First it was Galileo... and now it's Hurley!

[hurleyslave]

Okay, so I adopted Galileo today from the rescue. I bought Hurley in because Galileo has been given a health check and deemed healthy so the lady asked me to bring my piggie in for introductions with Galileo. At first, all was fine. Hurley let Galileo hump him and then while Hurley was hiding in Galileo's pigloo, Galileo propped himself down on the hay outside the pigloo (because Hurley wouldn't let him go in) and zonked out for awhile, resting.

Then I bought them home - a 3 hour ride in a pet carrier is not the most ideal but my only option - and I put them on my table. They sat side by side each other, not moving and really close to one another.

Then I put them in Hurley's cage (which I forgot to clean but I had just cleaned out the bedding yesterday) and immediately about 5 minutes later, I noticed a stink. I'm guessing it was Galileo marking up the fleece. Silly piggie. It smelled horrible.

Hurley was inside his dome home and Galileo was just sitting outside looking lonely. So I removed the dome home. Hurley went through the fleece tunnel, came out the other side to Galileo, and then started humping him around. Galileo doesn't seem to show any aggression but now he's the one running away. Of course, Galileo does rumblestrut as well but Hurley's the one who gets the upper hand and ends up humping him. Poor thing. I don't know what to think. Is that normal? Hurley has always been the submissive one. Is he suddenly a closet dominant piggie? Sigh*

Is that normal behavior? Do I have any reason to worry? I know I read the signs on introductions on the homepage and it says that as long as there aren't any blood or fur ripped out, they should be fine. But how long can I expect this behavior to last? It is so unlike Hurley to hump someone. Please help!

[fridzalone]

I used to have 3 boars, Levy the dominant one, Pixie the submissive, and Luke the least dominant one. One day, Pixie started rumblestrut Levy and suddenly in a one day Pixie become the dominant one. Unfortunately, Pixie seemed to hate Levy with his own life, he attacked Levy several times (he really meant it!) and forced me to separate them and gave Levy to someone who really care.
I think it's normal when pigs switched their dominance and as long as they are getting along it will be fine

[hurleyslave]

I have another problem to discuss now!

I was watching Butters (Galileo renamed) and Hurley today in their cage. While Hurley didn't SEEM like he had lost any weight as he was still eating and drinking normally, he certainly looked like he was very scared of Butters. Most of the time I see Butters in the litterbox and Hurley cowered inside his cozy sack. And then today they were both in the litterbox together and I think Butters started durring at Hurley (probably rumblestrutting) and then them both facing each other, almost like they were about to go at it! Hurley made a snapping and forward motion noise and Butters backed away. I'm not really sure what happened but after that, Hurley ran away like he was scared.

Should this be a cause for concern? Or am I just overreacting?

[CavyMama]

It sounds like they are just establishing dominance still. I would keep an eye on it, for any bullying behaviors or any real fighting/bloodshed.

[MaggieMae]

It is hard to watch sometimes but as long as they aren't physically hurting each other and are sharing food and water (even if not at the same time) I would not be too alarmed. Mine took a long time and they still bicker back and fourth but they established their own spots and routines over time.

[hurleyslave]

Yeah, I've noticed that they aren't in the litterbox at the same time but when one is in there, they do eat and drink normally so I guess that's a good thing. It's just so hard on me as the owner to see Hurley getting bullied because he was my first piggie but I love them both and really just want them to be able to get along.