Female attack - what can I do?

[Teria]

Ok, so I have a problem now. My dominant female (Zirbel) attacks Bonnie (female, too) three or four times a day. She's very quiet, no teeth chattering or growling or anything but it looks rather vicious. Bonnie runs for her life and screams like all hell is breaking loose, and she tries to keep Zirbel away by spraying urine at her. This night, I even woke up from the screaming - heard it through a closed door. When I came in, bedding was flying all over the place and the pigs were chasing and running and fighting like mad. No blood though, and whenever they stop, they're both peaceful again, nibble their hay and go for a drink.

They usually get along quite well, though they're not best friends. Each keeps to her part of the cage.
I've had them for 10 weeks now, and we're on day 4 of the no hidey houses period. And I still don't have a C&C cage, so maybe it's just that they need more space to run? I can't give them floor time yet cause my room's not piggyproof.

Zirbel is in the exile box now so Bonnie can calm down but I do NOT want to separate them.

Can anyone please help?

 

[dagwellismypigy]

I would put the hidey houses in. Why did you take them out, just wondering? They may need more space too.

 

[Ly&Pigs]

In my experiences with sows, when one of them comes into heat they are a total pain in the you-know-what. The one in heat goes off on the other girls and won't leave none of them alone. It could be one of your girls is in heat and has what I call "piggie pms".

If this is something that has been going on for awhile now, it may be that they are still sorting out the dominance issue.

 

[Teria]

No, the dominance thing is settled, and she went through the heat three days ago. And yes, she WAS a pain in the ykw.

I released her from prison now and put the hidey houses back in, including the second store, so Bonnie has more opportunities to hide and go out of Zirbel's way. I took them out cause everybody recommended doing it for taming reasons. But now they'll stay in. I believe that piggies don't get nice and cuddly without their houses - they just get monstrously bored and cranky. At least mine do. So they can keep their houses, and I'll think of something else - like, building a floor time area.

 

[DocDolittle]

I think Katie and some others advised her to keep the houses out because it forces the pig to become tame. I personally don't think any pig should be forced to do anything, and if they have no place to hide, you're pretty much giving them no defense mechanism. I haven't seen my boy inside of his pigloo for a month except for a few occasions where he's sleeping, and I've always kept their hidey houses in. Heck, my one and a half year old pig(who has had a pigloo his whole life) even comes to the cage and tries to climb over it so I can give him a good scratch. I say definitely keep the houses in, it really makes the pigs less stressed.(And also, this wasn't meant as a dis to Katie or anyone else, just providing my opinion!