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PiggiePooh

PiggiePooh

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I have recorded Treacle's behaviour towards the other piggies, can you have a look and tell me if this is a display of dominance please or something else? I have tried to compare her bits to Truffles and they look slightly different but I dont know if thats because Truffles is quite hairy and I cant see hers that well :{ Treacle is the smallest one of the 3 in video.

 
I can't work out if she is nipping their bums but this is the same sort of behavior that Eliza has been doing to Ellie who we first introduced last Friday. Eliza is bigger than Ellie and was here first. However, Eliza doesn't 'nip' any part of Ellie's body. She just sniffs at her and has tried to mount her. Eliza also rumbles at Ellie but is just showing that she is the boss. This behavior has settled down a lot though in the past week. If you are not 100% sure that Treacle is a girl, I would get her checked out ASAP. It does look like dominant behavior but I'm not sure about the nipping the bum thing as mine do not do this or push each other around as much xx
 
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Thank you very much. She does it in spurts, just runs around after them all and sniffs their ears or nips/nudges their bums, cant tell if she is nipping or not :{
 
It looks like the 'I want to move up in the pecking order' behaviour shown by my girls towards one another. But your two larger piggies are being very very patient, normally there would be a really pointed sideways head swing buffet by now and the littlest would give up. I don't know whether they are being patient just because they care as she is smaller than them so babyish in their eyes or because it is a boy.

The attempts at moving up the pecking order will occur sporadically for quite a while if it is that - in my experience. You'll know that Treacle has accepted her position when she begins to follow them around, nose to bottom, chuckling to let them know she's there. That's a display of 'I'm lower than you' behaviour. She'll also try to take what they're eating from their mouths which is baby behaviour, and push her face into their sides. If it's a boy - then I don't know how this will develop as I have never kept boars!

Hope this helps, I can only say about what happens in my little herd.

Sarah x
 
Thank you very much for replies. I am keeping my eye on things to see whats happening between them but going to get Treacle checked to make sure she is a girl ;)
 
Thats good that you're getting her checked. Like I said though, apart from the nipping, my 2 showed this behavior to the point where I was really concerned but they have settled down a lot now x
 
Looks to me like she's coming into season or is in season; but as the smallest hasn't got the cudos to mount them (she's probably been told off comprehensively by theother two).

Sows in season will sniff the backs or rumble or lightly peck and mount/try to mount the other sows over the course of a day, usualy in spurts. It's simply the hormones taking over!
 
Glad to hear! Seing such displays for the first time can throw you!

I was one of a huge number of new female owners who had serious doubts about the gender when one started mounting the other (who never returned the favour, because she dropped some babies on me within weeks of getting her, just to confuse the subject...). Let's just say it was a pretty steep learning curve!
 
this looks pretty normal to me. they're just trying to establish a pecking order and it's best to let them sort it out between themselves unless there's any serious aggression issues going on (e.g. if they were squaring up to fight).
when i first got muffin she was constantly spraying baxter and ruby; they settled down fine after a week or two and now there's no problems at all.
 
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