Males: dominance and behavior

[Finnandbean]

Hi, I’m new here and have a few questions that I need answered! I have two boy Finn and Bean that I have had since August of 2017. One of the boys, Finn, has always been dominate and tends to mount and bother bean. Since I have had them I’ve never had any issues with them, they don’t fight and seem to get upset when I separate them. However, over the last few days or so after I took bean out of the cage for a mere 30 minutes Finn had been harassing the absolute crap out of bean. He follows him everywhere and attempts to mount him and bean gets absolutely no peace. Today I left my house for a bit and when I came back Finn had blood on him for a cut I assume was on his nose. I’m sure bean got upset and lashed out. I figured after bean stood up for himself Finn would back down.. but he didnt. He is constantly bothering bean and I don’t know what to do.. they were raised together and have no issues until a few days ago.. how do I get Finn to leave bean alone? Please help me...

 

[Swissgreys]

The bonding and behavior guides here are excellent and have a special section just for boars (you are not alone!).
Behaviour, Bonding & Bereavement Guides

What you need to do now is try and work out if the bond is truly broken, or they are just going through a difficult patch.

How big is their cage?
Do they have 2 of everything?

If you can post a photo of your set up we can offer advice about that, but there should be 2 of everything and also make sure all hideys have 2 doors - tunnels, stick bridges, and old cardboard boxes work well for this.

In the short term it might also help to add a cuddly toy which may help divert Finn's attention away from poor Bean for a bit.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi, I’m new here and have a few questions that I need answered! I have two boy Finn and Bean that I have had since August of 2017. One of the boys, Finn, has always been dominate and tends to mount and bother bean. Since I have had them I’ve never had any issues with them, they don’t fight and seem to get upset when I separate them. However, over the last few days or so after I took bean out of the cage for a mere 30 minutes Finn had been harassing the absolute crap out of bean. He follows him everywhere and attempts to mount him and bean gets absolutely no peace. Today I left my house for a bit and when I came back Finn had blood on him for a cut I assume was on his nose. I’m sure bean got upset and lashed out. I figured after bean stood up for himself Finn would back down.. but he didnt. He is constantly bothering bean and I don’t know what to do.. they were raised together and have no issues until a few days ago.. how do I get Finn to leave bean alone? Please help me...

Hi! Adult boars can still occasionally suffer from short but strong testosterone spikes. Put a divider in for a couple of days and then try a re-introduction on neutral ground to see whether the bond is broken or not. If it was a swipe and not a full-on bite, the bond has a good chance to endure.
Bonds In Trouble
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics

 

[Merab]

Just found this - can’t add to the excellent advice given.
Hope it will be helpful

 

[Finnandbean]

The bonding and behavior guides here are excellent and have a special section just for boars (you are not alone!).
Behaviour, Bonding & Bereavement Guides

What you need to do now is try and work out if the bond is truly broken, or they are just going through a difficult patch.

How big is their cage?
Do they have 2 of everything?

If you can post a photo of your set up we can offer advice about that, but there should be 2 of everything and also make sure all hideys have 2 doors - tunnels, stick bridges, and old cardboard boxes work well for this.

In the short term it might also help to add a cuddly toy which may help divert Finn's attention away from poor Bean for a bit.

Thank you so much everyone for all of the advice! Things seem to have simmered way down and the two are getting along much better. I even found them napping together in the larger hidey’s today! Thank you for letting me know about the hidey’s with two doors, I ordered one on amazon today. I believe Finn just had a Testosterone spike and went a little crazy haha. Again, thank you so much to everyone for responding so quickly, it really eased my mind and helped!

 

[Siikibam]

Another thing, which will be in those link, is you need to follow their hierarchy. So if you’re taking them out the cage or feeding them, Finn always goes first. When you took Bean out the cage had you also taken Finn out and put him back to spend those 30mins with Bean?

I’m glad it’s simmered down. It seems they still experience spikes in adulthood. The same happened with our boars yesterday - theyre 20 months old