incessant mounting in established trio

[Ianthe]

My three boys have been together for 9 months. Butters has always been the dominant one from what I can tell, and then Julius is #2 and Rupert is at the bottom of the pecking order. Julius has always harrassed Rupert to a degree, never any serious fighting just chasing and mounting, well at least once every day probably. It'll go on for a few minutes and then he'll settle down.

BUT, the last couple days Julius has even taken to mounting Butters, which he never did before, AND he is chasing and mounting them both 24/7. That's no exaggeration. Last night it was driving me crazy, all the squealing and shavings getting kicked up that I made a makeshift cage on the floor to put Julius in. Today I put him back with the other two and he started again right away. The squealing is so bad it's like they're screaming bloody murder, and he just will not give it a rest. So I put up a temporary divider in their cage. He went crazy trying to dig to get under it for an hour but now he's settled down.

So... what is causing this and how can I get him to stop?! All I could find searching had to do with pigs just being introduced. And everything I read said to just let them do it and they will stop eventually. But it's so neverending it's gotta be stressing them all out and it's driving me crazy too since their cage is in my bedroom. What about a buddy bath? Even though they all already know eachother and it's not really fighting?

They're in a 2x5 with 1x4 loft.

[fourboys4now]

Four of my boys are in the same cage together. Every so often there will be several days of the constant mounting you spoke of between two of my boys. I'll think it will never stop, then it stops suddenly. All of a sudden I'll notice it several days later. A good possibility it will slack off and then maybe start again. I just leave them alone since they don't truly fight, just mount.

[Pumpkin_RIP]

Exactly why I'm sooo glad I don't have boars! Anyways, I hope it settles down soon, good luck!

[clotho]

I have successfully used baths to calm down raging hormones in our boars' cage before. It's worth a try. I have one male who always rumbles - every day - luckily he doesn't get out of hand, but I notice it all the time.

If you do try the buddy bath, make sure to completely clean out your cage to get rid of ALL scents - and basically redo introductions with lots of veggies and/or hay. That will give you the best chance of success I think.

I hope things settle down for you!!! Please let us know how it goes.

[Ianthe]

Thank you! I will try the buddy bath after I can get out to buy some more shavings. I'm just going to keep them separated until then, give us all some peace!