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Author Topic: Introducing a rescued KK to my 2 KK's  (Read 2090 times)

JedMcd

  • Joined Aug 2015
Introducing a rescued KK to my 2 KK's
« on: August 27, 2015, 09:56:37 pm »
Hi, i know this will probably have been covered already somewhere. But i have 2 brother kk's that ar 11 months old and a friend who had 2 has lost 1 of his and rather than his remaining one be alone he has asked me if i would have it which i will gladly do. But im worried they will fight n do some harm to each other. Mine are as i said 11 months and his is 18 months old and a boy too. They live in a 1 acre paddock so can be seperated but will they be able to ge introduced.

HappyHippy

  • Guest
Re: Introducing a rescued KK to my 2 KK's
« Reply #1 on: August 28, 2015, 09:17:26 am »
Are they all castrated? If any of them aren't then you might need to rethink  :-\
In the case that they are it should be fine after the initial settling in/pecking order establishment.
Keep the new one away from the other two for (ideally) three weeks until you know they are disease and parasite free. Once the isolation time is past and you've made sure their tusks are all short/trimmed. I'd personally just let him in with them - with an acre there's plenty of room for him to escape them. Put in a second area for sleeping (it should just be needed for a couple of days), introduce them at evening feed (less time to fight before bedtime), give them a couple of cans of beer to chill them out a bit. I know it sounds strange, but it'll help - promise! Make sure they have plenty of water and keep an eye on them. There WILL be fighting, it will look brutal and you'll want to step in and separate them - DON'T! Providing it's all pushing, shoving and head/shoulder focused it will settle in a couple of days - if they're biting at each others back ends, it's more serious. Have a can of antibiotic spray ready for bites and scrapes and general war wounds.
I mixed my senior boar with some sows and gilts yesterday (he's a BIG lad) one of the gilts took a bit of a dislike and actually back flipped him through the field - he let her carry on for five minutes or so before he showed her he was the boss  ;)
Males and females usually mix well, youngsters and castrates are usually easy but sows.....wow they can be viscous!
Good luck!

Buffy the eggs layer

  • Joined Jun 2010
Re: Introducing a rescued KK to my 2 KK's
« Reply #2 on: August 28, 2015, 09:18:39 am »
Well there is bound to be a bit of pecking order scuffling to begin with which may sound worse than it actually is. The new one will need to be separated to begin with for quarantining but after that letting them be nose to nose through a hurdle would be a good way of letting their immune systems adapt to each others bugs.


The older one in theory would be dominant you would think but is at a disadvantage as it is an intruder and on its own. If it has time to settle in by its self and get used to the new place and the feeding routine then the stress and competitive element will reduce. Letting them all be together but separated by a few hurdles will enable them to meet and get used to each others scent.


Feeding them veg at both sides of the hurdle will allow them to come together at what is potentially the most likely time for a row but get used to eating together without stress or fighting. When you finally put them together just remove the hurdle late in the day so that the established pigs are going to sleep and stay around to get the new pig in and settled the new shelter.


Once they have all slept together the next morning should be more relaxed. I'm not saying that they wont still have a ruckus to decide who is in charge of who but you will have reduced all the obvious flash points for conflict.


Having said all that, they are Kunes.... so you could probably just throw them all in together and they would get on just fine ;D [size=78%]![/size]

Buffy the eggs layer

  • Joined Jun 2010
Re: Introducing a rescued KK to my 2 KK's
« Reply #3 on: August 28, 2015, 09:22:21 am »
Haha, :wave: ;D


   looks like we were both posting at the same time Happy. Good to see we are on the same wavelength.




HappyHippy

  • Guest
Re: Introducing a rescued KK to my 2 KK's
« Reply #4 on: August 28, 2015, 09:30:35 am »
 ;D There will be fights and to be honest, if they have a barrier (fence/hurdle) all that's going to happen is the fence will get damaged (ask me how I know  ;)) so WITH KUNEKUNE once the isolation period is over and they have plenty of space/escape routes I just chuck 'em all in together. Young pigs mixing with older ones tend to be automatically submissive, the fights happen when they need to figure out who the boss is - if they're all of a similar size it can take longer to settle.

Marches Farmer

  • Joined Dec 2012
  • Herefordshire
Re: Introducing a rescued KK to my 2 KK's
« Reply #5 on: August 28, 2015, 03:56:21 pm »
I've used a can of air freshener to good effect in the past - spray it high over their backs when their heads are down feeding and it overrides their natural smell so they all smell the same, at least until introductions have been completed.

 

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