Boar bonds

[Ilovemypigs123]

About 4 weeks ago I had to seperate my two boars one who’s now 9 months old and the other who is 3.5, they live side by side with c&c grids separating them; but they’ve both starting to constantly bite the bars to try and get to each other but I’ve read that you shouldn’t rebond after fighting? Is there anything else I can do for them?

Pic of dumbo the younger male

 

[Piggies&buns]

If there was an actual fight then no you sadly can’t rebond.
Bar biting can be an attention behaviour but you also have to be aware of territorial behaviours ie marking so the other doesn’t cross the boundary.

Make sure there’s plenty of enrichment within the cage, and that the cages meet size requirements, to keep them occupied. They are still going to be ‘bonded’ between the bars so they are still interacting

 

[fluffysal]

My boys recently became neighboars, things should settle again as they they are both interacting.
When my original pair needed to be split because of a spectacular bond break the dominant was injuring himself trying to get to Dignified Sir George, who just ignored him.

 

[Truffolo]

You could try using acrylic sheet to stop the bar biting. I bought Kavee acrylic partitions to replace wire grid partitions where my two boars interact as they chew there. They can still chew the edges of the acrylic so the gap is stuffed with toilet roll and kitchen roll inner cardboard tubes. Cardboard can be quite useful to protect the wire bars and to prevent the boars from damaging their teeth. They tend not to chew much if they have to reach for the top edge of the cardboard. It's nice if they can still see and smell each other so that they still have a sense of being in a herd, albeit a two pig herd with wire in between them. The partitions are expensive, but I reasoned less costly than needing a dental. Kavee grids are different to C&C I think, so they might not fit together.

 

[fluffysal]

They should go together ok. I'm sure the standard Kavee size is 35x35cm as are both my songmics and cage creations.

 

[AidaB]

We have a crazed bar biter, Wally, he has plenty of enrichment in his home, and opportunity to chew other things like cardboard box houses.
Our boys live as neighbours, due to Hamish’s bad pelvis, it’s not good for him to be humped!

If you search bar biting/cage biting/bar chewing there are a few threads where we all discuss ideas!

We have personally decided not to use the Perspex grids on the divide as our understanding is that the boys need to be able to smell/touch noses through the dividing grids.

Our 2 live happily as neighbours, we see all the usual behaviours (except dominance humping!) as they interact with each other, through the divide.