Dominance Oreo is trying to dominate the others

[lissie]

I need help. Oreo just turned one and decided to challenge everyone. This used to be the ranking, Rocky the top pig, Cookie the middle pig and Oreo the bottom pig. Now Oreo would rumble at Rocky but nothing more than that. He's been chasing and nipping at Cookie. I've inspected Cookie and don't see any bite marks, so I haven't separate them. Cookie is terrified of Oreo, he's been whimpering whenever Oreo gets near him. Then he would run as fast as he can away from Oreo and Oreo would chase him.

I forgot to mention, Oreo and Cookie are litter mates I got from Craigslist back in Jan. They have never fought. They are about 1 year old now (based on the previous owner, they were born in November 2008). Rocky is 2 years old, adopted on August 1, 2009. He took the leader role and Oreo used to be terrified of him.

They're all living in a 2x6 cage. I don't have any pigloo that would block them in. All my hideys are towel tents, fleece tents, or foot stools.
You can see the latest cage here:



I've recently added a ramp down to floor time. This might have caused the issue. The ramp has taken about 6"x14" of floor space from the main floor to get down to the level that leads to floor time.



I'm thinking about changing the cage to 3x5 with 2x2 hay loft. Will that help?

Now they have two 1x2 haylofts, would it help if I add another hay area?

 

[Milkingit]

I have sows, but from what I've heard with Boars wider is better then longer. So they have more room to avoid running into each other.

 

[lissie]

Thanks. But the issue is not really them running into each other. More like whatever Cookie is doing, Oreo will follow him and harass him. Cookie likes to sleep under the loft in one of the corners, he's not even using a hidey. Oreo would go to him and chase him out of that corner.

 

[akstrohm]

Given some time, they'll probably settle down again, possibly with Oreo higher up in the order. Expanding the cage will probably help a bit if you have the space. If you notice that one of them is getting blocked from the hay, then add another hay rack. Otherwise it's probably not necessary. Good luck!

 

[lissie]

I changed my boys' cage to 3x5. Oreo is still bullying Cookie and now he's also chasing after Rocky. Should I separate them? I think Cookie and Rocky will be much happier if Oreo is in his own cage. Now that the cage is 3x5, I can divide it into 2x3 and 3x3.

I know it's not recommended to separate them unless there is blood shed. It's just so hard to watch. I've tried buddy bath and it doesn't help. I really don't want to wait until someone is seriously hurt.

 

[lissie]

Additional info. They've been in the new cage since Sunday night. No weight loss or dehydration. In fact, all of them have gained weight since I've introduce Rocky back in September. I figured it was because I was over feeding veggies.
One thing I noticed is that, I'm out of KM pellets and have switched back to Oxbow pellets. They don't like it as much as KM. I don't know if that caused them to fight. They used to eat about 1/8-1/6 cup each with the KM. Now they don't even eat half of the 1/8 cup. Maybe they are hungry so they fight? Note that they have unlimited KM bluegrass hay. I've put 2 hay racks at different ends of the cage. They have 3 pellet dishes, 3 water bottles, 5 fleece tents (one for each corner, and one in the middle of back wall). No other hideys. I noticed they were fighting for the foot stools so I took those out.

 

[akstrohm]

Just leave them together. Even if it's hard to watch, it's best for them to work it out.

 

[lissie]

Thanks. I guess they're ok now. I typed the previous posts while I was at work. When I got home, I saw Oreo and Cookie laying next to each other happily munching hay.

 

[akstrohm]

Glad to hear it! There will probably be some continued dominance displays, but I bet they'll work it out. Your large cage will certainly help a lot.