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Post by aidan724 on May 14, 2012 23:41:53 GMT
 Hi all! My family has just adopted 3 of the cutest, sweetest lil piggy boys. Forgive my ignorance but I know very little about pigs & am looking to learn as much as possible. Our family is made up of me (Aidan/mom), 4 kids ages 16, 9, 6 & 3, my mother, 3 wonderful dogs, 1 awesome kitty, 1 tree frog, 2 firebelly toads, 1 cockateil & now 3 baby pigs. Zhu-Zhu, Ying yang & Rascal came to us from a friend of a friend who had recently gotten 2 piggys that were "girls". Evidently the pet store employee was wrong. They had 2 back to back litters & had no idea what to do with them. I did want to take them all but 3 was the limit that I could come up with after researching proper cage size. I am 99.9% sure they are all 3 boys but as soon as we have had some settle in time I will be resexing them. At the moment the boys are in a nursery set up because I'm uncertain about their safety in a c&c cage. The nursery is a rather large baby pool with 2 pellet food dishes, a water bottle, a very shallow water dish & some cardboard boxes. They don't appear to be chewers so I haven't had to worry about them ingesting anything other than food. At any rate I'm glad that I was able to find the place :-)
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Post by lisa21264 on May 15, 2012 2:12:36 GMT
welcome to the forum
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Post by dkwannabe on May 15, 2012 4:35:59 GMT
Welcome to the forum! Do resex the piggies as you don't a pregnancy of your own. How old are the pigs? Congrats on the new additions!
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Post by aidan724 on May 15, 2012 7:04:40 GMT
Thanks for the welcome :-) I did recheck the piggys & 3 out of 3 popped so I'm sure I was correct & they are 3 boys. :-) As far as age goes I'm really not sure. They look far smaller than any I have seen in any pet store. My 9 y/o can hold them in one hand (while seated on the floor & not elevating them off her lap) so I'm assuming the are relatively young. They were housed with a prior litter (back to back litters) & the owner said the older ones were around 3 monthsish. Hence why I was not going to get any females. I'm not very sure about size & age to tell really & I don't exactly trust the haphazard guess by the "owner". I can tell you that just since Friday they have already gotten bigger. I'm not sure if this is due to age, improved diet (doing this slowly as they weren't getting fresh veggies) or a combination of the two. Either wayy they are adorable, talkative, eating like champs & seem to be very happy.
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Post by fudgeandsmudge on May 15, 2012 7:11:32 GMT
You will love having piggies! They are such fun and have such great little personalities! This forum is great for everything you need to know. I had same thing happen to me with a pregnant piggie bought from shop. I went from 2 to 5 in 7 weeks and this forum helped me wth everthing! Welcome. Would like to see pictures of your little boys. I love baby piggies!!
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Post by aidan724 on May 15, 2012 7:25:19 GMT
Thanks :-) We are already loving having them & honestly they are far less time consuming for any unpleasant duties than say our frogs. Fishing dead bugs out of a tank can be interesting. LOL I have always been concerned about purchasing/rescuing female animals due to the possibility of an existing pregnancy. I have a hard time trusting other people to treat my babies right & I can't see it being feasible for us to be able to properly care for a surprise litter. At the moment I'm working solely on my cell for web so I'm not sure how I would be able to post pictures. I have been able to upload them to my fb page so I will have to look into it.
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Post by Alice Rose on May 15, 2012 10:57:51 GMT
Sounds like they've got a great new home =)
Welcome to the forum
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Post by ravenblossom on May 15, 2012 22:05:33 GMT
welcome to the forum. They sound quite young at the moment but I would recommend keeping a very close eye on their behaviour as they get older as boars usually don't tend to do well in trios (but there's always the exception to the rule) generally as young pigs they should be fine but as they get older and hormones start flowing you may find one being picked on or full blown fights so something to watch out for.
You've definitely done the right thing coming to a community like this where you can get all the answers help and support you need. And piggies are amazing pets :-)
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Post by aidan724 on May 16, 2012 0:10:44 GMT
Unfortunately I noticed that tidbit of information after I had gotten them as a trio :-( At the moment they are happy together though. As of now I am almost always home & they are within sight so I should be able to spot any troubles. If worse comes to worse I imagine it will be a good excuse for a larger cage(s) & perhaps a friend for the oddball. I am planning a larger than recomended enclosure & am looking for ways to prevent the brothers from getting snippy with each other. :-) One never knows but we can always make the best of whatever comes. Thanks for the welcome :-)
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Post by dkwannabe on May 16, 2012 4:09:29 GMT
I've found that usually my boars fight over space. If they have enough room to run around, nothing to get stuck in and get "bullied", then they do fine. If your boars are relatively young, then they should probably be fine until around 6 months. Hormones kick in and then they test each other.
