emmyk89
Junior Guinea Pig
Hey,
I have a 3 month old neutered boar that I picked up last week - I'm in the UK but the owner is a vet who does the neutering herself at 6 weeks old or so (which I'm aware isn't routinely done here but is in Germany etc) unfortunately she is a breeder for showing but I didn't know untill I went there, and I also didn't know he was only that young.
Anyhow, he had 2 cage mates, his brother and father, hasn't been with a sow before. I did a post last weekend about a failed bonding from my fear aggressive sow. Since then he has been living side by side with a different sow Peanut - who did seem to nip at him a bit through the bars but neither showed really territorial behaviours like lying at the bars. He rumbled strutted a lot less than he did when he was side by side with the sows he failed with last week.
We put him and Peanut in the pen, and Peanut is quite a submissive pig - in her trio she was the bottom pig, so I had read she may be fairly dominant especially with a baby too.
They were in the pen not even 5 minutes when he didn't take kindly to her mild dominance and high pitched complaining, he was chattering, rumble strutting, facing her head on etc. She tried to chase him a bit - not biting etc which riled him up more and he lunged at her, like flying through mid air lunge at her! Finally after that, she ended up chasing him, pulled some rump fur out and he flew at her again, scratching her nose in the process. All this last bit happened very quickly so ofc at the point they were separated. Her nose is fine it's definitely not a bite as it looks very superficial and straight like a papercut and he does have very short sharp claws, I feel awful as she was squeaking a little and moving her head about like she was in pain, it made cry. Anyway she's OK now.
Why is he doing this to a generally submissive pig? All she did was sort of tell him off I.e complaining squeaks, for getting too close to her bum and his quite strong rumble strutting but he reacted very aggressively to this. Is this fear aggression? Could this have come about from the negative bonding last weekend with fear aggressive scoot who tackled him at the time? Or are they generally fear aggressive as a personality?
After peanuts failed bonding and a break. He's now in with my other sow Yeti, who was middle pig in the trio.
They have been together now for maybe an hour and its very different. At first he was fearful and did some rumble strutting, chattering and ran away from her, Yeti then basically left him alone, ate hay, moved generally slowly and has been friendly with him except the usual (I think) dominance behaviours like chasing, no biting, some mild chattering. They've also slept very close to each other and they have both groomed themselves while in the pen. His reactions so far have just been 1 flying lunge at the very start where Yeti and he both chattered a bit after it then went their separate ways to eat. I've seen him almost do another and stopped himself but that has calmed down now too and haven't seen his fear aggression for a while. He's just been rumble strutting a bit which Yeti isn't too accepting of yet, complaining at him when he does it.
I don't fully trust him yet to not act aggressively and try them in a cage, but he seems OK as does Yeti. Does this sound promising with Yeti? How long should I leave them in the pen for today?
I have a 3 month old neutered boar that I picked up last week - I'm in the UK but the owner is a vet who does the neutering herself at 6 weeks old or so (which I'm aware isn't routinely done here but is in Germany etc) unfortunately she is a breeder for showing but I didn't know untill I went there, and I also didn't know he was only that young.
Anyhow, he had 2 cage mates, his brother and father, hasn't been with a sow before. I did a post last weekend about a failed bonding from my fear aggressive sow. Since then he has been living side by side with a different sow Peanut - who did seem to nip at him a bit through the bars but neither showed really territorial behaviours like lying at the bars. He rumbled strutted a lot less than he did when he was side by side with the sows he failed with last week.
We put him and Peanut in the pen, and Peanut is quite a submissive pig - in her trio she was the bottom pig, so I had read she may be fairly dominant especially with a baby too.
They were in the pen not even 5 minutes when he didn't take kindly to her mild dominance and high pitched complaining, he was chattering, rumble strutting, facing her head on etc. She tried to chase him a bit - not biting etc which riled him up more and he lunged at her, like flying through mid air lunge at her! Finally after that, she ended up chasing him, pulled some rump fur out and he flew at her again, scratching her nose in the process. All this last bit happened very quickly so ofc at the point they were separated. Her nose is fine it's definitely not a bite as it looks very superficial and straight like a papercut and he does have very short sharp claws, I feel awful as she was squeaking a little and moving her head about like she was in pain, it made cry. Anyway she's OK now.
Why is he doing this to a generally submissive pig? All she did was sort of tell him off I.e complaining squeaks, for getting too close to her bum and his quite strong rumble strutting but he reacted very aggressively to this. Is this fear aggression? Could this have come about from the negative bonding last weekend with fear aggressive scoot who tackled him at the time? Or are they generally fear aggressive as a personality?
After peanuts failed bonding and a break. He's now in with my other sow Yeti, who was middle pig in the trio.
They have been together now for maybe an hour and its very different. At first he was fearful and did some rumble strutting, chattering and ran away from her, Yeti then basically left him alone, ate hay, moved generally slowly and has been friendly with him except the usual (I think) dominance behaviours like chasing, no biting, some mild chattering. They've also slept very close to each other and they have both groomed themselves while in the pen. His reactions so far have just been 1 flying lunge at the very start where Yeti and he both chattered a bit after it then went their separate ways to eat. I've seen him almost do another and stopped himself but that has calmed down now too and haven't seen his fear aggression for a while. He's just been rumble strutting a bit which Yeti isn't too accepting of yet, complaining at him when he does it.
I don't fully trust him yet to not act aggressively and try them in a cage, but he seems OK as does Yeti. Does this sound promising with Yeti? How long should I leave them in the pen for today?
.
