Bottom pig always smaller than top pig ?

jhgeak

jhgeak

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Hello,
I was just pondering and thought I'd ask here.
I have a pair of bonded male. Caramel, the "top pig", is quite a lot bigger than his friend Piscine (1300g VS 900g).
They're both adult now, but I got them when they were small so I saw them reach their adult weight. When I got him, Caramel weighed only 700g. Though he was probably not fed well enough back then, he did put on quite a lot of weight when Piscine came around.
They've always shared food fine, no bullying or food theft. And to me, Piscine seems to be a small pig by nature so there's really no problem.
I was just curious whether there were cases (in your experience) where the top pig is actually smaller than the bottom pig ; or if weight is somehow correlated with dominance patterns.
Thanks !
 
My top pig spends quite a lot of time running round making sure she stays top pig so she’s actually the lightest of my 3. The others just hop from one hay pile to another but Pollyanna has to keep patrolling to make sure she gets the best bits!
 
That's really interesting ! It seems to be hard work to be top pig for Pollyanna, but it must be such a cute dynamic to observe.
I guess my Caramel is just lazy then, because, to be frank, he doesn't even bother to chase Piscine half of the time...
 
My top pigs weigh less than their counterparts, but I don’t know if it’s a thing. I think the girl top pig may have been the runt. Then again her cage mate is more hair than anything (she’s a teddy).
 
Generally a top piggy has first choice of food and they tend to have a little extra on their ribs during the prime of their life than the bottom piggy in a bigger group.

However, size is less a factor (unless the second party is a sub-adult being paired with an adult/adults) than personality and outlook. My energetic Nia was always a lot smaller than her litter sister Nerys, who had some minor mobility issues and loved stuffing herself. It was Nia who ran all the sows of the big Tribe group even though she was one of the smaller ones, not Nerys, who was the biggest but didn't have leadership potential (she's the chunky pig in my avatar picture). A larger piggy will only lead if they have the matching personality.
My Pioden for instance was nearly double the size (1300-1400g which was actually a lowish weight for him) of his gracile wives (700-800g), but it was the girls who ran the show and had first access to the food. Otherwise he would have easily been another 100-200g heavier without being fat.

The normal adult weight range can vary massively. In the end size doesn't matter so much as a good diet and general health when it comes to boosting longevity.
 
My current top pig is the only one of mine under a kilo in weight. Previously my dominant pig was around 850g again so by far my smallest pig and prior to that it was my heaviest lady who wasn't very rounded but was long
 
Bill is 1282 gms and Ted is 1352 gms at the moment, Ted is longer than Bill so I think they are evenly matched brothers, still not sure who is boss piggie though?
 
Out of my three pairs of boars 2 pairs have the smallest pig as the very assertive boss, we call it little pig syndrome. Red (boss)1050 gms Brillo 1185 gms. Caspy (boss) 1072 Rusty 1212gms. Spike and Peanut are matched more or less in weight, Peanut is the boss but only just, they are evenly matched and just putter along together.
 
piggieminder said:
Out of my three pairs of boars 2 pairs have the smallest pig as the very assertive boss, we call it little pig syndrome. Red (boss)1050 gms Brillo 1185 gms. Caspy (boss) 1072 Rusty 1212gms. Spike and Peanut are matched more or less in weight, Peanut is the boss but only just, they are evenly matched and just putter along together.
Click to expand...
Rather like small man syndrome 😂
 
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