Help - reintroducing male GP's!

[FernieB]

My GP's have been living apart for the last couple of weeks whilst Smoothpig has been convalescing after his leg injury. They've been in a large playpen together but separated by metal bars. During this time they've spent some time together playing in the conservatory and a short amount of time in their outside pen mowing the lawn. When they've been put together there's been a lot of rumblestrutting and bickering but nothing major.

I'm now at the point where I think they could go back together and I'm psyching myself up to get on with it next week when I'll be around all the time to supervise/break up fights.

Please could anyone else who has done this successfully give me some tips/moral support/UN peacekeeping training - any ideas would be greatly appreciated. My current plan is to bath them, thoroughly clean out the playpen and rearrange it completely with different hidey holes and then put them together in the playpen (as this is bigger than the cage) with a whole heap of yummy treats.

[guineapiglet]

Hi Fernie - hope your boy is recovering well, sounds like it! I only have experience of reintegrating SOWS, and from all the various threads on here, I realise boys are a law unto themselves!!! I think your plan is ace, so that it will be a 'new' area for both of them with no previous marking smells. - Lots to keep them occupied. Make sure hidey holes have an escape hatch! - ie no sealed igloos where one can be cornered, and a general escape plan for both, so that if one has had enough, they can quietly retreat in a dignified manner.... there will be the usual one upmanship and the need for one to be more dominant, this happens with sows...... the biggest trick that worked was a bin bag full of an endless supply of grass..... when they started being arsey with each other, I threw more and more grass in to distract them. It seemed to do the trick!
It might take a couple of days before they settle and notice that they are back together again for good

[dietcokeandwine]

Fernie I am not sure I am the best person to advise because, as you saw from my other thread, I have now had to separate my 18mo boars permanently following a nasty scrap. BUT - prior to that we had successfully reintroduced them (after a minor scrap) and they'd been happy in the cage together for eight months, so I guess the reintroduction worked to a point.

YY to bath together/clean out and rearrange playpen with lots of hideys. Only other suggestion I have is to use a different smelling cage cleaner to your usual one so that it smells completely new to them both. And agree with guineapiglets grass suggestion too. Grass, and/or dandelion leaves (my two do anything for a dandelion leaf )

Good luck!

[FernieB]

guineapiglet - thanks for the words of encouragement - I shall stock up on parsley.

dietcoke - it was your posts that were worrying me as I know you've had issues with your boys. Ours are 2 years old and have lived together since being a few weeks old with no major issues. This couple of weeks has been their first time apart and I'm really hoping I can get them back together for their sakes (they're missing each other). I'm just worried that like your boys, it just won't work.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Hopefully they'll have missed each others company (as in being in close proximity) . Have they been amiable while they've been seperate?



YY to guineapiglet and dietcoke. Loads of food distraction and hidey spaces and I guess let them get on with things.

When my hogs were seperated last winter they were still back together during the day. They seemed to resent being forced to being in close confines- but they will deposit themselves into a small space by choice and be fine ,
I tried them with a cuddly pillow in a box inside their 'haybox' (but with no hay) and filled a 50 litre trug with hay and a door cut in the side.
Little toads ignored the pillow and tucked themselves into the haytrug

[dietcokeandwine]

Fernie, it's really good that they've been missing each other, hopefully that will make the reintroduction easier. To be absolutely honest, I don't think ours are missing each other at all! I think we were just unlucky and our two were simply not compatible, personality wise, despite being brothers.

[FernieB]

Ours are like The Odd Couple normally - bickering constantly but don't want to be apart.

I am going to try on Tues or Weds next week when I've got a totally free day and just hope they don't fight. Should I get a bell to ring at the start of each round? Current Bun could be the umpire and I could take bets on who's going to be the Heavyweight Pig Champion (my money's on Smoothpig).