[Gpdd] CARE: introducing pigs

Helen Stanford tweetypie_80 at hotmail.com
Wed Apr 28 13:57:35 EDT 2004


Hi GPDDers,

I was wondering if you could give me some help or advice on introducing my 
piggies.

We recently rescued 2 female pigs(Smurf and Mollie, both 1 year old each) 
from a family who didn't want them anymore.  We already have 2 pigs, a young 
mother(Flossie, around 7 months) and her daughter(Skipper, 4 months old).  
So now we have flossie and skipper being kept together, and smurf and molly 
being kept together.

We have been introducing them very gradually to avoid them fighting, on 
neutral territory, with food etc. Skipper gets on fine with both the new 
pigs, but flossie will always try and fight with both of them.

Yesterday i made an enclosure outside on neutral territory and let all the 
pigs free to run in it, with places to hide in case they got angry. i sat in 
the middle and watched them play, and skipper was great with both the new 
ones, but flossie fought with both of them. i held flossie for a while, but 
she was desperate to get back into the enclosure again, so after a while i 
let her free again but then she fought again...

What should i do? i know it's all to do with pig psychology...should i make 
her feel like she is in control, or should i make her feel like she has to 
be accepted by the rest of them? does anyone have any suggestions? it's so 
hard to know what's going on inside their little heads!!

Any help would be appriciated :)

Thank you!

Helen and the pigs: Flossie, Skipper, Smurf and Molly, and not forgetting 
Miffy and Nutkin over the bridge

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