Information req'd about sows on heat...

[Briony_S]

Hi,

Over last 3/4 days one of my sows (Tia) has been very noisy so loud we cannot hear the TV. She has been very vocal when george (who is neutered) tries to strut his stuff around her. She seems to sound a little destressed to me but as usual I am probably making a mountain out of a molehill! Anyway just wanted to know how long the mating behaviour normally lasts as I know it is every two weeks but should it last 3/4 days?

George hasn't been trying to mount her as far as I can tell or chasing her as he normally does when she is on heat which is why I'm worried. I just hope they are not about to fall out and blood gets drawn. I keep checking them over and neither of them have war wounds.

I have gone over to investigate a couple of times when she is making a racket only to find george mindly strutting no teeth chattering or anything but Tia is wide eyed and screaming.

Is this normal or am I about to have a divorce on my hands?

 

[piggyme234]

Sounds to me like it's Tia who is making mountains out of molehills Their behaviour so far doesn't indicte to me that they are gonna fight, just that Tia has to make it known to the world that she is not interested. Last time she was on heat did she shout at him like this? If so maybe he has got the picture and is not pushing it this time.

 

[Wiebke]

From what you are telling me, she seems to make this fairly high pitched, slightly distressed wheeking that girls make when being pursued by a male, this "I'm not ready - YET!" You will notice that she won't move away from George, just scream, shout, scold, nag, whine constantly...

Occasionally (every few months with decreasing frequency), it can go on for days. Either George has a surge of testosterone or Tia is more hormonal than usual. It happened a couple of times with Dizzy and Llewelyn and went on for days and ended in a very lively season which I thought was rather wild for Dizzy the first time it happened.

To allay your fears: the following morning, when I sat down near them, Dizzy came, interposed herself between Llewelyn and me (back end towards me), cuddled her mate ostentatiously, threw me a VERY dirty look over her shoulder, nuzzled him some more, threw me another look to make sure that I really got the message and stalked back to her breakfast. That taught me! He was hers - and I was not to meddle! rolleyes

 

[Briony_S]

Thanks for your helpful comments. I will try not to worry too much. It was simular noise to when he has tried mating previously I was just worried that it was a really high pitched and pretty long noise. She does it for a good 5-10 mins at a time and then starts again shortly after! It does seem to have gotton slightly better after they have had a couple of full clean outs!

 

[Wiebke]

I've had day when it on pretty much nonstop all during a girls season. the grils make this fairly distinctive, more intense than normal wheeking/clucking noise when they ARE interested in the male (they won't move away from him!), but are not ready and willing to mate YET. Without fail, it seems to spur on the males to start another round of rumblestrutting and chasing!