Boars misbehaving!

Lauren22

Lauren22

New Born Pup
Joined
Nov 10, 2018
Messages
27
Reaction score
14
Points
120
I have 2 boars, one is 4/5 the other is 2.
When they are in their 2/4 cc grid enclosure together the younger boar is very dominant over food. He keeps asserting his domenance even though the older boar excepts this. He dosent back down!
I had to split them up because the older boar was very underweight due to previous surgery but now they don't seem to be eating as much hay and sit next to the seperation barrier and just stare at each other.
I need some advice please!
 
It sounds like normal dominance behaviour. You have to be careful not to separate too quickly. Reintroduce them in a neutral area and see how they get in - just hay, no hides. How much does the older boar weigh?
 
The older boar is now at 1000kg, I managed to get his weight back up.
Everytime the older boar is eating or drinking the younge boar finds him and chases him into the corner of the enclosure. And the older boar stays here while the younger one has the whole enclosure to himself?
 
Are they separated at the moment? Is the separation planned to be a permanent one, or are you hoping to reintroduce them at some point? My concern is if one piggy constantly exerts dominance and isn’t stopping, to the point the other isn’t allowed to eat then that isn’t a healthy relationship and a permanent separation could be warranted.
Sitting next to the divider can be territory marking, and not a good sign.

Lauren22 said:
The older boar is now at 1000kg, I managed to get his weight back up.
Everytime the older boar is eating or drinking the younge boar finds him and chases him into the corner of the enclosure. And the older boar stays here while the younger one has the whole enclosure to himself?
Click to expand...

This doesn’t sound like a working relationship to me

How long have they been together?
 
Do you have two of everything - bottle and hay areas? I would put them at opposite sides of the cage so he can’t hog. If your cage is 2x4 then that’s also not enough space for a pair of boars. They need a 2x5. All exits should have two hides.

How long have they been together?
 
They have been together for about a year and a half, but recently the younger boar has got extremely dominant.
They are seperated at the moment because the younger boar was running towards the older boar and pulling hair on his face until he pulled it out. He has done this multiple times. The older boar seems very sad about being on his own the younger pig not so much!
 
That doesn’t sound like a functioning bond then. It sounds like they’ll have to be separated permanently.
 
Piggies&buns said:
Are they separated at the moment? Is the separation planned to be a permanent one, or are you hoping to reintroduce them at some point? My concern is if one piggy constantly exerts dominance and isn’t stopping, to the point the other isn’t allowed to eat then that isn’t a healthy relationship and a permanent separation could be warranted.
Sitting next to the divider can be territory marking, and not a good sign.



This doesn’t sound like a working relationship to me

How long have they been together?
Click to expand...
They have been together for about a year and a half, but recently the younger boar has got extremely dominant.
They are seperated at the moment because the younger boar was running towards the older boar and pulling hair on his face until he pulled it out. He has done this multiple times. The older boar seems very sad about being on his own the younger pig not so much!
 
I’d be concerned about this behaviour.

If you have concerns about a bond, then you carry out a trial separation and it is the bullied piggy’s reaction you gauge the functionality of a relationship by - if they perk up being away from the bully, then it’s a sign their relationship is over. That is what you have done here but his reaction isn’t quite what you would expect to see. It may be that they have a can’t live together, can’t live apart relationship and that actually they do need to stay apart.

Did his more dominant behaviour coincide with your other piggy becoming poorly and needing surgery?

How big is each of their cages now?

Bonds In Trouble
 
Piggies&buns said:
I’d be concerned about this behaviour.

If you have concerns about a bond, then you carry out a trial separation and it is the bullied piggy’s reaction you gauge the functionality of a relationship by - if they perk up being away from the bully, then it’s a sign their relationship is over. That is what you have done here but his reaction isn’t quite what you would expect to see. It may be that they have a can’t live together, can’t live apart relationship and that actually they do need to stay apart.

Did his more dominant behaviour coincide with your other piggy becoming poorly and needing surgery?

How big is each of their cages now?

Bonds In Trouble
Click to expand...
Yes, before the older boar went for his surgery and was recovery the younger boar started to display the dominant behaviour.
They are ATM in 2x2 I know this is too small but I am working to make them bigger for them as this just happened a day ago.
 
Sometimes a change in relationship can coincide with an illness. I assume they have been fine up until recently?
It does sound like it’s tipped into bullying now though, if your older one isn’t allowed to eat.
Have you seen any wounds on your older boar, around his back end in particular?

Just to get a timeline -
the older had surgery but you put them back together afterwards at which point more dominance has been displayed and older not being allowed to eat.
Younger got more dominant and resulted yesterday in the hair pulling and then you separated them again yesterday?
 
Piggies&buns said:
Sometimes a change in relationship can coincide with an illness. I assume they have been fine up until recently?
It does sound like it’s tipped into bullying now though, if your older one isn’t allowed to eat.
Have you seen any wounds on your older boar, around his back end in particular?

Just to get a timeline -
the older had surgery but you put them back together afterwards at which point more dominance has been displayed and older not being allowed to eat.
Younger got more dominant and resulted yesterday in the hair pulling and then you separated them again yesterday?
Click to expand...
Yes they were together but the hair pulling and dominance behaviour got too bad.
I had to seperate them yesterday.
How big of a cage do they need seperate?
 
As youve got c&c, they need a 2x4 each. It must be side by side for through the bar interaction.
 
You’ve had some great advice already. I had to separate my two boars after a year and a half of living together too... it was also triggered by illnesses/vet trips/floor time. When I first separated them I also worried because they were hanging around the bars looking like they wanted to be with each other. However, now I’ve got used to their behaviour now they’re apart, they do it when the other goes near the ‘boundary line’ and both rumble at each other... they even push their litter trays out the way with their heads because they try and eat each other’s hay 🤣 so don’t worry too much if you see this behaviour. My submissive piggy put on more weight when they were separated which was great. Hope you come up with a solution that you and your boys are happy with ☺️
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top