Struggling To Judge When It's Too Much

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anniedabannie

anniedabannie

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My two boars Poldark and Sage have been comfortably bonded all their life, with big and little scraps but nothing serious. Saying that, they're only about 5months old, maybe 6?

A while back I had to take Poldark out of the run to cool down a little because he got a bit amorous during lawn time! I didn't see how Sage felt about that but it seemed to work. I've added a soft toy to their cage since then.

But as you can see I'm writing this at 4am because I was woken up by teeth chattering like none I've heard before and submissive wheeking. When I went to look, Poldark was trying to mount Sage and Sage had decided enough was enough and was fighting back.

Immediately I took them both out in turns to check for any bite wounds but they both seem alright. And then I left for just a moment to go to the loo and when I came back Sage had a mouthful of Pol's fur and they were both chattering their teeth really loudly.

At this point I thought separating them was it, so I took their ramp out and left Poldark on one floor, Sage on the other. But after a couple of minutes they both got really agitated looking for each other!

Luckily the second I re-introduced them I got a sneezing fit and that seemed to make them bond over being scared! :P

Reading the threads, I think Sage might be being bullied but he seems to miss Poldark when he's gone? I don't know what to do. I really don't want to separate them but obviously this is the limit of aggression and if it gets any worse I won't have a choice.

They have two of everything except a water bottle but I just ordered another one. There are no hideys with only one exit, and they live in a two-tier Ferplast 100 so they've got plenty of space to get away from each other.

I guess just some advice on what to do... I read all the threads on boar bonding but since they missed each other so badly I don't know what else to do to calm it down? :(
 
Hi :)

Sounds like you have hormonal piggies!

It's not nice when our animals start to get angry with one another! I adopted two himi's who were meant to be ok at the rescue but when we put them in the cage here they beat each other up several times and drew blood (the woman at the rescue said it sounded like they both wanted to be in charge), so they were separated (only because they drew blood). So TK ended up next to the older boars and Cesaro who is going to be neutered ended up next this "his" sows which he seems to be liking lol.

Now we had another incident with Big E and Sheamus (Sheamus has now passed away) when Sheamus kept getting ill last year, Big's would try and hump him, it got to the point where Sheamus was doing what one of your has done and pulling Big's fur.. only one day.. Big's humped him and Sheamus bit him twice and drew bloody, however we still didn't separate them because we figured it was Sheamus telling him off, the last time Sheamus was ill, Big E did the same thing and this time Sheamus got on his hind legs, chattered his teeth and chased Big's (he never bit him) which scared Big's who started to cry.

So maybe what your guinea's doing is telling the other "hey, stop it now, I've had enough!", if they aren't drawing blood I think they should be ok, but if it does turn out where they are both on their hind legs ready to fight or just looking like they are going to fight anyway, throw a towel over the and remove one. IF you do need to separate them the best way to do it is so they can still see each other through their bars and still have interaction.

I'm sure others will post with their opinions and advice :D I'm just sharing what happened to me and what I've read you should do if they do fall out.

I hope they settle down.
 
Thank you so much for both of your advice! Obviously I don't want either of them to get hurt, but I also don't want to separate them if it's not necessary and put extra strain on their bond. Thank you for being so reassuring x
 
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