newtopigbonding
Junior Guinea Pig
Until recurrently we had a pair of 3.5 year old bonded sows that came from a rescue. The dominant sow had a medial issue and ended up passing unfortunately.
We adopted a 3 year old single sow from a local humane society and had her quarantine in her own enclosure in the same room as the newly single sow for 1 week. 3 days ago we initiated the bonding by putting them in a neutral space and large floor enclosure. All seemed to be going well until about 2-3 hours into bonding a fight broke out. It was quick 10-15 seconds and they ended it on their own. Upon inspection there didn't seem to be any blood drawn. It seems that our existing previously non-dominate sow was the 'winner' and things seemed to settle down for the remainder of the day with some rumble strutting and mounting. No more face offs or gesturing.
At the end of the second day in the neutral enclosure we moved them into the freshly sanitized 'new' normal enclosure. Since then, 2 days have passed, the dominant sow has been rumble strutting, chasing, mounting, and the occasional teeth chattering towards the newly adopted pig. This is occurring what seems to be for 3ish minutes every 30-60 minutes. Is that normal?
The other thing I have been curious about is the newly adopted presumably submissive sow is occasionally trying to mount the dominant sow and sometimes doing actions that look like they're trying to be dominant. Is that cause for concern? While there have not been anymore signs of leading towards a fight, it does feel like 'bullying' and I am not comfortable putting in single access hides yet.
Long story short: It is common to see the non-dominant pig showing some signs of dominance? How long should we expect to see this behavior from both pigs? They sure don't seem like they're getting along, but this is my first time doing anything like this so I am trying to remove my human feelings as much as possible.
We adopted a 3 year old single sow from a local humane society and had her quarantine in her own enclosure in the same room as the newly single sow for 1 week. 3 days ago we initiated the bonding by putting them in a neutral space and large floor enclosure. All seemed to be going well until about 2-3 hours into bonding a fight broke out. It was quick 10-15 seconds and they ended it on their own. Upon inspection there didn't seem to be any blood drawn. It seems that our existing previously non-dominate sow was the 'winner' and things seemed to settle down for the remainder of the day with some rumble strutting and mounting. No more face offs or gesturing.
At the end of the second day in the neutral enclosure we moved them into the freshly sanitized 'new' normal enclosure. Since then, 2 days have passed, the dominant sow has been rumble strutting, chasing, mounting, and the occasional teeth chattering towards the newly adopted pig. This is occurring what seems to be for 3ish minutes every 30-60 minutes. Is that normal?
The other thing I have been curious about is the newly adopted presumably submissive sow is occasionally trying to mount the dominant sow and sometimes doing actions that look like they're trying to be dominant. Is that cause for concern? While there have not been anymore signs of leading towards a fight, it does feel like 'bullying' and I am not comfortable putting in single access hides yet.
Long story short: It is common to see the non-dominant pig showing some signs of dominance? How long should we expect to see this behavior from both pigs? They sure don't seem like they're getting along, but this is my first time doing anything like this so I am trying to remove my human feelings as much as possible.
