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Need help / information on teenage girl piggies!

Babyposty

Babyposty

New Born Pup
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Hi all!

Firstly, I'm so glad I found this forum with active members and piggie owners! To give some backstory I have 2 concerns I want to discuss. I started weighing my piggies yesterday and don't know what should be concerning or not. I have 2 girls that are about 10 months old, Maple & Sugar. When I weighed them for the first time yesterday, Maple was 1 pound and 11.8 ounces. Sugar was 1 pound 11.1 ounces. However, this morning when I weighed them again Maple stayed the same but Sugar was now 1 pound 11.6 ounces. Is that something to be concerned about? Or since she's still technically 1 pound 11 ounces still, that's fine? I'm a first-time piggie mom and there isn't much information on teenage girl piggies. Let me know! My second concern is also about Sugar's behavior. When doing my research, I again couldn't find much on teenage piggies (girls especially). She seems to always have a problem with Maple and has continued to have a problem since I first got them in August. I understand what normal dominance behavior between the girls looks like, but is it normal that they haven't figured their dominance issues out yet? Or since they are only 10 months will this usually subside when they become adult piggies? I'm very curious! Thankfully, Sugar hasn't ever really fought with Maple, like in the hardcore videos. But the girls have stood up to each other, but one usually runs away. Thank you in advance and sorry if this post is long!

* also quick mention I found a little yellow *snot looking thing* on one of their piggie beds today, is that something to be concerned of?
 
Weight loss is only considered weight loss when it is 50 grams or more.
You only need weigh once a week while there are no health concerns. Daily weight checks only need to be done if you become concerned about their health or hay intake.

This guide explains
Weight - Monitoring and Management

When you say she seems to have a problem with her, what do you mean, what are you seeing happen?

As they’ve been together a long time then they will absolutely have sorted out their dominance and hierarchy. However sows come into season roughly every 15-17 days and during that time you can see an increase in dominance.

You are much less likely to see a full on fight in sows, that is more of a boar thing.

Sows: Behaviour and female health problems (including ovarian cysts)
When Sows Experience A Strong Season (videos)
 
Piggies&buns said:
Weight loss is only considered weight loss when it is 50 grams or more.
You only need weigh once a week while there are no health concerns. Daily weight checks only need to be done if you become concerned about their health or hay intake.

This guide explains
Weight - Monitoring and Management

When you say she seems to have a problem with her, what do you mean, what are you seeing happen?

As they’ve been together a long time then they will absolutely have sorted out their dominance and hierarchy. However sows come into season roughly every 15-17 days and during that time you can see an increase in dominance.

You are much less likely to see a full on fight in sows, that is more of a boar thing.

Sows: Behaviour and female health problems (including ovarian cysts)
When Sows Experience A Strong Season (videos)
Click to expand...
So when I say Sugar has a problem with Maple, Sugar is always rumblestrutting, grumbling, etc. And I mean almost always, she never has a break from doing it unless she’s sleeping. lol
 
That weight loss could be the difference between a full bladder and an empty one... a weekly weigh-in to look for larger swings is absolutely fine if you don't have a specific concern you're looking for.

As for behaviour, some sows are REALLY dominant. They are just determined to be top pig, even when the other pig isn't really challenging them on that. Teenage pigs tend to be hormonal anyway, and an insecure leader may throw their weight around. Teenage pigs can also have strong hormone surges, which can lead to increased hormone-driven behavior every couple weeks (rumblestrutting, chasing and mounting, etc.) If their cycles don't sync up you can additionally see a hormonal second pig and an irritated dominant pig accounting for some conflicts.

In this case, you want to look for signs of significant bullying- does the under-piggie get access to food and water, do they get time to lay down and relax or are they literally being tormented every moment of the day? If they're maintaining weight and getting rest, this may just be the present dynamic and it should improve slowly as the dominant pig grows up and gains confidence. But if the underpig isn't getting food, water, or any rest, it may be a match that isn't going well and they may do better living side by side with interaction through the bars than right together.

I did have one really, REALLY bossy pig named Linney... she just did not let the other pig get away with nonsense and it was always her first. If she was asleep and the other pig tried to drink, she would literally come running over to kick her cagemate off the water bottle until she had a drink. Even if she wasn't thirsty. No one got to drink before Linney, apparently. She did settle down over time and mellow with age, but I think she would have risen to the top of the hierarchy in any group or died trying. She was just determined to be queen bee. That said, she did live happily with another pig her whole life (two pigs over six years) and although we had plenty of squabbles, we never had a fight and never had to separate anyone. We also had a situation a couple years ago when my present elder pig, Leela, lost her companion pig, gained a new baby friend, and decided she was going to make the jump to being the boss of the new baby. Except she had never been the boss before and had no idea how to do it short of being really, REALLY overbearing all the time. She also got better as she gained confidence, but I was worried that it was a bond that wasn't going to make it for a while... fortunately Tomie, the baby pig, really only wanted to be with Leela and never had any aspirations of leadership herself and Leela eventually figured that out and settled down.
 
thank you so much for your insight! Sugar is really dominant but I haven’t seen those behaviors of her not letting Maple access for or water. However, when Maple is laying down or doing her own thing Suhar will come by her rumblestrutting at her. Also! Besides this, I’m making an appointment with a vet tomorrow for Sugar because when I was weighing her earlier I saw her nipples looked crusty and they were huge compared to Maples!
 
Babyposty said:
thank you so much for your insight! Sugar is really dominant but I haven’t seen those behaviors of her not letting Maple access for or water. However, when Maple is laying down or doing her own thing Suhar will come by her rumblestrutting at her. Also! Besides this, I’m making an appointment with a vet tomorrow for Sugar because when I was weighing her earlier I saw her nipples looked crusty and they were huge compared to Maples!
Click to expand...
It is great you are having them seen by a vet.
Crusty nipples can be a sign of various things, some of which could be contributing to her dominant behaviours.
 
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