Do you think it’s memory issues or the fact he’s not been with another piggy - doesn’t know how to behave? Was it Digby who used to ‘zone out’ sometimes?
@Little Ones could Digby be one of those who needs bonding slowly?...like for fear aggressive piggies...I’m taking a stab in the dark so don’t listen to me! Wishing you good luck for tomorrow. If Digby goes on the humping rampage, will you leave them to it if Sprout seems to ‘accept’ that behaviour?
Yes it was him! The reason I feel like it’s a memory issue was because of how he was with Little once they were bonded. During the bonding, Digby humped Little for about 4 hours straight and then calmed down and they were able to bond. After that, they were best friends. Digby loved to sleep beside Little, he’d listen to Little, and honestly Digby really loved the company and didn’t like to be away from him. About a month later, out of nowhere, Digby snapped and it was like he didn’t recognise Little. He humped him again for 4 hours until he calmed down and accepted Little again. Then they got on again perfectly well. I told myself that if Digby snapped again, I’d separate permanently. Then maybe another month or so later, the same thing happened. I let Digby hump Little for an hour and then separated because I could see where it was going. That’s why I think it’s a memory issue, Little wasn’t a dominant piggy at all. He was in charge, but not dominant, so there was nothing to spark Digby’s random aggression.
It’s so hard to picture what Digby is like when he gets like that, but he is honestly relentless and undistractable. You can give him veg or any food he likes and he’ll ignore it or take it and immediately drop it so he can hump the other. There really is no stopping him. It’s weird because he’s a lovely piggy, but when he gets like that it’s almost like he’s completely feral. There’s no way to sort of get in contact with him.
What do you mean by bonding slowly? I’ve never heard of that before with boars.
Well, my plan was to see if Sprout was happy to humped without much protest, and if so then I’d leave them for an hour or two and monitor if there was any growing distress. Just play it by ear and call it quits when I felt things got too much.
So that’s what I did, but disaster happened and I’m still really confused about it.
Sprout was fine being humped by Digby, he didn’t have any qualms really. There was some bum chasing, so like where they chase in a tight circle but that was sort of the only dominance from Sprout. The chase would end when either one of them gave like a warning jab with their nose. They were eating beside each other and cleaning beside each other. Digby was being his humpy self, but was taking breaks from the relentlessness to eat which seemed like a good sign. Sprout really didn’t seem to mind the humps, he took it better than BB and Little ever have. Digby was mainly humping Sprouts face.
Then something weird happened, they were stood beside each other after Sprout had just been humped right on his face. Digby bent over to get a poop from his own butt, or just doing something in that region. Then Sprout also stretched his head over and began nuzzling into Digby’s tummy area. Digby didn’t react to it, just carried on what he was doing. And then he straightened himself out and Sprout retracted his head - everything was calm, there were no adverse reactions to anything in the moment and then suddenly there was a lot of blood. I’m looking at the situation trying to analyse what just happened, the piggies are walking around and the blood is going everywhere. I look at Sprout and he has blood by one of his nostrils, so my immediate thought is that he’s been bit somehow at some point so I remove him immediately and wipe the small amount of blood off of his nostril and put him in a carrier. Then I get Digby and put him in a separate carrier and quickly wipe up all the blood droplets.
I go back to Sprout to have a look at his nose, he had just finished cleaning himself and his nose isn’t bleeding, doesn’t look like it was ever bleeding either. At least not from a cut. And even if there was a cut, there was too much blood for it to stop bleeding so quickly. Unless it was a nose bleed? But I don’t know if piggies can get those.
So then I go back to Digby and I can’t find any blood on him either. I’m wondering if he pee’d it? And Sprout got it on his face either through being humped, or nuzzled it off of him?
It was real, proper blood though. Not diluted or anything like I would expect pee-blood to be. I check the blanket Digby is on in the carrier and I find this:
So honestly I’m confused at what just happened. I can’t find any wounds on either piggies. But to me, things weren’t so intense to warrant a bite.
I saw Digby pee three times yesterday during the bonding with BB and there was no blood at all. But this time there was a lot of blood, thick blood. And I have no idea where it came from or what to even do next. This happened about an hour and a half ago. I’ve been checking each of their cages to see if some blood appears, but there isn’t any. So I have no idea what happened
I am keeping everything crossed that it works out between Digby and Sprout x
there was no bite or anything that you witnessed? Hmmm I would consider trying them again if you can’t find any injuries on them. None at all? Belly, back, face, bum etc?
I’d get it checked simply because of the blood and the amount you say it was.
Just had to remove a collection of hair from Jasper’s and he’s pretty good but Luigi is not quite as well behaved (or still!) and normally nips are involved!
. Do your vets let you email pictures in? Might be worth ringing them and asking if you can send a picture and see what they recommend? X
Luigi had a very large bit of hay stuck in his not long ago, was zooming around and acting like it was nothing, must have hurt though?! So brave sometimes these pigs!
xx
