Normal Boar Behavior?

[KatieM]

Video below!

In December my boy Spence’s (the one acting less dominant in the videos) brother died. I bonded him and Spot (the boy mounting in the video) on the first of the year. Spot is extremely timid and hand shy towards humans but over the last few days he is absolutely relentless on showing dominance to Spence…all day long I hear them squabbling. Before this they would rumble strut…occasionally run around like they are doing and then let it go. But Spot is bound and determined and gives Spence very little space.

I am worried because Spence is recovering from Hay Poke…naturally this means he has been to the vet alone. He is also being removed from the cage twice a day for eye drops and oral meds. I am worried this has gotten Spot (who only likes me if I have food in my hands and even then sometimes not) up in arms about his territory.

They were doing so well I do not want to separate them but I also want Spence to heal his eye. He is going on two weeks of very slowly healing his ulcer.

Thank you!
https://youtube.com/shorts/TkCgAzxFOlM?si=wGIk_rI2f1iTmeDa

 

[Piggies&buns]

How old is spot? Could it be a hormone spike? Adults do still get them.

Mounting in itself is not an issue but if it gets so relentless every day for days and weeks on end that it has tipped over into dysfunction/bullying then that is different.
Is spence’s weight stable at each check?

Mounting is not likely to cause his eye not to heal. You wouldn’t want to separate them just for his eye permanently - we never recommend medical separations as they have the ability to cause the two piggies to refuse to ever go back together.
You should only separate if the bond is actually over.

I have added a guide below which can help you determine if things are going too far.

Bonds In Trouble

On a side note, we always recommend bonded pairs are taken to the vet together even if only one of them is seeing the vet.

 

[KatieM]

Spot is about 10months old…I realized after I posted I bet it’s a hormone spike!

He seems to be letting him be during the day and then ramping it up in the evenings. So Spence is still getting time to eat and drink, his weight remains stable.

Thank you for the guide and reassurance…I’ll let them work it out as long as things don’t get too aggressive!

 

[fluffysal]

There's a bit of "spring fever" going on with a lot of boars too.

 

[Ramia]

My dominant boy would re-establish dominance if I took the submissive out of the cage. So I took them both out and just put one in a carrier while I dealt with the other.

Then my submissive tried to take over and bullied my sick pig and vet recommended separation.

 

[KatieM]

There's a bit of "spring fever" going on with a lot of boars too.

We just had the time change over in the US too!

 

[KatieM]

My dominant boy would re-establish dominance if I took the submissive out of the cage. So I took them both out and just put one in a carrier while I dealt with the other.

Then my submissive tried to take over and bullied my sick pig and vet recommended separation.

The submissive never really leaves the cage…since he does not like me. But they’ve been friendly to eachother today!

 

[KatieM]

Poor Spence who has a giant hard lump of boar glue on his back now guess the mounting behavior wasn’t done! Yuck! First time I’ve had this happen! He came to me in a very established pair before so this wasn’t a problem.

It’s a lot so going to cut it out a bit and then wait for it to grow…I’m going to need an invention for boar glue remover!

 

[KatieM]

Oh the things no one warns you about with pigs! (Yes he was watching a show while I did this lol!)

 

[AidaB]

Bless you, that’s why it’s call boar glue!


We had a long haired foster piggie staying with us, who regularly got a lot of boar glue from his friend- I ended up checking him most evenings- especially after a hump-a-thon trying to catch it before it dried. Never successfully, but it did mean I got the boar glue mostly cut out before he tried to groom it out & pull at it.

I ended up buying a good pair of blunt ended grooming scissors.

Good luck.

 

[KatieM]

Bless you, that’s why it’s call boar glue!


We had a long haired foster piggie staying with us, who regularly got a lot of boar glue from his friend- I ended up checking him most evenings- especially after a hump-a-thon trying to catch it before it dried. Never successfully, but it did mean I got the boar glue mostly cut out before he tried to groom it out & pull at it.

I ended up buying a good pair of blunt ended grooming scissors.

Good luck.

Thankfully my mom is a dog groomer so I was able to borrow the perfect pair of small blunt nose scissors! I’ll be checking Spence often now…would have been so much easier had her not pulled at it!