Grumpy Sows?

[JennaAnysse]

Posted in the wrong forum by mistake
Hi, I have two sows which have been together from babies and are coming up to 1 year old. Over the past few days they seem to have been rumbling and being territorial to each other. They usually get along fine although they haven't bitten each other. Could this be hormonal and will soon die down?

 

[Wiebke]

Posted in the wrong forum by mistake
Hi, I have two sows which have been together from babies and are coming up to 1 year old. Over the past few days they seem to have been rumbling and being territorial to each other. They usually get along fine although they haven't bitten each other. Could this be hormonal and will soon die down?

View attachment 65689

Teenage sows can experience hormone spikes the same as boars, but as they are not usually leading to fall-outs, they are much less known. It is likely that at least one of your girl is coming into season or that a season has triggered a hormone spike. It should hopefully die down again.
Sow Behaviour

 

[Roclibrarian]

My girls were one in April. Ginny came into season and didn't stop rumble strutting for 4 weeks! I thought it was never going to end, she was driving me daft nevermind her poor sister.
Eventually she calmed down. She still has strong seasons, but at least they only last a couple of days now!

 

[Kylie80]

My two are nearing the one year mark and my Patchy (I have nicknamed her miss rumble's) the last couple of seasons is being a total terror and constantly rumbling at everyone and everything. The other pig Coco went through the same thing a few months back and thankfully has settled down so I am hoping miss rumble's will settle eventually too.

 

[sport_billy]

Sounds like your ladies are going through what is known as a season

Sows in season
Girls come into season about every 15-17 days. Often you won't notice, but sometimes, they can be very hormonal. I have observed that this happens more often with adolescent girls, freshly bonded or introduced girls or after an operation that interfered with the estrus cycle.

The girl coming into season can be grumpy or temperamental for a few days (especially if she is the alpha sow). Over the perhaps one and a half day of her season, she will sniff bottoms, rumble, chase and mount her companion as if she were a male. Her companion will either kick her off straight away or allow her to hump until she's fed up, all accompanied by lots of squeaking and often a fair bit of kerfuffle! However, things should stay well below the level where fights would threaten. The humped sow will make it clear when she's fed up.
Well bonded girls will often reaffirm their bond with tender cuddling on the following day.

Coming into season can spark a reopening of the dominance dispute, especially when the undersow is not happy with the way things are. What we think of as sexual behaviour is very often used as a dominance tool to sort out and redefine the relationship.

Our girls sometimes have stronger seasons than others, they do tend to settle within a couple of days at most though