Came Home to....

[Storm1974]

...The usual sound of Bracken rumble strutting to his brother Bramble (Both almost 5 months old, beginning Nov). But then, all of a sudden Bramble (The normally more submissive Pig) started chasing Bracken around and mounting him over and over! This went on for a few minutes with us trying not to intervene, but having never seen this behaviour between the two of them before and Bracken seemingly getting very annoyed with his brother, and a couple of small fights breaking out because of it, it got me a bit worried!

They're now calmly eating some veggies and it's all gone quiet, but just hope this isn't the start of them falling out and having to be separated, at some point. As I said, Bramble has always been the one who had to put up with almost constant rumble strutting (Over the last 3 weeks or so, everything was fine until then) and being chased around (But nothing serious) and has always just ran away from Bracken, but always with wimpering/complaining sounds whenever Bracken goes near him, but today he just seemed to have finally had enough!

 

[Piggies&buns]

It’s something to keep an eye on particularly if fights/scuffles are occurring and the submissive piggy is losing his patience.

If things get too much and it becomes relentless (ramped up hormones - things are getting underway in terms of that), then you can do a temporary separation for a few days to let them calm down. You then carry out a neutral territory reintroduction to allow them to decide if they still wish to be together.

In the meantime, lots of space, two exit hides, scatter feed at opposite sides of the cage etc

Bonds In Trouble
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?

 

[Storm1974]

It's strange, but they totally went back to 'normal' after I had posted this message and now Bramble is just back to making wimpy noises and being totally submissive to Brackens rumble strutting at him, all the time. There has been no more 'fights' or humping from Bramble, it's just like it never happened!

 

[Piggies&buns]

It's strange, but they totally went back to 'normal' after I had posted this message and now Bramble is just back to making wimpy noises and being totally submissive to Brackens rumble strutting at him, all the time. There has been no more 'fights' or humping from Bramble, it's just like it never happened!

Standard boar behaviour!

My pair, Dexter and Popcorn, (5.5 years old) were like that as youngsters. I did have a time when I did have to separate them for a few hours as they just wouldn’t leave each other alone and it was getting heated. Nothing ever came of it and they went back together without issue - although that doesn’t mean there wasn’t more dominance! Happily together now all these years later.

My youngsters, Wilbur and Hugo (now 14 months old) came to me as 9 week olds. Seemed absolutely fine together, had lots of space etc. At 18 weeks old, totally out of the blue, they had a huge fight (injuries, full on bond breaking) and they’ve been separated ever since.

 

[Storm1974]

Standard boar behaviour!

My pair, Dexter and Popcorn, (5.5 years old) were like that as youngsters. I did have a time when I did have to separate them for a few hours as they just wouldn’t leave each other alone and it was getting heated. Nothing ever came of it and they went back together without issue - although that doesn’t mean there wasn’t more dominance! Happily together now all these years later.

My youngsters, Wilbur and Hugo (now 14 months old) came to me as 9 week olds. Seemed absolutely fine together, had lots of space etc. At 18 weeks old, totally out of the blue, they had a huge fight (injuries, full on bond breaking) and they’ve been separated ever since.

That's a shame about Wilbur and Hugo. Just hope Bramble and Bracken are more like your Dexter and Popcorn!

If we do ever have to separate them though, just hope our 2m wide, by (Just over) 2ft deep cage will be large enough to section off, as obviously they are both used to having the whole length of the cage to run about in! We do have another cage (Slightly smaller) but no room to have two cages.

 

[Piggies&buns]

That's a shame about Wilbur and Hugo. Just hope Bramble and Bracken are more like your Dexter and Popcorn!

If we do ever have to separate them though, just hope our 2m wide, by (Just over) 2ft deep cage will be large enough to section off, as obviously they are both used to having the whole length of the cage to run about in! We do have another cage (Slightly smaller) but no room to have two cages.

Hopefully they can figure things out between them and theyre just behaving like squabbling human siblings but do actually want to be together.

There is always the element of unknown with young boars though so it’s always good to have a plan in mind just in case.
(Although Dex and Pops are not likely to fall out now, I still have a separation plan should they suddenly have a tiff, and also my plan for when one of them passes given they are not young lads anymore and I’m left with three single boys)
I’m glad I did have the plan with Wil and Hugo as I needed to implement it immediately. It needed tweaking as time went on but I could immediately get them apart.
Each single piggy needs 120x60cm or 8 square feet as a minimum.
So a 2 metre cage obviously won’t split to make 120cm in length each so it depends how much beyond 60cm (2ft) wide it is internally to make up for the loss in length.

Hopefully it won’t come to needing it though!

 

[fluffysal]

Teenage boars, sigh!

 

[Storm1974]

Hopefully they can figure things out between them and theyre just behaving like squabbling human siblings but do actually want to be together.

There is always the element of unknown with young boars though so it’s always good to have a plan in mind just in case.
(Although Dex and Pops are not likely to fall out now, I still have a separation plan should they suddenly have a tiff, and also my plan for when one of them passes given they are not young lads anymore and I’m left with three single boys)
I’m glad I did have the plan with Wil and Hugo as I needed to implement it immediately. It needed tweaking as time went on but I could immediately get them apart.
Each single piggy needs 120x60cm or 8 square feet as a minimum.
So a 2 metre cage obviously won’t split to make 120cm in length each so it depends how much beyond 60cm (2ft) wide it is internally to make up for the loss in length.

Hopefully it won’t come to needing it though!

Well they've got on well today, just the same as normal .....But if it ever happens, we do have the Ferplast 140 which we will have to try and set up for one of them, it won't be easy, but IF we ever have to, then we will do what is needed.

Maybe Bramble was just feeling a bit fruity yesterday evening!

 

[fluffysal]

George has been a bit frisky for the last couple of days too, the humping toys know all about it as they can't run away like Boris does