Bullying Question

[CavyMum58]

Hello... My Three boars have been living together for approximately 6 weeks now. Some days they do really well together. Other days, not so much. I recently have noticed the two bigger boys bullying the smaller guy away from food pellets and hay. I put three bowls of pellets and several areas of hay in their cage, so he is always able to eat, but not near the other two. I'm NOT attaching a video... the file is too large. But it is viewable on YouTube... The channel is CavyMum's Loves. The name of the video on YT is GP Boars Behaving Badly. If you have a little time, take a look and let me know your thoughts. Should I separate the little guy from the bullies? Just want happy piggies...

 

[Piggies&buns]

Is his weight stable at each weekly weight check?
If he is losing weight then it is likely, if not a health issue which needs to be addressed first, that he isn’t being allowed to eat enough or is stressed and in that case separation would be recommended.

From the video, I would actually change the way you do things and see if that works before separating (assuming his weight is stable) namely that we don’t recommend the use of food bowls - because you can then see this kind of food guarding occurring.
Instead we recommend scattering pellets just loose the cage floor and into hay so all piggies can forage and the others have no ability to guard every pellet, they can all move about the cage and find some.
This also encourages natural foraging behaviour and makes food time mentally stimulating - whereas eating from a bowl takes no brain power at all.
He is clearly bottom of the hierarchy and he isn’t ever going to get first pick of things because of that - but it doesn’t always mean bullying is occurring.
If he is happy with his position then all should be well. If he decides he doesn’t like it that is when a trio can fail

I would also recommend three separate hay areas - literally at opposite ends of the cage.

Also remember that the feeding guideline is just one tablespoon of pellets per pig per day, and it looks like there is more than that across all the bowls.

 

[CavyMum58]

Is his weight stable at each weekly weight check?
If he is losing weight then it is likely, if not a health issue which needs to be addressed first, that he isn’t being allowed to eat enough or is stressed and in that case separation would be recommended.

From the video, I would actually change the way you do things and see if that works before separating (assuming his weight is stable) namely that we don’t recommend the use of food bowls - because you can then see this kind of food guarding occurring.
Instead we recommend scattering pellets just loose the cage floor and into hay so all piggies can forage and the others have no ability to guard every pellet, they can all move about the cage and find some.
This also encourages natural foraging behaviour and makes food time mentally stimulating - whereas eating from a bowl takes no brain power at all.
He is clearly bottom of the hierarchy and he isn’t ever going to get first pick of things because of that - but it doesn’t always mean bullying is occurring.
If he is happy with his position then all should be well. If he decides he doesn’t like it that is when a trio can fail

I would also recommend three separate hay areas - literally at opposite ends of the cage.

Also remember that the feeding guideline is just one tablespoon of pellets per pig per day, and it looks like there is more than that across all the bowls.

 

[CavyMum58]

That all makes good sense... They actually are doing well together overall and his weight has been stable. I do typically keep several hay sources around the pen, not together. The big hay tray/litter box, a smaller one, and several "hay racks"... actually coffee mugs with hay in them. I will start spreading their pellets around the pen... a do put some in their hay. They never eat all of them so when I think it's time to change them, I sprinkle the old ones from the bowls into the hay and put some fresh ones in the bowls. I doubt that any of them even eat a tablespoon per day, but they might. All of them have very stable weights, so far. I'm thankful for that. But letting them forage and avoiding bullying away from the food bowls is a great method! Thank you so much for taking a look at the video and for your suggestions! I'll let you know how it goes...