Tom and Jerry

[sammyroo]

Well, it seems to be the season for boars to fall out at the moment - do male hormones go haywire in spring or what?

As regulars here will know, Tom and Jerry are brothers aged about 2 1/2 who have apparently always lived together peacefully. We adopted them at the beginning of Feb, and since we've had them they've never been particularly close. I've never seen them snuggled up together, and they have squabbled at a fairly minor level from the day we got them - rumblestrutting etc.

But yesterday when they were out on floor time, a real fight broke out. They were both fluffed up and chattering their teeth really loudly, chasing each other round and round really fast and then they launched themselves at each other into a spitting, snarling ball of fur.
We caught Tom and popped him in the cage, gave them time out to calm down, then tried them on a lap. Fine. Put them back in the cage together and fed them. Still fine. They went to sleep. A bit later, all mayhem broke out again - exactly as above- and we have had to separate them. Tom seems to have a very tiny wound on his nose.

This morning I spoke to Amanda at RSPCA Medway and she says they were not like that when they were there. So I wonder if it was being next to Sam and Roo which has upset them. Although they were next to lots of piggies at Medway.

Shuld we move their cages to a separate room from S and R and then try to re-bond? Or just accept that we now have one pair and two singles?

 

[bunpig]

i've just had to split up an established pair of boars that i got from the freeads. they seemed fine at first but not particularly close. when they were housed next to my other boars they started squabbling so i put them in an outdoor hutch away from the others so that they could re-establish their bond. when i checked on them they seemed quiet and wellbehaved so i thought it had worked, however, when after 3 days outside together i picked them up to put them on the grass for a run i instantly noticed that one of them was VERY light, on closer inspection i noticed he was covered in bites and scratches on his back > i have removed him from the bully and i will not be putting them back together! when i have nursed the bullied one back to health i will get a baby boar for him to live with. the other pig will unfortunately have to live on his own. from what you say it sounds as though your situation is similar. how old are your pigs? mine are nearly 1yr old.

 

[sammyroo]

how old are your pigs? mine are nearly 1yr old.

Tom and Jerry are 2 1/2 years old. So, in theory (!) they should be past the stage of establishing dominance. Hmm.

We do not have room for any more pigs. It took me months to persuade OH to let me adopt these two - he thought two pigs was just the right number. We really only had enough space for one extra cage, for a bonded pair - but of course now we have had to bring out the 100cm 'quarantine cage' for Tom.
So getting a new friend is not an option. If we can not re-bond them then they will have to stay single.
Sigh! :'(

 

[Tracy]

I really hope things work out for them and they sort out thier squabbles. I hope someone can give you the answers you need

 

[boureki]

Aw, no, thats a shame, we saw Tom and Jerry when we collected Dylan from Medway. We are having exactly the same problem (although no wounds yet) with our two established bonded boars since Dylan was housed next to them. We now try and keep as much space as possible when we can for example they have the longest run time etc as they have all started cage-biting to get to each other.

We eventually placed Dylan's cage on top of the boy's cage and it seemed to help their obsessing about each other, but obviously it wasn't all that practical to get Scampy and Blaze out. They still bicker amongst themselves, but I'm pretty sure it has reduced since they cannot see each other We are currently looking for some kind of trolley thingy so we can easily wheel one out from under the other so they can stay on top of each other, but haven't had much luck yet If you can find anything like that perhaps that may help?

 

[sammyroo]

Update: I have just spoken to Michelle at RSPCA Medway. She was very surprised to hear that T and J were not getting on, as they had been very close when at the Rescue. She feels they must have been upset at the change of scene; also although they were next to other pigs there, because there were lots of others, the scents mingled and made less impact than being next to just one pair of boars.

I am going to try moving their cages to a different part of the house - possibly upstairs - and then try bonding them again, well away from S and R.
She says I can take them back if it does not work out, but I would be very reluctant to do that if it can be avoided.

Boars, huh! 98)

 

[Caviesgalore (EPGPR)]

Oh no, I can't believe that T & J are not hitting it off sammyroo - why do boars do this to us? It is quite frightening when they really go for each other. I have only witnessed it once (touching wood frantically!) when I tried to reintroduce a father and son pairing after they had been separated for a few weeks, unfortunately it didn't work. However, both boys now live with younger boars, and so far they seem to get along OK.

I do hope that moving T & J away from the other two boys works sammyroo, it would be heartbreaking if you felt that you had to return the boys after all the agonising you went through prior to getting them.

Good luck with them and keep us posted. xx

 

[jediquigley]

aww bless i hope it all works out with your boars

i have a pair which are 8 weeks old and are brothers, i am hoping i dont get any problems with them down the line.

 

[amanda]

Well, it seems to be the season for boars to fall out at the moment - do male hormones go haywire in spring or what?

I think you must be right. My two boys have been together for 11 months and have been fine, just a bit of squabbling at the start, but last night the one began chasing and pratically terrorising the other, so we took them out and gave them a bit of a cuddle to try and give them a bit of time out, put them back and the one just went straight into his pigloo and didnt come back out.

I'm gonna keep an eye out today...might have to seperate because of bullying.

Typical men!

 

[EmmaJ]

Oh dear... seems like everyone is having a stressful time with their boars. Just tried mine together in the run after putting them in seperate cages 5 days ago. I never seen anything like it. There was humping, spraying, teeth chattering and fur flying. They were absolutely launching at each other with teeth gnashing. I'm gutted and can't work out what to do for the best. Don't want them to live alone but unsure about neutering, and if I just get them baby boys each, what if they don't like them either...