Boar Fallout

[anniedabannie]

My two boys have got along fairly happily all the time I've had them. They're just hitting 8 months now, and though they've had bad fights before I've never seen one as bad as I just watched.

At first Poldark was just chasing Sage around the cage and trying to hump him, which is pretty normal. But Sage decided he'd had enough and things pretty quickly escalated into teeth clacking and Sage full-on jumped and lunged at Poldark, pulling out some fur. I grabbed a towel and threw it over them, and checked them each over for bites or nasty scratches. I didn't find any but I was a bit panicked and in a rush, so will probably check later.

I thought putting Pol in a ferplast 100 inside the run-around pen (which Sage was enjoying) would give him time to cool off. So I left him in there ten minutes, but Sage was getting really really agitated, so I put them back together in their pen. They fought again so now I've separated them, and Poldark is searching frantically for his brother, but Sage has laid down and gone to sleep. He's probably exhausted, bless him. My question is... what do I do?

Separating them permanently is my absolute last resort. I don't have the space for four boys.... but what do I do?

 

[anniedabannie]

We've just put them together again, and they're still humping and clacking but it's not as violent as before.

Sage was so much more relaxed without Poldark.... makes me wonder if separating them is the right thing to do.

 

[anniedabannie]

And I've just cleaned out their cage but not put them back in yet - which always triggers some dominance stuff.

 

[Drezella]

Provided that they aren't drawing blood from each other, I'd watch them closely, but let them sort It out between them. They've obviously had a disagreement over something and they feel the need to dispute who is the leader again. So as painful as it is to watch you need to let them decide who is boss. (But as I say don't let them full on fight and draw blood). Barbering (pulling hair from each other) is a dominance thing and so is rumble strutting and teeth chattering, you'll probably see quite a bit of this until they sort it out. My boys sometimes do this too, particularly when the temperature increases or when I clean the cage. It usually settles down within a couple of hours.

If things get a bit scary then you can always try giving them some grass or veggies at the same time and them eat together. Sometimes this calms them down. Good luck!

 

[anniedabannie]

Provided that they aren't drawing blood from each other, I'd watch them closely, but let them sort It out between them. They've obviously had a disagreement over something and they feel the need to dispute who is the leader again. So as painful as it is to watch you need to let them decide who is boss. (But as I say don't let them full on fight and draw blood). Barbering (pulling hair from each other) is a dominance thing and so is rumble strutting and teeth chattering, you'll probably see quite a bit of this until they sort it out. My boys sometimes do this too, particularly when the temperature increases or when I clean the cage. It usually settles down within a couple of hours.

If things get a bit scary then you can always try giving them some grass or veggies at the same time and them eat together. Sometimes this calms them down. Good luck!

Giving them something tasty to calm them down is a good idea.... I've got some hay cookies lying around I could give them I've also attached their cage to their playpen so they've got a huge amount of space for the night. Hopefully that should let them cool off a little and then I can put things back to normal tomorrow.

 

[rosie and bramble]

What size accommodation do they have and do they have 2 of everything in their cage ? it is however common at this age but the more space they have the better and also having 2 of everything can also help a lot x

 

[anniedabannie]

They've got a two-tier ferplast 120 and two of everything except the water bottle, but they've never argued over it so I assume it's not a problem! They're a lot more chilled out now, nibbling their hay cookies and whipping out the chookens.

I'd love to give them a bigger cage but I really don't have the space. They've got room to run and popcorn so I don't think space is the issue.

Hopefully they chill out with the hormones soon, I don't think my nerves can take it!