mysunwolf
Herd Master
Yet another set of weird behaviors from our pigs! We have a permanent pig pen in our lower pasture where we keep large grow-outs and adult sows. We currently have three large grow-outs in one pen, and yesterday there was an empty pen with fenceline contact next to it. Well, yesterday morning we moved our bottle baby pigs from the garden behind our house to the empty pig pen. We expected some fenceline aggression for sure, and wanted to make sure that the fence would hold the big pigs. But in addition to the squeals and squabbling that happened amongst the big pigs, they also started to drool and foam at the mouth like crazy. The little ones did it to a lesser extent. It was a cool day, the pens are in the shade, and it was drizzling on and off, so they were not hot.
So my thoughts as to why this was happening...
1. Strange strong smells, especially those of other pigs, start the saliva going and then it doesn't stop.
2. They were so stressed out from new pigs invading their space that they are producing excess saliva (didn't hear any teeth grinding but I hear that they do this for sure when stressed).
3. They worked themselves up so much at the fenceline trying to kill the little pigs that they began thinking about eating them and started drooling (okay, okay, this one sounds ridiculous).
...just when I was beginning to think I understood pig behavior.
So my thoughts as to why this was happening...
1. Strange strong smells, especially those of other pigs, start the saliva going and then it doesn't stop.
2. They were so stressed out from new pigs invading their space that they are producing excess saliva (didn't hear any teeth grinding but I hear that they do this for sure when stressed).
3. They worked themselves up so much at the fenceline trying to kill the little pigs that they began thinking about eating them and started drooling (okay, okay, this one sounds ridiculous).
...just when I was beginning to think I understood pig behavior.