Dominance One sister keeps trying to mount the other sister :(

[brebanana93]

I've read that this can be normal, even with females, and that it should eventually work itself out. But Rhea keeps mounting her sister Iris's head and I don't know what to do. It's been almost constant all day today and I can tell that Iris is annoyed by it because she keeps running away. I had both of their sexes confirmed when we took them to the vet and ever since then I've checked multiple times myself to see if perhaps there was a mistake. Is there any particular reason as to why this keeps happening? What should I do? :sad:

 

[Aleks]

You don't need to do anything, it's normal dominance behavior. Basically, they're trying to figure out who's the boss.

 

[brebanana93]

Thank you. I guess I just thought that they would have figured out who's the boss by now. I'm just worried about poor little Iris who keeps running away wheeking at her sister lol

 

[shc1192]

I've read that this can be normal, even with females, and that it should eventually work itself out. But Rhea keeps mounting her sister Iris's head and I don't know what to do. It's been almost constant all day today and I can tell that Iris is annoyed by it because she keeps running away. I had both of their sexes confirmed when we took them to the vet and ever since then I've checked multiple times myself to see if perhaps there was a mistake. Is there any particular reason as to why this keeps happening? What should I do? :sad:

It's completely normal. Just give it time. It can take a while for them to figure everything out. I know it can be uncomfortable, but they need to do it (among other weird acts) to figure out dominance.

 

[HannibalLecter]

If she's constantly & obsessively chasing & mounting the other pig, it can be a sign of ovarian cysts which causes a hormonal imbalance.
http://www.guinealynx.info/ovarian_cysts.html

 

[brebanana93]

Thank you so much for the link. I will have to keep this in mind and monitor her behavior to see if it gets worse. And thank you shc1192 for the reassurance

 

[EmPiggieFan]

My bigger sow Patch will try and mount her sister Ruby every time she is in season, as she is getting older it does seem to be getting less incessant so hopefully when she is through the hormonal teenage stage she will settle down.

 

[pinky]

How big is your cage? Sometimes when they don't have enough space, the dominant one gets more assertive.

 

[bpatters]

How old are they? And how large is the cage?