Fighting piggies

janji · 2013-02-03T22:24:30+00:00

Adopted 2 male piggies from two seperate places. Both seemed fine with each other for first week but now have found smaller pig with a tear on his ear (is healing well)! Both live indoors in a large cage. Any way they will be able to stay together or will I have to buy a new cage and keep them seperate?

mercibucket · 03/02/2013 22:30

It's really hard to get boars to get along together unless they're bonded from an early age. Are they babies still? In a small indoor cage is even harder - not enough room to get away from each other. Do they have 2 of everything eg hidey holes, food and water? Less opportunity for fights to start then
Tbh if they got on ok the first week that is a good sign. Mine would just have got straight down to trying to kill each other - no prisoners
Did you try washing/blow drying them both so they can bond over the traumatic experience?

mercibucket · 03/02/2013 22:30

It's really hard to get boars to get along together unless they're bonded from an early age. Are they babies still? In a small indoor cage is even harder - not enough room to get away from each other. Do they have 2 of everything eg hidey holes, food and water? Less opportunity for fights to start then
Tbh if they got on ok the first week that is a good sign. Mine would just have got straight down to trying to kill each other - no prisoners
Did you try washing/blow drying them both so they can bond over the traumatic experience?

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 03/02/2013 22:59

janji
2 boars can be a problem as merci has said above.

How old are your boys?
Is there an age difference?
How did you set about introducing them?
How large is their cage?

I wouldn't say seperate them straight away, but you might need to go back to basics.

First off- check the Barmy4Boars website. They've got lots of "Boar Options" and read their "Our Boars".Their rescusers have matched up boars, not always sucessfully, sometimes they need to re-match them.

As a start off- I'd gve themneutral ground. A room without their smell.Preferably a room they haven't been in.
Empty everything out of their cage and clean it (Dettol is recommended) then fresh bedding.
And food.Lots of food. Seperate the pellets, water and veg so they can't crowd each other.
If you can (depending on how old they are) wash them to make them smell the same.
One of your boys might smell of female pig which would excite the other one.

Are they really squabbling? There will be mounting, rumblestrutting, 'heads up'.
There are signs to watch for (again Google) , but a ripped ear might be the result of a fight and hopefully nothing worse will happen.

My brothers are in a 4'x2' cage that last winter I had to seperate for night (they went out to their 'shed' every day) They had a nasty fight after a coriander binge.
This year, I've given them a box of hay, pellets, water bottle, veg. They're in the small bedroom <span class="italic">at night</span> with a duvet over.
They have the odd squabble but it's all noise.

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 03/02/2013 23:02

I haven't seperated their cage this year for night. But I have to threaten them with a smacked bum stern talking to when GP1 stubbornly excludes GP2 from the haybox.
Toads.

Original poster

janji · 04/02/2013 00:27

Thanks all. They don't fight/squabble in my earshot, but it was the unexpected guilt of me finding the injured ear! It's not obvious they're not getting on apart from the odd 10 second burst of vocal displeasure?! They are in a really large indoor cage with two nicey holes etc. one pig is physically bigger than the other (he's 6 months) and the smaller one with the injured ear is about 4 months. Will def check out the website recommended.

OP posts:

mercibucket · 04/02/2013 09:00

that all sounds quite positive tbh and a ripped ear could just be from a squabble.
so long as the smaller one accepts he's bottom of the pile they should get on. a size difference is helpful for that. sounds like teenage strops

FernieB · 04/02/2013 09:06

One of mine has a small bit of ear missing - I questioned Scruffypig about it, but despite all evidence to the contrary he still maintains he's innocent.

janji - they sound fine and normal to me. The one with the injured ear probably won't really notice it, but you probably feel really guilty (I still feel guilty over Smoothpig's ear and it was over a year ago). The arguing you describe will probably never stop - mine argue from time to time and they've been together from babies. They're like 'The Odd Couple'!

70 - how do your pigs respond to the 'stern talking to'? Mine listen intently, then wander off if they don't hear any food words. One of my DD's has introduced a naughty corner for them. She makes them stay in it for 1 minute for every year of their age - Scruffy spends a large amount of time in it as he's naughty all the time.

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 04/02/2013 19:34

Fernie when I give mine a Stern Lecture they just look at me judgely and walk away.
GP2 sometimes chatters his teeth at me then eats pooh

GP1 just goes whingeing off to his 'mum' (my DD) and cuddles up to her neck like a teddy bear (and of course she forgives him 100%)

fortifiedwithtea · 04/02/2013 23:28

Old Boy's ears were abit frilly thanks to his bigger brother even though OB was top pig .

I've heard but never tried it, that a dab of vicke on each nose stops warring boars. Your boars sound like they are going into the terrible teens and hopefully will be fine once they have worked out dominance.