[Gpdd] CARE Fighting piggies

[Penny Charlesworth]

Introducing a baby boar to an older one usually ( in my experience ) goes
off without a hitch. Dmitri is not too young to have a companion.

I have put a just weaned baby in with his father or with a bereaved boar
and they are generally instant friends. Much easier than introducing sows.

I can't remember - how long has Apollo lived on his own? I gather that he
doesn't live with Gruden from your email but did he live with Edgeworth or
another whose name eludes me at the moment? If he has been alone for a
while it might take him some time to be used to company again.

Who is the aggressor? Surely not tiny Dmitri but you never know. Sometimes
it is the little ones who can be more territorial.

Did you introduce them on neutral ground with no scent of previous
occupants? There is the tried and tested method of bathing them together.
Once they have got over the shock of sharing the bath, putting them in a
pile of towels to dry off may make them forget that they have not always
been together. Be very careful to dry tiny Dmitri thoroughly.

Give them plenty of room, two bowls and water bottles, two piles of hay,
two tunnels or hideys, two heaps of veggies. If Apollo has a hidey, and
some pigs don't want one, give Dmitri a very small one into which Apollo
will not fit so that the little one can get away if he wants to. A
cardboard box with a small hole will do. It doesn't have to be anything
fancy, I have a plastic pigloo in two parts which snaps together leaving a
tiny entrance and something like this would be ideal.

Don't give up yet but you might want to keep them separate when you go out
or at night time. Better to supervise and be ready to grab the aggressor (
mind your fingers ).

My Rodentologist keeps a water sprayer and squirts the aggressor when doing
intros. I've never tried that nor have I needed to.

Another trick is to put a few drops of aromatherapy oil into a couple of
teaspoonfuls of carrier oil. Mix it up and use a syringe to drip a drop or
two onto each rump to confuse the piggies. Lavender is a nice one or
citronella, which keeps away flies at the same time. Not very manly but it
is in the cause of friendship and you don't have any sows to laugh at them.

All the very best with your efforts and I hope all goes well. Do let us
know the outcome. All piggies need a friend.

Penny and the Piiggyfriends.