Does dominance behaviour ever end?

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Pig007

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I've four sows - two adults (about six months old) and two babies (five weeks old) and one sow has always been the dominant one. But she never bothered the babies until this week and now seems to be hassling them all. It makes for a very tense atmosphere in the cage; it follows the other adult sow constantly - rumbling and annoying her. She just does not seem to get on with any of the pigs.:{ Even saw the two babies fighting today - one chattering her teeth. I took the dominant pig for some lap time this evening and the cage just seemed a more tranquil place - the three remaining pigs eating happily together. Then when I put the dominant pig back she just kicks them all out from the hay loft.

Will she always be like this?
 
How long have you had the babies for? I introduced a new baby to my older girls a few months ago and it took over a month for the dominant sow to stop hassling her. My other, less dominant, older sow also joined in to make sure her place as second most dominant was secured so they were all going for each other for the first month. But now they're very happy together.
It may be that your dominant sow is in heat which makes them particularly grumpy if she was fine with the babies before then suddenly became very dominant with them. But as long as there is no blood drawn they should be fine once they've established who's in charge.
Hope they calm down soon.
 
Babies have been there since birth. She has always been grumpy but today was the first time I saw her hassling the babies. It's also the first time I saw the babies fighting with each other.

How long are sows in heat for?
 
Pig007 said:
Babies have been there since birth. She has always been grumpy but today was the first time I saw her hassling the babies. It's also the first time I saw the babies fighting with each other.

How long are sows in heat for?
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Heat usually lasts a few days.
 
If it is a strong season (as this looks like), it can last for a few days and it will affect the behaviour of the others. Tensions have a way of travelling down the hierarchy. Things should calm down again eventually.

If you have got the space and can arrange to take your girls, I'd recommend a round of neutered boar dating. They are brilliant for soaking up a lot of the tensions in situations like these, but you need to be sure that your top lady will accept a boy in the first place. Not all sows do. How old is your dominant sow?
 
Wiebke said:
If it is a strong season (as this looks like), it can last for a few days and it will affect the behaviour of the others. Tensions have a way of travelling down the hierarchy. Things should calm down again eventually.

If you have got the space and can arrange to take your girls, I'd recommend a round of neutered boar dating. They are brilliant for soaking up a lot of the tensions in situations like these, but you need to be sure that your top lady will accept a boy in the first place. Not all sows do. How old is your dominant sow?
Click to expand...
She can't be more the 5/6 months.

Now the two babies are at each other now. One is slightly bigger than the other and it's hassling her sister chasing it away from food. Lots of chattering of teeth.:( Even mum seems to be chasing off one of her babies (the bigger one). I hope this calms down.
 
Good age for introducing a neutered boar anytime you wish over the next year. Please make sure that he is fully 6 weeks post op though!

What you have to aware of is that it is not just the boars who have a hormonal first year, but so do sows. It just doesn't get as much attention as it usually doesn't end in spectacular fall outs.

Mummy is making clear to her growing up babies that she is still the boss in the hierarchy and your little ones are now trying to find their own adult space on the ladder. That is often quite a squabbly time. It will eventually settle down.
 
I think she is just reminding the little one who is boss, now that they are getting a bit bigger. They do have a social hierarchy and need to find their place in it... hopefully once everyone learns where they rank things will settle down. We had our first two pigs together for 18 months and they still had spats about dominance that would end up Frenzy (subordinate pig) running away from Linney (dominant pig) and wheeking at the top of her lungs! Frenzy unfortunately passed away when she was under 2 and Linney and her new number two, Sundae, have far fewer squabbles- probably because Sundae is very happy being the subordinate pig and has never given Linney any reason to bust her down to size!
 
I'm glad to say it's calmed down for now. Thanks to all for advice.
 
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