Agressive Sow

Question
I have a sow who is about a year old. The problem is she is very aggressive towards other sow's. I have tried to put her with 6 other sow's and she has had fights with every one of them. She "flies" at them, the last time she pulled out some of the other piggies hair. Is this normal for a sow to be so aggressive? I know my other sow's enjoy having a companion and I hate for her to be alone, but I don't know what else to do.

Answer
I understand exactly what you mean. I too own a sow that is extremely aggressive toward other sows. It seems to worsen when she's in heat. I had her with a boar for two weeks, then added another sow with her for breeding to this boar. She beat up this poor girl so bad she wouldn't come out of the corner and had bite marks all over her backside indicating she never fought back but tried to run.

Needless to say the victim is by herself to heal right now. The resident 'bitchy sow' is fine with a boar but that's it. Since the aggressor is likely pregnant I won't attempt an attitude adjustment until later on.

It's not unexpected to see chasing, head bumping and bullying when a new sow is added but when there is evidence of bites and blood shed that takes it to a whole different level.

One way to deal with that behavior is to stand by the cage with a leather glove in one hand. As soon as she makes her attempt at the others you give her a good smack with the glove and get her attention. DO NOT put the glove on but just hold it from the wrist area. Otherwise you will become the injured on as she turns to attack you. You may have to do this repeatedly until she gets the idea that each attack brings quick consequences.

I spent nearly 30 minutes doing this to one of my sows before she finally hit the corner herself and discovered that she was not going to be allowed to behave like that. She stayed in the corner of the cage for about 45 min and has never done that again.

You don't want to try to injure the attacker, that's why you use a leather glove. It won't hurt her but it will get your point across. A cloth garden glove can be used but is very easy for "bad girl" to grab and pull right out of your hand. When they're in attack mode they are 'super charged' with adrenalin and will try things they otherwise wouldn't do.

If after several attempts this doesn't change her ways the only other options are 1. a separate cage  2.a new home.  But I think you have a good chance of being successful with some attitude readustment.