First time owner here. A question about hay, of all things!

[Dieu]

Hello! We have a 7 - 8 month old rescue boar, given to us by a friend who ended up in a tricky position due to the virus (the handover was done very safely, with social distancing etc).
He's on his own, as he doesn't much like other piggies apparently. I think he was neglected in a pet shop before my friend took him in, so perhaps he felt like he always had to fight for food.
Anyway, he now has a permanent living home with us, and we're so keen to get everything right I will post a photo later, but if you could imagine Trump's hair on little legs, you'd get the picture!
It's all going well so far (it has been 6 days) but he's still mega timid. He prefers to hang out in the shelter part of his cage (indoors). I'm not sure how much GPs actually like being caught and handled, but that side of things is going ok. He seems to enjoy going in his little pen on the garden lawn. At first he would stay in the little shelter we have in there, but now he ignores it and snuffles around in the grass. I consider this progress!
He doesn't seem to drink from his bottle, but I have put a small sturdy glass bowl in his cage. And I sprinkle a little water on his veggies.
So this morning, I gave him spinach leaves (in place of his normal kale), a small piece of banana, celery plus leaves, basil and parsley. Does that sound ok? He doesn't like sweetcorn, courgette, pepper, cucumber or tomato.
I also gave him his regular hay, plus a little bit of two other more luxurious types (can't remember the name). And guinea pig nuggets of course.

So, some things I am wondering:

• do you have insurance for your piggies? I already have my dog and cat insured, so he could probably be added to that. If GP insurance exists?!

• will he ever show us that he's happy? I'd love to hear him wheak, but maybe it's too early days. Obviously it's easier to recognise when my other pets are happy.

• his nails are already quite long, and I'm nervous as hell about cutting them. Any nail cutter recommendations and tips?

• hay getting stuck to his fleece. I really don't want this to bugger up my washing machine, and it's nigh on impossible to pick off every last bit. I've seen pet laundry bags online. Are these any good?

• at the moment, we're doing a full cage clean/change every 3 days. Does that sound about right?

• his hair is quite long, and I reckon he'll need a bath at some point Would really appreciate some pointers.

I genuinely came on here originally to ask about the sticky hay thing, and got totally carried away Looking forward to making your acquaintance, and thanks very much in advance for any help.

Thanks for the info about their stones! I haven't seen any changes like that, thankfully. We accidentally double fed them today (two lots of breakfast) and did they tell us? No they did not. So being off food would certainly be a sign of all not being well

One boar did the odd pooh the size of a Ferrero Rocher

I knew there was a reason I don't like Ferrero Rocher....

Our elderly boar is still with us but is needing help passing his poohs, some days they are normal and others he can't quite get them out at the last stage. TMI alert...he has help getting them out and then the other two pigs go and eat them

Accidental Double Dinners are acceptable .
IThis sometimes happened with DD and I .... "ahh has she not fed you "? No , she hasn't , the witch "I;ll get you dinner"

Then realising we'd both fed them and they didn't let on.

He was our little boy who occasionally got impacted , mostly passed regular droppings but about once a week passed one of these solid turds (not a first passing)
Sometimes in the space of taking him from the Pighouse to the run, and it would be there , not a peep from him.

If you have an ill piggie you can give them the first dropping from a healthy pig , i have never done this> it's full of natural probiotics.

And when we had a pig with a companion, any eye injuries cleared up well (we used salted water to bathe the eye and the cagemate washed it )
The restorative qualities of Guinea-Pig Spit .
Interestingly , when GP7 was our last pig , her eye infection took four weeks, three vet visits and 4x daily gel+drops to heal.
If she'd had her cage mate , who knows ?

I was wondering if your pigs pee and poo in a designated part of their cage. Reesie seems to do it everywhere, without discrimination

Also, do you give them wee boxes, eg a Jaffa cakes box, to play with and chew? I'm not sure what's safe and what's not.

I give toilet rolls and kitchen roll innards (ie the cardboard bit) I would personally be wary of the printed stuff. They like the cardboard stuff with hay stuck to it you can buy.
When we got ours a bought this tray thing that I thought I'd train them to use to poo in in the corner of the cage

I give them cardboard but nothing printed like cereal boxes. They love egg boxes (we have farm ones which are unprinted) and also the long brown paper that Amazon use for packaging - they hide in it and jump on it.

As for poo, well it's dual purpose. The second use is to see how much of the cage floor they can cover with it They don't even poo in their cuddly house though, that is special as they have had it since they were teeny babies without a mum, even now they will go and sleep lying on it every now and then.

Ours loved a cardboard box , just make sure there's no staples or tape .
Non shiney is better and avoid printed .

We used to cut two doors or an extra wide door to prevent one pig trapping another .
Our GP2 used to turn a rectangular door to an ornate arch (at 3am , best time to chew cardboard when they were in at winter)

My boars were always tidier than the sows .
GP1 and GP2 started with a massive haybox ( about 3'x3' in the pighouse) full of hay .
They sat in opposite corners leaving little pooh nests .

GP1 always went to the edge of the haybox, peed copiously then dived into the hay . GP2 waited 30seconds , ran through the pee no envy , and joined him.

The sows just walked along , poohing as they went .

When our old boar GP6 married GP7 in the last few months , he was happy to give up his single status , but horrified at her tardy habits

We give them old shoe boxes with one side cut out. Because it is big and therefore a house they don't eat it. I suppose they aren't always completely dim.
We had one exceptionally bright pig brighter than some humans who had one cage mate who he didn't get on with (one of four) so he'd go upstairs, wait for his favourite mate to come upstairs and then push the tunnel across the top if less favourite mate tried to come upstairs and then remove it when he'd given up

As they were two pairs it was fine, they all had a mate.