[Gpdd] [BEHAVIOUR] Barbering (Sorry, long!)

[DebJonSara at aol.com]

I now have 13 sows, all living together. They are all "dolly mixtures", ie  
rescues of no particular breed, but some have long hair and some short, and 
some  I guess in between, growing in rosettes. All are, of course, quite 
beautiful in  their own way.
 
Of the 13, I have just one persistent barberer, Muscade. She was a pregnant  
mum when I rescued her, so I don't know her age, but I do know she was bred in 
 very poor conditions, and maybe that was when she developed her taste for 
piggie  fur. It is mainly the piggies with longer fur she barbers, and mainly 
round  their back ends. I have seen her do it on numerous occasions, and she  
always eats the fur, just as though it were grass. Her "victims" sometimes  
squeal in protest, but not always, and they don't avoid her as one would expect.  
In the winter, she is caged separately at night, but like them all, she has 
free  range in the porch during the day. The others visit her cage as much as 
the  others', and they really don't seem to ostracise her. In the summer, she 
spends  her nights in the same hutch as the others - it is a big, double hutch 
with lots  of little houses inside, so I figure the others can choose to sleep 
separate  from her if they want.
 
I have tried watching her constantly and picking her up, telling her off  and 
putting her in solitary every time she barbers, but this didn't seem  to 
deter her from doing it. Now I just accept that it is part of her,  as the others 
seem to. I wouldn't say she is the most dominant sow in the herd -  some are 
more dominant than others, and she is amongst the more dominant, but I  
honestly couldn't pick any single one that was constantly dominating all the  others 
- on the whole they all get on pretty amicably, with just occasional  spats, 
usually over favourite resting areas.
 
It does mean that my longer-haired girls have shorter haircuts, but she  
tends to barber mainly around their rear ends, where I would trim anyway for  fear 
of flystrike, so it saves me a job, although I do "tidy it up". I don't  show 
my piggies, so don't have to worry about them "losing points" for having  
short hair where it should be long. But most important, the barbered piggies  
really don't seem bothered by it. I mean, they have access to a huge run  all day 
in summer, so can keep away from Muscade if they want, but they don't  seem 
to avoid her.
 
Personally, I would be very reluctant to isolate her permanently from the  
others. In winter I isolate her at night because the cages seem a bit small to  
me - I'm not convinced the "victims" could get far enough away, even though 
the  cages all have several separate houses in them. To be honest, they all 
choose  which cage they sleep in, although the pattern seems to be that once 
they've  chosen, they stick with the same cage every night. But Muscade always 
seemed to  end up in the same cage as my favourite, Soulage, who has lovely long 
fur which  is regularly barbered by Muscade. Soulage does sometimes squeal, but 
often just  accepts it and never runs away, and I guess that was the main 
reason the  smaller, individual cage came out for Muscade - I was trying to stop 
my  favourite from being a permanent victim - although as I've said before, 
she is a  feisty madam and a member of the "more dominant" herself.
 
Carol, I suppose what I am saying, in my usual very longwinded way, is that  
I fear once a piggie has developed the habit of barbering, it is likely to  
persist with it, especially in the presence of longhaired pigs. If you are  
showing them, then yes, I guess you need to keep them apart. Could you maybe try  
a very sleek shorthaired companion for the barberer, and get another for the  
"victim"?
 
But if you don't want to show them, and if the victim wasn't showing any  
signs of distress when you noticed the haircut, could you just accept that this  
is the way things will be? Ensure that victim has space enough to avoid 
barberer  if she needs to, and listen for squeals of distress, but try not to get 
too  upset about the coat appearance?
 
I will watch closely for other replies to see if there is something else I  
could try to deter Muscade, but I fear she may be too set in her ways!
 
Debbie