Is their bond broken or should I let them settle?

[NTM6265]

I have a pair of boars that we've had for about 3 weeks. After some initial mild dominance behaviours one was seeming more dominant and they seemed settled and happy together. Unfortunately the dominant piggie got an URI and the less dominant one ramped up the rumblestrutting and tried to claim dominance. Since other piggie is feeling better he's arguing back with these behaviours now. Prior dominant pig is lunging towards the other if he bothers him too much. It's only been a day of him feeling better so not long. Can they still sort this out between them? They're not fighting, but there is some brief lunging and chasing plus the rumblestrutting which is happening quite a lot from the less dominant pig. Other one mostly ignores him until he bothers him too much then lunges at him to shoo him away. Thanks x

 

[Piggies&buns]

At this point I would watch them closely. This is dominance, not a broken bond, but whether they can sort it out will remain to be seen. If the submissive is trying to take over and the dominant isn’t happy about it then things could escalate. It would be wise to have a separation plan in mind just in case things get worse and a fight does occur (ie living side by side for between the bar interaction - each piggy needing a minimum of 4ftx2ft of space. Upstairs/downstairs separations don’t work unfortunately due to total loss of ability to interact).

Lunging is a defensive behaviour - meaning stay away.
I’ve added a guide below which explains a bit more about this kind of situation

I hope they are ok

Bonds In Trouble