Hi all, I’m new to this forum!
Thank you first of all for incredibly helpful posts on bonding techniques and boar behaviour. I wish we’d had them when we first adopted! Sorry in advance for a long post.
We adopted two bonded boars eight months ago - they were about two years old. They were always narky with each other, would teeth chatter when they annoyed each other and needed two lots of everything, which we provided. The smaller one would follow the bigger one around and try and hump him frequently, which he tolerated to a degree, but would get annoyed by. Sadly the bigger one died recently after we found a tumour in his abdomen. We were so devastated!
We didn’t want our remaining boar to be alone so adopted another from a reputable local rescue. The new boy had already had one bonding fail and is about ten or eleven months old. We set up two large adjoining cages with a dividing grid and they lived there for over a week. Some sniffing through the bars and territorial bar biting but they were interested, and it generally went ok. Today we put them in a neutral bonding cage with hides with more than one exit and lots of hay.
Well, the new boar was aggressive from the start - chasing our existing boy out of the hides, rumbling, teeth chattering, a lot of squeaking, chinning and lunging. Our existing boy sometimes backed off and sometimes didn’t. In the hours since they’ve had periods of both eating, resting in the hides, drinking etc. The new boy is now mostly letting the other one stay in a hide when he wants. But it’s been nine hours now, and every time they pass each other there’s more squeaking, teeth chattering and lunging. No blood has been drawn yet.
I don’t have enough experience to know whether this is a failed bond or whether they’re just working out territorial differences! From body language my guess is that the new boy is dominant but our existing boy isn’t being as submissive as he needs to be.
Any advice would be so welcome, thank you!
Thank you first of all for incredibly helpful posts on bonding techniques and boar behaviour. I wish we’d had them when we first adopted! Sorry in advance for a long post.
We adopted two bonded boars eight months ago - they were about two years old. They were always narky with each other, would teeth chatter when they annoyed each other and needed two lots of everything, which we provided. The smaller one would follow the bigger one around and try and hump him frequently, which he tolerated to a degree, but would get annoyed by. Sadly the bigger one died recently after we found a tumour in his abdomen. We were so devastated!
We didn’t want our remaining boar to be alone so adopted another from a reputable local rescue. The new boy had already had one bonding fail and is about ten or eleven months old. We set up two large adjoining cages with a dividing grid and they lived there for over a week. Some sniffing through the bars and territorial bar biting but they were interested, and it generally went ok. Today we put them in a neutral bonding cage with hides with more than one exit and lots of hay.
Well, the new boar was aggressive from the start - chasing our existing boy out of the hides, rumbling, teeth chattering, a lot of squeaking, chinning and lunging. Our existing boy sometimes backed off and sometimes didn’t. In the hours since they’ve had periods of both eating, resting in the hides, drinking etc. The new boy is now mostly letting the other one stay in a hide when he wants. But it’s been nine hours now, and every time they pass each other there’s more squeaking, teeth chattering and lunging. No blood has been drawn yet.
I don’t have enough experience to know whether this is a failed bond or whether they’re just working out territorial differences! From body language my guess is that the new boy is dominant but our existing boy isn’t being as submissive as he needs to be.
Any advice would be so welcome, thank you!
