Spring Hormones?

[Freela]

For years, I have noticed that my girls tend to have strong seasons in the springtime, with far more dominance behavior, rumblestrutting, chasing, mounting, and all the rest. It's like they've got spring fever! I've noticed this with various pigs over the years, not just one or two individuals. I'm just curious if anyone else has noticed this. The thing is my pigs live indoors, so I have no idea how their little ovaries even know it's springtime!

I also noticed that some of my more shedding-prone pigs would shed like crazy at this time of year, although again they live indoors so the weather itself wouldn't be a factor. Sundae in particularly used to shed a ridiculous amount of fur in the spring (fortunately, both Hadley and Leela are long-haired crosses and don't shed near the amount that Sundae, with her coarser coat, used to shed!)

Just curious if anyone else's pigs go hormonally wild and molt fur in the springtime, even if they live indoors!

 

[Wiebke]

My shedders are also shedding at this time of the year...

I haven't particularly noticed stronger seasons with my sows; spring is more a boar thing generally.

 

[Freela]

My shedders are also shedding at this time of the year...

I haven't particularly noticed stronger seasons with my sows; spring is more a boar thing generally.

Maybe my bossy sows think they are boars! It tends to be the dominant one who gets really uppity!

I don't envy you the shedding, we used to joke that in the spring you could brush Sundae and get another Sundae... we would end up with her and a guinea-pig-sized clump of fur next to her!

 

[Guineapigfeet]

Haven't noticed shedding more than normal with my three but I did notice BB's latest season which I never normally do. Chewie and Rey are really obvious but B's usually very discrete! Of course I have no idea if it's actually because of spring and it also coincided with their cage upgrade