mikikkin
New Born Pup
Sorry it's long ....
We think we might have accidentally put one of our girls tunnels into the boys paddock - it is a long story how it happened and we thought we had been soooo careful! The tunnel is plastic and might have smelled like girl wee/poo.
Anyway... now the boys are all chasing each other and mounting each other. One pig in particular - Humphrey- has lost his mind! He was flying through the air and attacked four other boys! He is normally very peaceful. The usual "King pig" who was the peaceful leader is even being picked on by crazy Humphrey. Most concerning of all, Humphrey is NON STOP chasing little 6 week old baby Cashew and trying to mount him, I've checked and double checked and there is NO doubt that Cashew is definitely a boy! Poor Cashew was crying and screaming and running into things and I was SO worried he was going to get seriously hurt so I grabbed crazy Humphrey and locked him in a hutch by himself which he is now obsessively biting the metal bars of - he is in a hutch in the middle of the boys paddock so he can still see and hear everyone).
Since I put Humphrey away on his own, all the other boys have settled down and gone back to the normal order of things mostly. A wee bit of humping but no fighting or squealing!
I don't understand why Humphrey was obsessing over baby Cashew - I would have thought that if it was because of the tunnel smelling like girls that Humphrey would be more interested in dominating the other adult boys not a baby.... will Humphrey be able to rejoin the boys once he settles down or has the peace been disturbed forever? I don't feel like the other boys are safe with him right now - will he get over this?
I don't know what to do and feel terrible. I know boys can fight but my 13 boys live in a huge 120 square metre paddock with a large hutch per pair of pigs so plenty of space to avoid fights. They were so peaceful and lovely before this!
We think we might have accidentally put one of our girls tunnels into the boys paddock - it is a long story how it happened and we thought we had been soooo careful! The tunnel is plastic and might have smelled like girl wee/poo.
Anyway... now the boys are all chasing each other and mounting each other. One pig in particular - Humphrey- has lost his mind! He was flying through the air and attacked four other boys! He is normally very peaceful. The usual "King pig" who was the peaceful leader is even being picked on by crazy Humphrey. Most concerning of all, Humphrey is NON STOP chasing little 6 week old baby Cashew and trying to mount him, I've checked and double checked and there is NO doubt that Cashew is definitely a boy! Poor Cashew was crying and screaming and running into things and I was SO worried he was going to get seriously hurt so I grabbed crazy Humphrey and locked him in a hutch by himself which he is now obsessively biting the metal bars of - he is in a hutch in the middle of the boys paddock so he can still see and hear everyone).
Since I put Humphrey away on his own, all the other boys have settled down and gone back to the normal order of things mostly. A wee bit of humping but no fighting or squealing!
I don't understand why Humphrey was obsessing over baby Cashew - I would have thought that if it was because of the tunnel smelling like girls that Humphrey would be more interested in dominating the other adult boys not a baby.... will Humphrey be able to rejoin the boys once he settles down or has the peace been disturbed forever? I don't feel like the other boys are safe with him right now - will he get over this?
I don't know what to do and feel terrible. I know boys can fight but my 13 boys live in a huge 120 square metre paddock with a large hutch per pair of pigs so plenty of space to avoid fights. They were so peaceful and lovely before this!