Boars behaviour!

[louiser]

My two boars, Spike and Pickle have been together for about 6 weeks now but they have now started to do a strange thing!

They get their noses really close to each other and high up, Spikes nose is always the highest but then Pickle seems to nibble/sniff/lick (not sure what he is doing!) Spikes mouth. Then they both get upset and run off!

There is still alot of rumbling going on.

Any ideas what this means?

Thanks

Lou

 

[thesqueakers]

Aww, the little guys are just trying to work out their dominance, or to put it differently, who's the boss pig!

They'll face each other and raise their heads to the ceiling. Whoever's head is the highest is the big pig in charge! It's just another way in which males ( and i think only males do it, not seen any of our sows do it) work out who's calling the shots! It should be pretty harmless.

When I cuddle our big-boss boar (that's a mouthful!) I always put my nose below his if possible for a bit - he loves it! It makes him think he's the boss of us pesky humans!

 

[boureki]

Yep, sounds like they are just setting boundaries, the nose things are called "nose offs" and it's not necessarily aggressive, it's just like teens squaring off to each other and swaggering a bit, a bit like the rumbling. If the nose offs are ever accompanied with loud teeth chattering and they are raising up on their back legs and/or snorting or what appears to be yawning, then I would be watching very carefully and get ready to distract them as they could be about to have a scrap, but nose offs and rumbles are quite normal from time to time

 

[jane28]

My Bigbum boar and Squeaky female do this he only wins because he is bigger...rolleyes
She is the one who really rules the roost...

 

[louiser]

Thanks for the comments, I'll keep an eye on them.

 

[cuddles]

aww cute they are saying whos the boss,then I'm the boss no i am and then ok and run away lol mine also do this it usually only gets nasty if you put in a 3rd when they are at this stage as they team up and bully the odd one out

 

[louiser]

There is some teeth chatting and chasing going on but not actual fighting, so I'm hoping they are going to be OK together. Pickles nose seems to be higher now! rolleyes