic. Ever seen a sick man? That's dramatic!

[fieryone]

Originally Posted by MissFormosa

That little brown and white pig is so cute!

That's Lola, the ringmaster of the whole ordeal. She also doesn't get along with Lucy (the black & white one with the crooked stripe on her face). All this time we thought that Lucy was to blame because Lola always seems so cool. She may have had us all snowed.

[fieryone]

It looks like Doc will be an only pig. We tried intros again and he was still very nervous and shellshocked from last time. Lola is the aggressor which seems so odd. He was terrified and she started chasing him with hunks of his fur hanging out of her mouth and just like last time, kept escalating as time went on. They were all in the pen together for about 2 hours. We did a buddy bath and all. No luck. I don't know what else to do

I can't separate them into pairs this way either because it's Lucy and Ethel that are the more bonded of the girls. We always blamed Lucy, but it's Lola who's the problem child. Any ideas?

[MissFormosa]

Originally Posted by fieryone

It looks like Doc will be an only pig. We tried intros again and he was still very nervous and shellshocked from last time. Lola is the aggressor which seems so odd. He was terrified and she started chasing him with hunks of his fur hanging out of her mouth and just like last time, kept escalating as time went on. They were all in the pen together for about 2 hours. We did a buddy bath and all. No luck. I don't know what else to do

I can't separate them into pairs this way either because it's Lucy and Ethel that are the more bonded of the girls. We always blamed Lucy, but it's Lola who's the problem child. Any ideas?

I had a similar situation with Byron and Alton and thank goodness (cross my fingers) the herds stay peaceful. Byron and Alton were the only pigs I had, just the two of them. When Byron's puberty hit both of them went crazy with each other and kept turning into vicious balls of fur. The cage was even bigger than the recommended size but apparently space didn't help because I had two dominant pigs. I was scared because it seemed just days earlier they were the best of friends.

I let them do their thing like is recommended and sort it all out. Once Byron got Alton and had fur hanging from his mouth, we separated them, but kept trying again. I'm not sure this was the right thing to do. One day, during an introduction after a buddy bath and setting up a new meeting area, Alton drew blood and Byron went to the vet. It wasn't serious, I think I was just panicky. All they had to do was clean it and clip off a piece of hanging skin and the wound ended up being about a quarter inch long - the size of Alton's mouth. The vet said Alton teeth probably just scraped Byron's belly. That was that. So they were only pigs in a divided cage for a while.

Now they each have buddies and all seems happy and peaceful (for now) but it was trial and error trying to match pigs up to them and it took awhile...we would look for certain personality traits and had to wait until the right ones came up that we could adopt. Carlton hit pigerty recently but Alton doesn't let him boss and Carlton agrees to be the submissive one. Winston is still young and let's hope he doesn't spazz either, but he also seems submissive (for now).

I guess that doesn't help much as far as advice but I wanted to let you know you're not the only one stuck in this stressful situation.

[silkiepoo]

Your little black and white piggy is so cute! I guess that one is Doc I could just snuggle him

[fieryone]

Originally Posted by silkiepoo

Your little black and white piggy is so cute! I guess that one is Doc I could just snuggle him

The one with the solid black face is Ethel and the black & white one with the crooked white stripe on her face is Lucy. Doc is the orange & white one.

Originally Posted by MissFormosa

Now they each have buddies and all seems happy and peaceful (for now) but it was trial and error trying to match pigs up to them and it took awhile...we would look for certain personality traits and had to wait until the right ones came up that we could adopt.

I wish it was Lucy who was the problem child like we thought. We figured if she was a problem, have her and Ethel together and put Lola with Doc. Now that it's Lola who is the problem, I'm at a loss.

I could probably give Ethel to Doc but I hesitate because her and Lucy seem well bonded and while Lola and Lucy can co-exist without flying fur, they complain at each other a lot and certainly don't love each other. Another pig would be a hard sell on the hubby (and myself at this point) because both times we've introduced a new pig, it's gone less than perfectly. Lola is the common denominator in both. She was eventually able to co-exist since there wasn't any fur flying, just lots of noise for almost a month.

[MissFormosa]

It's crazy isn't it? We call it "pigatics" (a play on politics).