neutered male bothering his two sows

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flowerfairy

flowerfairy

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My neutered male, Basil, keeps mounting his two sows, Jack and her daughter, Pip. They are not impressed.

They have been together (in rescue) for about a year (?) or could be more. What can I do?

They are in an indoor cage with two levels and are scatter fed.

Thanks.
 
How long have you had them and how old is Basil?

it is not uncommon at all for a boar to make advances. is he actually mounting all the time or just rumblestrutting and attempting to mount? The sows are generally not impressed except for a couple of hours right at the end of their season when they are ready to mate. It is a boar's fate to be refused his advances. Sows have a special annoyed whine in which they tell the boars "I'm not ready - yet." That tends to send some boys in a frenzy.

As long as there is no physical violence and no piggy is losing weight, leave them to it; it should settle down gradually.
 
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Basil is two years old and I have had all three since last summer (June or July).
 
I agree with Wiebke! Much less experienced with piggies but do have a neutered boy and girl together and all the above is normal.

Wiebke, loved reading your description. My Piggy Boy goes absolute bonkers when Lola whines, Lolololol.
 
My Rebel is always getting scolded by Lola and Angel, its as if he's saying, "ah go on!" and the girls reply, "no chance!" :))
 
Sows can have strong seasons, and the lead up can last more than the average day or so. It can be quite dramatic! Usually things calm down again after a couple of days.

If the mounting is truly constant and disruptive so that the girls can't eat or sleep properly, I would suspect that there could be a hormonal/pheromene problem of one of the sows at the bottom of it. Perhaps you can a word with a piggy savvy vet in this case?

PS: If you want really mad, try big groups when the swirling pheromones set every sow in reach that is anywhere near season off and you get about three days of total mayhem with constant sow-to-sow mounting complete with "train crash" like pile-ups when sow chases sow chases sow with a totally exasperated boy following all of them until the first sow suddenly stops and everybody ends up humping the piggy in front... mallethead
 
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Wiebke said:
Sows can have strong seasons, and the lead up can last more than the average day or so. It can be quite dramatic! Usually things calm down again after a couple of days.

If the mounting is truly constant and disruptive so that the girls can't eat or sleep properly, I would suspect that there could be a hormonal/pheromene problem of one of the sows at the bottom of it. Perhaps you can a word with a piggy savvy vet in this case?

PS: If you want really mad, try big groups when the swirling pheromones set every sow in reach that is anywhere near season off and you get about three days of total mayhem with constant sow-to-sow mounting complete with "train crash" like pile-ups when sow chases sow chases sow with a totally exasperated boy following all of them until the first sow suddenly stops and everybody ends up humping the piggy in front... mallethead
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You just have to get that on video Wiebke.
 
Wiebke said:
Sows can have strong seasons, and the lead up can last more than the average day or so. It can be quite dramatic! Usually things calm down again after a couple of days.

If the mounting is truly constant and disruptive so that the girls can't eat or sleep properly, I would suspect that there could be a hormonal/pheromene problem of one of the sows at the bottom of it. Perhaps you can a word with a piggy savvy vet in this case?

PS: If you want really mad, try big groups when the swirling pheromones set every sow in reach that is anywhere near season off and you get about three days of total mayhem with constant sow-to-sow mounting complete with "train crash" like pile-ups when sow chases sow chases sow with a totally exasperated boy following all of them until the first sow suddenly stops and everybody ends up humping the piggy in front... mallethead
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Blimey. Guess I am lucky just to have the three then!
 
As the others have said it sounds like normal behaviour to me. My little Barley is going through it at the moment as he has joined 3 girls and is forever being given a shower of pee in his face. He just shakes his head and carries on.


Wiebke said:
PS: If you want really mad, try big groups when the swirling pheromones set every sow in reach that is anywhere near season off and you get about three days of total mayhem with constant sow-to-sow mounting complete with "train crash" like pile-ups when sow chases sow chases sow with a totally exasperated boy following all of them until the first sow suddenly stops and everybody ends up humping the piggy in front... mallethead
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Yep that happens in my herd too :(|)
 
Seasons happen about 15-17 days for about the same number of hours (roughly every two weeks); sows will only mate right at the end of that period. Usually the rumbling and whining will go up during this time, with the sow staying close to a boar while telling him at the same time they are not quite ready yet. This stage certainly doesn't lack drama! But you may observe that "husboar" and "sowfe" will reaffirm their bond with lots of kissing and cuddling on the day after a particularly wild time.

Thankfully, I find that with several sows in a group, they clump together to have their season, so I get only about two or three lots of several sows in season, not a sow in season every day. Equally thankfully, I get the really mad times only occasionally every few months. They contribute to deepen a group bond, though.

Boars tend to mellow as they get older, so you will see less of it as time goes by - unfortunately, neither gender ever stops being able to procreate, so the behaviour will never fully stop. Boars need to have the cooperation and acceptance of the sows they live with, so they have to constantly tell them what fine specimens they are and how much they fancy them.
 
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Wiebke said:
Seasons happen about 15-17 days for about the same number of hours (roughly every two weeks); sows will only mate right at the end of that period. Usually the rumbling and whining will go up during this time, with the sow staying close to a boar while telling him at the same time they are not quite ready yet. This stage certainly doesn't lack drama! But you may observe that "husboar" and "sowfe" will reaffirm their bond with lots of kissing and cuddling on the day after a particularly wild time.

Thankfully, I find that with several sows in a group, they clump together to have their season, so I get only about two or three lots of several sows in season, not a sow in season every day. Equally thankfully, I get the really mad times only occasionally every few months. They contribute to deepen a group bond, though.

Boars tend to mellow as they get older, so you will see less of it as time goes by - unfortunately, neither gender ever stops being able to procreate, so the behaviour will never fully stop. Boars need to have the cooperation and acceptance of the sows they live with, so they have to constantly tell them what fine specimens they are and how much they fancy them.
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Do you mean that the sow comes in to season every two weeks (oh God) what does the 15 - 17 days mean? Sorry being a bit dense here.
 
flowerfairy said:
Do you mean that the sow comes in to season every two weeks (oh God) what does the 15 - 17 days mean? Sorry being a bit dense here.
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It means they are in season every 2 - 2 1/2 weeks, yes :) While I don't have a mixed group, I have a lady, Miss. Bernadette, who has had babies while she was in rescue, and she's rather vocal when she comes into season. Poor Treacle doesn't know what to do with her! We'll have the first day of a little rumbling, then the 2nd day is full on rumbling, popcorning and pestering, and then by day 3 it'll have settled down again, a couple of rumbles.
And it happens every 2 weeks or so, it's so funny to watch :)
 
This has lasted three days so far (today being day three) and the girls (especially Jack) squeek like crazy! Hope it settles. They are all eating green pepper now.
 
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