Hopefully everything works out!
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Post by fudgeandsmudge on May 16, 2012 7:04:40 GMT
I have three boars together too as all of my babies were boars and i couldn't bear to part with any of them. They are 12 weeks old at moment and all getting on ok although they do rumble at each other a bit to stamp their authority. I'm hoping my cage is big enough to stop any fights but if not it's big enough to put a divider down the middle to seperate if need be.
I can see that two of them get on better and one is more chased away, so will keep an eye on them. I shall soon find out in 3 months time when their hormones kick in!!!!! But at the moment they all eat and play lovely together.
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Post by Alice Rose on May 16, 2012 8:55:58 GMT
I had 3 boars living happily together until I introduced another boar and the heierarchy changed and they started fighting so I've had to seperate them, Hopefully you won't have to seperate them if they get their pecking order sorted out at a young age.
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Post by Kayleigh on May 16, 2012 11:35:44 GMT
Welcome to the forum.
Your pigs all sound lovely albeit a little young. How much do they weigh? This is usually a good indicator.
They sound very happy indeed.
With regards to keeping boars in trios it can work but its not always a forever thing. I personally never keep adult boars in trios as i wont risk them fighting. I do however pair young boars (3weeks odd) with their dad or uncle pigs so they learn the ropes when away from their mum.
As far as space is concerned thats not always the factor i currently have a 5month and 2 4week old boars in a 3ft x 2ft and thats plenty of space for them. Some pigs like space others dont. Its all about personality.
Welcome again we are all here to help an advise.
Kayleigh
Sent from my GT-I9000 using ProBoards
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Post by aidan724 on May 16, 2012 23:10:04 GMT
Thanks :-) I will be keeping a watchful eye & fingers crossed. At the moment they are snuggling, eating nicely & I haven't. Noticed any sort of aggressive behavior. I don't have a scale yet but they are very small. What would be a good scale to keep an eye on their weight? They seem nicely proportioned. Not fat or skinny. We like to do nightly & morning inspections of all the babies. I'm hoping that with 3 of everything, plenty of excercise & enough space we can keep the fighting away or at bay for a while. *knock on wood* That's always worked with the rest of my lil bits. If it doesn't work then we shall have 2 or 3 cages.
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Post by ravenblossom on May 17, 2012 23:03:13 GMT
You are doing the right thing in keeping an eye on them, animals are all individual so you never know it could work out if not you're savy enough with all you've read to know what to do whether that's getting another friend for the lone pig or simply dividing the cage :-)
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Post by Alice Rose on May 18, 2012 10:04:33 GMT
It is a good idea to weigh them weekly or so, then you can keep an eye on any drastic weight changes. And good thought with having 3 of everything =) I have a piggy that's very selfish and doesn't like sharing so I had to have at least 2 of everything so he could have his own =L
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Post by aidan724 on May 19, 2012 13:55:23 GMT
R avensgirl Thanks :-) I would hate for them not to conntinue to get along but if that happens we will work out what's best for all of them. I would probably end up with another baby boy just because I can't stand feeling like they are lonely. Besides I'm sure the kiddos wouldn't mind a bit.
Alice Rose Thanks :-) I've never made it a habit to weigh my animalssince I've always gone by site & feel.I guess I will have to dig around and unpack those kitchen scales now. I have always tried to have 1 of everything for all my animals to keep down on any disagreements or greedy behavior. We have a chihauhua & he is about the size of a largte adult GP & then a 65lb pup so you can imagine that it would be awful if they got into it. :-p Besides I wouldn't want anybody else putting their face all up in my dinner plate so I can see how they might not want to share. Though for now they all cuddle up together in one box & eat side by side at least they have a choiice.
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Post by Orlaith on May 25, 2012 12:49:32 GMT
Welcome to the forum. Hope your pigs continue to stay friends.
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Post by petlover2011 on May 26, 2012 20:37:36 GMT
welcome to the forum & congrats on your new piggies.
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