Do Boars Have "boar Periods"?

[MelyH]

Hi all,

I have a trio of boars, everyday is a new adventure. They aren't necessarily fully bonded but they tolerate each other and for the most part stay out of each others ways. They also have an enormous two story C and C cage that helps a lot.

Reptar and Maximus were my two first piggies. They are 8 months and 7 months old. Maximus being the clear bottom piggy and Reptar being the alpha. We adopted Lionitus into the mix a couple months ago, he is 1 year and 4 months old and significantly larger than my first two babies. He is also very timid and submissive. Bonding a third into a pair has been.. interesting

For the most part things go well, Lionitus and Reptar are still working out who is the alpha. They cross each others paths everyday and will face off with either one of them backing down and running away (usually Lionitus, if Reptar backs off he will will slowly walk away rumblestrutting). There is never any mounting and usually only rumble strutting by Reptar and Reptar only. Maximus keeps to himself and never gets in anybody's way, he's also been known to affectionately lick Reptar as well as sleep next to Lionitus. He's my angel child.

Here's my problem, Reptar occasionally has bad days were he becomes very destructive. He will pee everywhere, attempt to tear the fleeces apart, flip beds over and he will be very mean to my bottom piggy Maximus. He will chase Maximus relentlessly and mount him to the point where Maximus will get so tired of running that he just gives up. He will also get touchy with my husband and snap at him. In these cases we've had to remove Maximus from the cage for a while and Reptar will calm down because he knows he can't take on Lionitus because he is so much larger.

With that said, do boars have hormonal episodes just like sows have periods?

 

[Wiebke]

You may find this thread here informative as to the teenage months https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/boars-bullying-fighting-fall-outs-and-what-next.127295/:

 

[MelyH]

You may find this thread here informative as to the teenage months https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/boars-bullying-fighting-fall-outs-and-what-next.127295/:

Thanks, that was helpful. I forgot to mention that when Reptar goes on his bouts of dominance usually happens after their bedding has been changed. I'm satisfied that I at least have two relatively calm piggies in Maximus and Leonitus because I don't think I could make a trio work if more than one had hormonal destructive phases like Reptar.

 

[Wiebke]

Thanks, that was helpful. I forgot to mention that when Reptar goes on his bouts of dominance usually happens after their bedding has been changed. I'm satisfied that I at least have two relatively calm piggies in Maximus and Leonitus because I don't think I could make a trio work if more than one had hormonal destructive phases like Reptar.

Especially boars have to re-establish the hierarchy in new surroundings, but in some very touchy boars, this can extend as far as a newly made up cage. if things get iffy, you could try and lightly brush the new bedding with some of the old one - it may do the trick and prevent Reptar from rocking the boat too much.