Girls behaviour...

[catherine]

I have a herd of two girls (Molly and Mabel) and a neutered boar Marley. I've had Marley since August last year, and when him and his brother fell out for good I got Mabel as a companion for him. I was told at the time she was 6 weeks old but in reality (and I know I should have known this but had never seen a mini-pig before and didn't know how big they should be) she was about 2 weeks old. Marley fathered her and she was fine but always very skittish and scared. About a month later I got Molly, she was 6 months when I got her. Since November I have had a very happy herd, all getting along very well.

Ever since I moved house (4 weeks ago) and they moved into their new slightly bigger C&C the girls have been fractious with each other, which is unlike them. Basically Mabel is turning into a huge bully and being really quite nasty to Molly, who is getting increasingly scared and withdrawn as a result (definitely not like her, she is very happy and extremely confident usually). This morning alone there have been some loud squeals from poor Molly, where Mabel is going upto her randomly and nipping/biting her rear end to get her out of the tunnel or the bed. Molly is sat in the tunnel hiding at the moment but it won't be long before Mabel goes in and bites her behind until she moves out.

Now even though I have had Mabel since she was 2 weeks old she has always been scared and nippy with me, she will run a mile and panic when I walk in or move and is a complete scratchy bitey nightmare when you get her out (me and my OH have big marks all over us from bathing her yesterday). Now she is being like this to Molly I am ashamed and embarrassed to say I really don't like her anymore :red (and I have never felt like this about any pet before ). I never really bonded with her as she is so antisocial - I sit with them daily and hand feed them their veggies - Molly and Marley will sit for strokes and eat veg from my hand and accept nose rubs. Mabel, 6 months on will not even attempt to come near me and she has never taken food from me. When I try and get her out for lap time she panics and bites and scratches to try and get away and won't take food - her eyes wide and obviously very stressed.

Now even though I never bonded with Mabel like I did the others, this didn't bother me too much as I appreciate she must just really be scared of humans for some reason (not sure what happened in the 2 weeks before I got her), but now she is really starting to pick on Molly and Molly isn't standing up for herself I'm starting to think I really need to do something about this. I hate sitting here and hearing Molly's squeals, it really breaks my heart to see her so withdrawn as she is such a happy, crazy piggy usually . It wouldn't be so bad if Molly was tooth chattering and lunging back as I can manage that sort of behaviour and know what is good and what is bad (from when I had Marley living with his brother) but the fact that Molly is just running and hiding isn't good. I thought after their buddy bathing yesterday things might have improved but if anything they have got worse.

What do I do

 

[Wiebke]

It looks like little Mabel has made a bid for the top spot and won, and is now asserting her new found dominance. New territory will mean a hierarchy sort out and occasionally that can bring surprises.

Please weigh Molly regularly to make sure that she is not losing weight. A lot of the loud squeaking is submission squeaking and not pain.

Mabel is probably at her most hormonal at the moment (if I assume that she is around 6-8 months old?), which doesn't help the situation.

You can either try to weather it or decide to find either Mabel or Molly a new friend, preferably a sow and preferably by piggy dating at a good rescue, so you will always have the option to reintroduce everybody at a later stage when they are all settled adults.

 

[catherine]

Hi - thanks for your reply

You've reassured me in that the loud squeaking may not be pain - I'd checked Molly over and she doesn't have any noticable marks but it does look like Mabel is nipping and biting her bum to move her out of the way.

They are all weighed regularly - but to be honest there is very little aggression around the food/hay and Molly probably eats the most out of all of them. All of them have been putting on weight steadily since I got them - Marley has tailed off as I'm now assuming he is fully grown and I'm expecting Molly to reach full maturity soon too - they're both rescues but approx the same age and we estimate them to be both 10 - 11 months old now (DOB ~ June/July 2011)

Mabel is also a rescue and I estimate her DOB to be ~ October 2011, so that would make her 7 months old, she is noticeably smaller than the others still.

I've ordered another bed and another cosy incase the reason for the aggression is not enough places to lay/sleep (always occurs around the bed or tunnel), although they do have 2 beds and a soft tunnel currently and Marley always curls up in the open, so the girls have plenty to choose from.

Another strange thing Mabel does is actually pulls and eats fur out of both Molly and Marley - would this also be a dominance thing?

Thankyou very much for your input

ETA: I was actually considering rescuing a 3rd sow to add to the herd as Mabel spends a lot of time away from the other two and I feared she was getting a bit isolated, plus I have plenty of space and time for another. Obviously I would take them all along for bonding and have already spoken to Wheek and Squeak about adopting another lady pig. I'm assuming that's not a good idea now?