new piggy help

[up424days]

I've had my piggy for about a week and we have been getting along great.
Of course he is still afraid of me but does eat from my hand and lets me hold him(even tho he hates being picked up). Since it seemed he was getting more comfortable with me i thought i'd try floortime.
It went ok but now the problem is he seems more afraid of me. Ever since ive put him back in his cage he been hiding from me... i feel we taking two steps back. I know it will take awhile for him to warm up but cant help but feel a little sad.

[Toadies]

Perhaps the floor time area was too large for him to feel comfortable in. Maybe next time it could be smaller and perhaps he would feel more secure. Did he have alot of places to hide so that he didn't feel exposed? He also may have never had that much space before and, being a prey animal, he could have just felt overwhelmed. You could try sitting in the floor time space with him on your lap and let him get down to explore at his own pace. Don't give up.

[pigsmakemesmile]

I would give him much more time to get use to his environment before doing floor time. To a pig, taking him out of his cage and placing him on floor time is like just putting him into another cage but only bigger. I waited a long time before I began floor time and it went well. I have 5 pigs. When you do floor time, make the area smaller and provide arears he can run into to hide otherwords...provide a sense of security. Also provide food and treats so he will associate floor time as something meant to be pleasant. When done consistently enough, he/she will do much better.
good luck.

[fourboys4now]

With each new pig I did floor time immediately. Of course the first few days the new pig at the time would hide under a chair, we do floor time in our long kitchen. I always have a pile of cilantro or parsley for their floor time treat. When the new one would hide I would scoot some of the treat to him to make sure they got some too. After just a day or so they begin to wander away from the chair and join the other boys eating from the spread out pile.

I have been doing floor time now for many months and I have to chase down every pig to catch them in the cage to put them out for floor time and also chase them down in kitchen to put them back in cage. They absolutely love floor time and being held but I always have to catch them. Some pigs always do this and I've read of some that will come when you open the cage. Good luck with your new baby!