Dominance Big question about behavior

[apierce13]

So almost 2 weeks ago we lost our oldest boy to what looked like a heart attack, to help the others stay out of a funk a few days later we got them another younger pig. Today we noticed that our current oldest has a massive gash in his ear, and the middle one has been trying to claim dominance of the home. Was it wrong to get the young one? Would this have happened otherwise? Are there any suggestions to fix the issue

 

[Soecara]

Just to be clear how many boars are we talking about here? Three boars is usually not a combo that works out well except for in rare circumstances, so if you had a successful and peaceful boar trio before you were very lucky.

 

[apierce13]

We originally had the three that were getting along just fine, when the oldest past on the one that was the that had been the baby took up the rumble strut around the newest boar. The one that is our oldest now that had his ear damaged had never tried to do the rumble strut before, and usually minds his own business

 

[bpatters]

I'd take the new one out and either rehome him or get him a buddy and put them in a separate cage. Threesomes of boars almost never work, and you can wind up with some seriously wounded pigs trying to make them get along.

 

[apierce13]

If we were to remove the newest boar from the situation what is the likelihood of the other two getting along again?

 

[LittleSqueakers]

It's hard to say exactly what the "likelihood" is that the other two would go back to the same relationship that they had before. It depends in part on what their relationship with one another was like before the newer pig showed up. Sometimes once something has caused a change in the way two pigs interact, they can get stuck in those roles, but this doesn't always happen.

However, if you have another cage available in a separate room/area where you can keep the new pig in temporarily, why not try separating the newcomer from the other two for a few days or a week and see how the original two get along just as a pair? As the others have said above, boar trios are very rarely successful, and introducing a new boar so soon after losing one member of the established herd is probably going to cause more problems than it will fix.