Hey,
I have 7 sows of varying ages but they all seem to go into heat on different days and of a night decided to rumble at each other and start mounting the others. At first I thought it was dominance but even the pigs at the bottom of the heirachy every few weeks start rumbling and I have to separate them for the night.
I've read that to calm sows down you introduce a neutered boar, I've made the cage bigger and a sow sadly passed away a few months ago so they have more room that ever but one always starts rumbling and constantly annoying the others!
Thanks for any suggestions
Hi and welcome!
What a neutered boar does, is drawing the fire. The sows will generally squabble less amongst themselves although they may continue to mount each other before they are ready to mate at the end of their season. The first few seasons are going to be on the wild side and you may see a lump of them as their bodies react to the boar pheromones; sows can come into season spontaneously if they are not too far away from one.
Personally, I love my 'husboars'; I've got currently five of them, living with a variable amount of sows from one to four, but I've had a large group of up to 13 sows at some point.
If possible, please go and date a suitable boar at a good rescue. Not all, especially dominant older sows and strong leaders, will necessarily accept a boar in their group. I have carefully built up my big group around a dominant older boar with leader qualities, and also looked for the same in successor. However, when the big group fell apart after a generation after an ambitious younger sow staged a coup, I have had to find either more submissive younger husboars as companions to older dominant sows (and by far not all have accepted a new companion, even though they had been previously living with a neutered boar) or pair up submissive sows with a dominant middle aged or older widower. Finding "Mr Right" can be a lot more tricky than you might think, but when it works out, having a boar in the group really makes a difference and adds to the cohesion, as the husboar needs to get on with all sows in order to mate with them.
it would be very helpful if you please added your country, state/province or UK county to your details, so we can give you recommendations where to best look for one in order to prevent you ending up with a not accepted boy and a big headache if possible. We have got members from all over the world with very variable access to rescues or good vets.
Please click on your username on the top bar, then go to personal details and scroll down to location. This makes it appear with every post you make and allows us to tailor any advice and recommendations straight away to what is available and relevant where you are. Thank you!
