Biting the fur

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ThePiggyPalace

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I've posted about this before. My five year old boar is very laid back and rarely shows aggression. His housemate is the opposite. He's loud, constantly on the move and gets jealous very easily.

He has a habit of biting the others fur out for very little reason. This is usually when I'm giving the other attention or he wants to play out. They get equal attention.

He never does it when the other is eating or drinking.

On the other thread someone said its barbering and as long as they're not fighting it's ok.

My boy's fur round his bum is starting to thin now and looks messy. He never screams out in pain or seems distressed, but I am tired of seeing the other with chunks of fur in his mouth.

They have toys and tunnels.

What can I do? Separating them won't work as they get on brilliantly otherwise.
 
Today has been off the scale with piggy 2 rushing up to piggy 1 and biting his fur and more usual, biting him anywhere rather than his bum. I am worried about piggy 1 getting crushed by piggy 2s behaviour and the hurt he might be causing.

We've moved recently, which is why piggy 2 might be behaving like this, although he is always lively and spirited.
 
A thought - Do you make sure you handle and deal with the dominant piggy first (and I think it sounds like the dominant is the one you are referring to as piggy 2)? It is important that you do.
How old is piggy 2?
If you don’t and you are doing things for/handling/feeding the submissive piggy first then you may be inadvertently causing the dominant to feel the need to reassert his dominance and position in the hierarchy and thus this barbering might be his way of doing that (rather than the more common chasing, mounting, rumbling).
It’s nothing to do with them getting equal time with you or being jealous, it’s about respecting their hierarchy and not giving the dominant any reason to feel insecure
 
Maybe that's where I'm going wrong. Piggy 1 is so affectionate and loves cuddles and tickles, whereas piggy 2 never seems that bothered about attention from me. He's all about attention from the other piggies (two others live separately from these).

I always assumed that piggy 1 was the more dominant one as he's the oldest, but piggy 2 is really very dominant in personality. He's always desperate to get out and over to the other boys where he'll rumblestrutt them til the sun comes down. My piggy 1 runs over when I get home and is so excited to see me it seems natural to want to pet him first and show him attention. I'll see how I get on.
 
How affectionate they are with you nor his age are reflections of their position in the hierarchy.

Older boars tend to just want companionship and will sometimes let dominance go.
When I had a bereaved dominant 6 year old with a dominant 2 year old, the 6 year old let the 2 year old be in charge. The dominant 2 year old was the friendliest.
When the 6 year old was with his previous cagemate (who he was the same age as), it was the submissive of the pair who was the friendliest.

If piggy 2 comes over but doesn’t want to be stroked or cuddled, that’s fine, give him a piece of veg out of his daily portion instead. Once he is appeased, then stroke and cuddle piggy 1
 
Piggies&buns said:
How affectionate they are with you nor his age are reflections of their position in the hierarchy.

Older boars tend to just want companionship and will sometimes let dominance go.
When I had a bereaved dominant 6 year old with a dominant 2 year old, the 6 year old let the 2 year old be in charge. The dominant 2 year old was the friendliest.
When the 6 year old was with his previous cagemate (who he was the same age as), it was the submissive of the pair who was the friendliest.

If piggy 2 comes over but doesn’t want to be stroked or cuddled, that’s fine, give him a piece of veg out of his daily portion instead. Once he is appeased, then stroke and cuddle piggy 1
Click to expand...
 
Thank you, @Piggies&buns. They do seem to adore each other as when one is away for cuddles from the other the one left will be looking for them and chattering with them from afar and when they play out, they're usually tail to nose like elephants following each other. My boys fur is thinning round his bum because of the fur biting. I cried today because I was sad for him. He's the sweetest, most loving piggy. I don't think he'd dream of biting back, ever, though I did see him sticking up for himself when the other was biting his fur earlier.
 
We always recommend that bonded pairs are kept together whenever possible. Can fully appreciate it is hard when one doesn’t mind being held and the other doesn’t like it but taking the submissive out could well be making issues between them.

Barbering is not usually harmful but it does risk making the skin sore or ruining a bond if it goes on long enough
 
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