Boar Behaviour - Chattering And Walking Away

[iamsnape]

Hi all,
Been a long time since I have been on the forum but I was hoping for an opinion please one of my lovely boys unfortunately crossed the rainbow bridge a little over a month ago. We were all very sad but concerned about his cage mate who had never been alone. After allowing him time to 'move on' (aka get back to eating and wheeking) we started looking for a new buddy for him.

We had a couple of failed dates but found success in a 6 month old boar. There is about a 3 and a half year age difference. The intros were quite long, all neutral territory, initially the little guy looked like he was going to manage to dominate my existing pig (which came as a suprise) but then my one turned around and gave him a bit of a nip and from that point the new one was very submissive. They were together that night and all was well.

It's been a further two days that they have been together. There have been no fights, the normal rumbling etc, and my existing piggy seems happy to have a new friend, providing that the space between them is on his terms. If he goes over to new pig while they're eating etc, no worries. If new pig comes over to him, he will chatter. Nothing will happen following the chattering other than some rumbling or one warning nip which I saw during some floor time. Generally the younger one will just walk off. If he doesn't and he decides to try and chatter back there will be some attempted mounting from my existing pig, and the younger one will make submission noises. Or they'll just stop bothering with each other and walk in opposite directions.

I feel like this is simply dominance chattering as opposed to aggressive chattering and my friend who is experienced with gpigs advised of the same, but I wanted further opinions as I've watched them for 3 days now and tomorrow is their first full day alone while I'm at work so naturally I'm going to be nervous! Both are eating normally, in a 2 x 5 cage, hideys have been subbed for fleece forrests and they have two of everything.

EDIT: just now is a fab example...they're out for floor time, Newby is currently lying on the floor ready for a snooze. Elmo wondered over to him, had a smell, chattered, then walked off....it's like he's doing it in place of rumbling because he doesn't seem to be very good at rumbling!

 

[Wiebke]

Hi all,
Been a long time since I have been on the forum but I was hoping for an opinion please one of my lovely boys unfortunately crossed the rainbow bridge a little over a month ago. We were all very sad but concerned about his cage mate who had never been alone. After allowing him time to 'move on' (aka get back to eating and wheeking) we started looking for a new buddy for him.

We had a couple of failed dates but found success in a 6 month old boar. There is about a 3 and a half year age difference. The intros were quite long, all neutral territory, initially the little guy looked like he was going to manage to dominate my existing pig (which came as a suprise) but then my one turned around and gave him a bit of a nip and from that point the new one was very submissive. They were together that night and all was well.

It's been a further two days that they have been together. There have been no fights, the normal rumbling etc, and my existing piggy seems happy to have a new friend, providing that the space between them is on his terms. If he goes over to new pig while they're eating etc, no worries. If new pig comes over to him, he will chatter. Nothing will happen following the chattering other than some rumbling or one warning nip which I saw during some floor time. Generally the younger one will just walk off. If he doesn't and he decides to try and chatter back there will be some attempted mounting from my existing pig, and the younger one will make submission noises. Or they'll just stop bothering with each other and walk in opposite directions.

I feel like this is simply dominance chattering as opposed to aggressive chattering and my friend who is experienced with gpigs advised of the same, but I wanted further opinions as I've watched them for 3 days now and tomorrow is their first full day alone while I'm at work so naturally I'm going to be nervous! Both are eating normally, in a 2 x 5 cage, hideys have been subbed for fleece forrests and they have two of everything.

It sounds like they are still in the middle of the dominance sort out, working on the fine print. thos phase can last up to two weeks. Towards the end of it, the younger boy will get his say in how much he will let the top boar get away with (often by increased submission squeaking).

There is so far nothing to worry about.

 

[iamsnape]

It sounds like they are still in the middle of the dominance sort out, working on the fine print. thos phase can last up to two weeks. Towards the end of it, the younger boy will get his say in how much he will let the top boar get away with (often by increased submission squeaking).

There is so far nothing to worry about.

OK fab, glad to hear it doesn't sound worrying. I didn't think it sounded like a problem to be honest but needed that confirmation! (after 3 days together without any serious problems I did think it was just a case of ironing out the wrinkles in their new relationship!). Hopefully it settles in the next few days. Here's a photo of them from a moment ago before they went to separate ends of the pen for a snooze!

I have get to manage to get a photo of new boy Pepper eating a pepper....

I am looking forward to the chattering stopping though, it makes me very on edge. Not used to it at all as he and his brother were very very closely bonded.
I might just need to accept that some chattering and the odd warning nip is a part of boar life.