Fighting SOWS!

[PatchyPog]

Hi all!

Long time, no-post! That's a good thing in a way as all has been well.

However, today our two sows, Buffy and Pam, had a real scramble with each other. The two are sisters of the same litter. We got them from the lovely Helen Chadwick at The Potteries, after we had to re-home one of our boars due to fighting. We kept one boar and got the two girls to keep Eric company.

Anyway, we've had them for probably about a year now with absolutely no issues. They were fairly young when we got them...only 6 weeks old or so, I believe.

They've always had the occasional disagreement, which invariably ended with Buffy running away from the larger Pam and the disagreement ending.

Today was different. They were in a proper, full-on, ball-of-furry-terror, fight. It was fairly scary, but fortunately no noticeable injuries.

We separated them for a bit...taking Pam out of the C&C cage and putting her into a crate. We then bathed all three piggies (even poor Eric, who'd done nothing wrong!) and re-introduced them to each other.

Not long after the girls started chattering at each other again, and so I've separated them again. I don't want to have another pair of fighting piggies on my hands and I'm really worried as I don't want to re-home one again.

Please can anyone help?

ADDITIONAL INFO: Not sure if it's relevant but the fight broke out not long after I'd cleaned their C&C cage top-to-bottom. However, the whole while I was cleaning the cage, the three pigs were, as they always are during a cleaning, sharing a crate together.

 

[Wiebke]

I would leave them separated overnight and then introduce tomorrow or the day after on neutral ground and see how that goes. It can be that one girl has a stronger season or a flush of hormones. If necessary, give them all a bath beforehand.

It can happen that adult sows fall out, it is not often, but not unheard of either. If things don't get better, please contact the rescue.

Best of luck!

 

[Pound Shilling & Pig]

from my experience piggy sisters often seem to bicker a lot with neither ever truely being top pig. i have a pair of sisters i adopted who generally get on but from week to week they switch who is in charge, while the neutered male they live with doesn't get involved. i put it down to their levels of dominance being very closely matched.

it may be that your sisters are closely matched too and that although in the past Buffy has always backed down something may have triggered her to take more of a stance this time. it is possible that Pam may be feeling slightly under the weather and Buffy is taking advantage of this. i would monitor their wieghts and keep a close eye out for signs of illness, just in case.

hopefully reintroducing them how Wiebke suggests will go well and they will settle down.

after future top to bottom clean outs it may also help if you sprinkle a few droppings and a little used bedding around so their home still smells like home to them. a spotlessly clean home may encourage them to scent mark, which they may see as an act of dominance in each other and react to.

 

[Pchan-Oreo]

I would do a full body check. The under dog piggy might be trying to stand up to her sister and be the boss pig. I would also put a divider into the cage as well just so they can smell each other out again. Watch the reaction if you do this though, if your piggy is gnawing on the divider and chattering, try re - introducing them all over again but some pigs don't like each other. On youtube this girl has a guinea pig that had babies and she attacks all of them so she has to live by herself. She is VERY slowly re introducing them but it is taking a very long time. I wish you the best of luck.

 

[PatchyPog]

Hi all,

Thanks so much for the advice.

Update: Well as I said they were all bathed after the incident. I then tried re-introducing the girls to each other out of the cage in the 'neutral zone'. They pretty much wanted nothing to do with each other and after 30 minutes or so of them mostly playing "I'm as still as a rock...you can't see me if I don't move." at opposite ends of the area rug (on a towel), I nudged them together, whereupon they sniffed at each other a bit and then continued to do...absolutely nothing.

I tried a re-introduction in the cage and we did have one more "I'm going to stand up to you and show you who's boss" moment...but it came to nothing. So they've been back together now for over a week and they seem to be back on normal behaviour.

Not sure if it was something in the food that day...or if they both woke up on the wrong side of the pog cozy. But fingers crossed, all's well now.

Thanks again.