Confused!

[juliaemmaxx]

Hello!

Recently got two 8 week old sows - they got on fine with one (sassenach or sassy for short) being the more dominant with the chin lifting and occasional rumbling and this usually just happened when they were excited and it was feeding time! They were then happy after calming down and ate and sleep together

This morning when I came down the other sow Skye has all of sudden become very rumbly and chasing sassy around - they knew they were being fed and it was only when I was in the room so could this be more towards me and just over excitement? They are in a small cage at the moment due to unforeseen circumstances but their new 2x4 c&c cage is arriving today so I'm hoping the bigger space will calm them out - they have two of everything too!

Blood has never been drawn it's just more rumbling, chin raising and general chasing I think it's just them getting the hierarchy sorted!

Any advice would be welcome!

Thank you!

 

[Keiko The Pig]

sounds like normal dominance behaviour to me! i have two boars and the dom pig keiko does show increased dominance when excited for food or play time! this is the only time he will ever mount my other piggy, and though i only own boars, sows have seasons. If Skye is in season she may just be acting that way due to her hormones telling her its time to mate! It also could be establishing the hierarchy as you mentioned since they are new I wouldn't worry about it. My dom pig keiko is hitting his teenage hormones so i have also witnessed some chinning lately and as scary as it seems it is one of the friendlier signs especially if they go back to happily eating/sleeping together. I wouldn't think much of it unless it becomes accompanied by incessant teeth chattering which is a more aggressive sign

 

[juliaemmaxx]

Brilliant thank you! It's more for reassurance as its getting used to them! It definitely doesn't involve teeth chattering or anything and they are quite happy once they've calmed down and been given their food! Just need to get used to them showing these behaviours and ignoring how scary they sound! Haha thank you!

 

[helen105281]

Definitely sounds like she is in season.