[Gpdd] [Care] housing piglets

[warmbreath]

I would like to add my voice to Penny's about the relative ease and 
convenience of housing piggies in groups, and stress the benefits to the 
piggies who are so amazingly sociable animals and really need to live 
together.
After the initial quarantine and anti parasite treatments, the prospective 
room mates can live next door to each other until they start napping next to 
each other.  Penny's idea of introducing them on neutral ground is a time 
tested way to success. I  also had success by just lifting the barrier 
between them, with a large fresh salad as diversion after living side by 
side, and very often this works.  Always have a couple towels on hand to 
drop on them if they do
fight.

One note of caution, piggies need room and its just as bad to crowd a duo or 
trio as a singleton. I use 2 x 4 ft. as a min for one and go up from there. 
In my early years before "Neat Idea Cubes" I would keep piggies in the 
dinning room as it was the hub of the home, in the largest Rubbermaid tubs. 
These were ok for two but I noticed after a while that if I added a third to 
that size the death rate from all causes went up, so I saw that as a 
crowding issue, there weren't fights, so obviously I adjusted to better 
sizes for higher numbers, the Neat Idea Cubes are great for this but don’t 
count on one high to keep different sexes apart, four feet is the safest, 
three feet usually works.  I kept sows and boars in the same room separated 
by sex but in groups and without any fighting.

The sows are really best kept in gangs of several, a boss pig will emerge 
and an entire pecking order develops. If one is too picked-on they can be 
rehomed either with a neutered male or a different group of sows. Groups and 
leaders are fluid, and while the boss pig may rule long, when she gets older 
some young sow will come along and replace her, but I never had a case where 
the deposed boss couldn’t find someone to live happily with, but you may 
need to assist. The important thing is too allow  transitions just watching 
to make sure no one gets hurt and take action if things get out of hand.  A 
new pair or group can be separated at night for a while if you are really 
worried about a pairing, do this till all settles down. I just use the high 
barrier between the sexes, different same sex groups are usually safe with a 
one foot barrier, and if a fight breaks out a pig may pop-up and out of the 
enclosure and you will find him wandering around the next day, I think it’s 
a reflex they use when in danger and is related to their popcorning 
abilities. So that means the lower barriers are safer esp for boars. I never 
had a pig break into another's home to pick a fight.

One neutered male (I didn’t often neuter) can live with several sows and is 
a good solution for those few sows who cant seem to live peacefully with 
girls..  The key is to watch your piggy-vision often and long so you know 
how everyone is getting along, if anyone is picked on or unhappy, and you 
can see this. One thing though is to realize that these piggies make long 
lasting deep bonds with one another, and as long as the squabbles are few 
don’t do too much re-arranging, they want to stay with their friends.  Also 
I had duos and trios of boars living very successfully.  Just never crowd 
and provide multiple water and food bottles, pigloos etc, so no one can 
claim or hog a  food dish to the exclusion of other pigs. Also water bottle 
accidents can and do happen so there should be two in every set up even for 
a singleton.  Be watchful and flexible, the piggies will almost always sort 
it out.  Sandy and Sammy