Dominance struggles! Power shift?

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PiggiePerson

New Born Pup
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Hi all, my two boars are around 5 and 6 months old. Since I first got them in November, the older pig had always been the only one to display dominant behaviour - just the typical rumblestrutting/wiggly bum and rumble noises. He has always been a lot more confident, loves being held, groomed and isn't so scared compared to the younger one. The younger one will hide away most of the time you come to the cage so has always been fairly reserved/quiet and HATES being brushed! In the last week or so, the younger pig has now started to rumblestrut (I guess the hormones have kicked in!) and become a bit more confident - in the last couple of days they've chased each other a lot. The older one still does rumblestrut but I feel like he's become a bit more shy recently?! I've also noticed that the older pig, most of the time, will go up to the younger one's hidey but not enter - as if he knows it's not his territory. A couple of weeks ago I found tiny tiny scratches on both of their noses/mouths (which healed in a couple of days absolutely fine).

So now you have context to the situation, I was just wondering what this means in terms of which pig is now the dominant one - how do you know when there's been a powershift, can that even happen?! Just keen to know as I've always put the older one first in terms of handling, feeding etc to respect the hierarchy. Wondering if I should still continue this until things are clearer?
 
I would continue for now. It sounds like the hormones have hit with the younger one but rumbling on its own doesn’t mean he’s top pig. Does he still let himself be mounted and humped?
 
:agr: As long as both piggies are happy then it’s fine to leave them. Only separate if it is very clear there is a problem of a full on fight. They will know their hierarchy and as long as one of them is dominant and the other accepts it, it’s not a problem

When my two came they had just entered their teens. Dexter was the more confident of the two and he mounted Popcorn all the time. Popcorn was the more nervous and he rumbled all the time. It was never the other way round - not once did Pops mount and not once did Dex rumble and it was like that for about two years. Then it suddenly changed - Popcorn sudden started mounting and rumbling, Dex stopped mounting and he has still never rumbled. Their relationship works perfectly, always has.
 
PiggiePerson said:
Hi all, my two boars are around 5 and 6 months old. Since I first got them in November, the older pig had always been the only one to display dominant behaviour - just the typical rumblestrutting/wiggly bum and rumble noises. He has always been a lot more confident, loves being held, groomed and isn't so scared compared to the younger one. The younger one will hide away most of the time you come to the cage so has always been fairly reserved/quiet and HATES being brushed! In the last week or so, the younger pig has now started to rumblestrut (I guess the hormones have kicked in!) and become a bit more confident - in the last couple of days they've chased each other a lot. The older one still does rumblestrut but I feel like he's become a bit more shy recently?! I've also noticed that the older pig, most of the time, will go up to the younger one's hidey but not enter - as if he knows it's not his territory. A couple of weeks ago I found tiny tiny scratches on both of their noses/mouths (which healed in a couple of days absolutely fine).

So now you have context to the situation, I was just wondering what this means in terms of which pig is now the dominant one - how do you know when there's been a powershift, can that even happen?! Just keen to know as I've always put the older one first in terms of handling, feeding etc to respect the hierarchy. Wondering if I should still continue this until things are clearer?
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Hi!

It sounds like a hormone spike to me; both boys are now at the age when their hormones are at an all-time high.
Please only separate if things really escalate. At the moment it is still low level and very much within acceptable bounds and very normal for this age.
 
Siikibam said:
I would continue for now. It sounds like the hormones have hit with the younger one but rumbling on its own doesn’t mean he’s top pig. Does he still let himself be mounted and humped?
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I’ve actually never seen either of them hump and mounting is very far and few between - well I’d only really seen it with the older mounting the younger when they were little - more “climbing on top of” but it was during lap time so I think they were both anxious then and he was being protective. I actually only saw the younger one mount the older yesterday.

Thanks everyone for all your responses - definitely wasn’t considering separating so don’t worry, just wanted to make sure I was still respecting the hierarchy as I don’t want to rock things further with them as they are both sweet boys who generally get on!
 
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