Is this okay to do?

I

interestingthoughts

New Born Pup
Joined
Nov 8, 2023
Messages
23
Reaction score
6
Points
90
Location
Florida
So I have two boars (7 months and 3 years) and sometimes one of them will get all active and try to hump the other one a lot due to a spike in hormones(it happens to both pigs so I don't know if it has to do with age) and they also live in my bedroom. The cage they are in is 5ft by 2.5ft and has an extension that is 4ft by 2ft. But sometimes if they get all hyperactive at night and I am trying to fall asleep I will put up the boundary on the extension and keep the two separate at night since I can't sleep and I worry that if they won't calm down one will bite the other(this happened once in november and I made a post about it. They generally get along so I think this was an in-the-moment thing). Usually I open up the cage in the morning and I see for a few moments how they react and they are normally happy and are just exploring the other side of the cage since they didn't do it the night before, they don't display much dominance and hump like 1 time before seeming much calmer and normal-tempered. I will sometimes do this if I'm leaving for the day and they get all hyperactive in the morning and 8-ish hours later I will be back and put them back together and they are fine when that happens too, but sometimes I don't do that it really depends. Also I can't sleep anywhere else and I can't move them. So what do you all think? Is this okay to do?
 
No, this isn’t ok to do - you should never separate them for the reasons you are stating, there simply isnt any need. Their bond is functioning well and they need to be together at all times (and to be brutally honest, you have to put up with the noise if you are going to keep them in your bedroom). You are disrupting all their normal and necessary behaviours by repeatedly and unnecessarily separating them.
Dominance behaviours including humping are never a reason to separate them. Hormones do play a part at times but what you are seeing is the normal and essential way they maintain their relationship and hierarchy throughout their whole lives. Some pigs will do it more than others, and it may settle as they get older, but its a necessary part of their lives.

Piggies are also most active at that time of night so by separating you are stopping them from playing with their cage mate at the time they want to do it most.

If you repeatedly separate them for no real reason you can actually harm their bond. Plus, you cause them to need to reestablish their relationship when you put them back together.

Please do stop separating them from now onwards.

In your previous post you weren’t sure about their relationship so I suggested carry out a one time temporary separation for them to decide if they want to be together, with a neutral territory reintroduction after a few days. If the reintroduction was successful, then you never separate them again.
If a bond is dysfunctional (which your pigs bond isnt), then the separation is permanent.
 
@Piggies&buns I separate them to try to help them calm down from all the energy and the hormone spike(they can get really loud with their squeeking and it makes me anxious to hear even if they aren't actually fighting) and when they actually restart the bond they are much more calm, honestly it feels like my piggies are in beast mode when they get the hormone spike because they are far more aggressive with their humping and dominance when they get their hormone spike than when they are reintroduced or even when they were first introduced to each other, I will try to keep your advice in mind though
 
interestingthoughts said:
@Piggies&buns I separate them to try to help them calm down from all the energy and the hormone spike(they can get really loud with their squeeking and it makes me anxious to hear even if they aren't actually fighting) and when they actually restart the bond they are much more calm, honestly it feels like my piggies are in beast mode when they get the hormone spike because they are far more aggressive with their humping and dominance when they get their hormone spike than when they are reintroduced or even when they were first introduced to each other, I will try to keep your advice in mind though
Click to expand...

This is the problem though - you don’t need to do that.
I’ll be honest, it sounds like you are worrying, misreading the situation and misunderstanding how piggy relationships work and stepping in unnecessarily. You’ve admitted you’re anxious by their squeaks but remember, they aren’t. They are just communicating their relationship and hierarchy. Any high pitched squeaks are submission which is absolutely what you want to be happening for their bond to be functioning.
Dominance always looks worse to us than it does to them - to them it is totally normal.
Humping and dominance isn’t aggression.
If it was genuine aggression then their bond is over and they shouldn’t be in the same cage at all.

A properly bonded and compatible pair do not need separating repeatedly at night or when you’re out, they certainly aren’t getting a hormone spike every night.
It’s possible that by separating at night, you are causing the behaviour to be more intense than its needs to be rather than leaving them to reinforce their hierarchy as they wish.
Some pairs, even well bonded ones, during an actual hormone spike might need a day apart to calm down if it is particularly tense (often when they are the same age so going through the same thing) but it is literally once, maybe twice at most, in their entire teenage months - never repeatedly and never every night.

If their bond is dysfunctional, if there is bullying or if one is unhappy in any way, then you do a one time separation for a few days. Then a neutral territory reintroduction. Upon that reintroduction they decide if they want to be together. If they do want to be together, then you never separate again. If they don’t, then their separation is permanent and they never go in the same cage again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top