[Gpdd] Behavior: Remedy for a Biting Pig

[Susi Eastin]

Sorry this is so long, I have copied it almost in its entirety from another location; it is

really interesting . . .

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Your little girl sounds almost exactly like a situation that I just appraised two weeks ago with

another sow.  Part of the problem is that you are allowing it, and to her it's a game now.  You know it's coming and still you let her bite you.

Now, to sound completely cold, I think that passing along a biting animal to somebody who isn't expecting it is really heartless and will only serve to create a potentially abusive situation for the sow.  You probably aren't meaning that, but I just have to say it in case somebody thinks that sort of thing is perfectly acceptable.

I'm going to cut and paste the email I wrote to Rick and his family after visiting with their sow. 

Warning, it's long... and obviously I don't have 'hands on" with your sow, but from the sounds of it,

the situation is identical.  There is a LOT of very useful information in it for you, and for others who may be experiencing a biting gpig.

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We haven't met, but Linda and I are piggy buddies, and we've worked together for nearly 3 years now with the Rochester Rabbit (and Cavy) Club.  I know you got your Nellie from Linda and have been in contact with her regarding a sudden "biting" problem that you and your daughter have experienced with Nellie.

I have been working with piggies for about 10 years now, and have my degree in animal behaviour.  I've worked in exotic animal medicine on and off through the years, and am finalizing a book on gpig health and behaviour.  I have experience with most animals commonly kept, and even some that aren't as common (horses, parrots, lizards, and more).   Linda called me to come over and take a look at your sow, not sure what was going on with her as she was suddenly

displaying some biting behaviour.  I have to say that I really enjoyed working with your Nellie.

Nellie, I believe, doesn't have mites.   I examined her as best I could without doing a skin scraping (which isn't always accurate anyways).  She doesn't show any signs of itching on her own, and pigs that are heavily mite infested react quite strongly when you drag a fingernail very lightly along their spinal hair from hip to shoulder.  She never flinched or reacted at all, but frankly I believe there are a couple of things going on here.  We did however, treat her with one treatment of oral ivermectin, and Linda will give her a second treatment before she comes

home, just in case.

Nellie is EXTREMELY ticklish behind the shoulder area, where we would kind of consider to be her armpit area (where a girth goes on a horse and just above that in her barrel region).  When you cup your hand over her shoulders to pick her up or restrain her, your fingers naturally go there.  She will immediately start squeaking and wiggling.  At one point when I was trying to locate exactly where her sensitive spot was, she laid down on her side and literally was kicking at

me with her hind leg trying to get me away from her.  

Now, my immediate assumption is ticklish, but there could at one point have been a 'stronger grip' over that region, resulting in a bruised muscle or bone, and she's remembering the discomfort.  Kind of like if you've ever broken a wrist or arm, you tend to favour it even if it doesn't actively provide discomfort - it's just a habit from six weeks of living with your arm in a cast and babying it.

The ticklish or uncomfortable issue aside, your little sow has a very assertive personality.  She's pretty dominant, evidenced by her constantly pushing your hand up when you put it on her face (dominant animals will root upwards with their nose, wanting to be "ahead" of or "over" you.  When two gpigs face off, they'll commonly sit facing each other, noses high up in the air, exposing their throats.  This shows each other that "I'm taller/bigger than you, and by exposing my throat to you I don't consider you a threat."  Hence, her trying to push your hand off and

make herself bigger.  Nellie is energetic and very curious.  She isn't terribly fond of being caged and will sit and chew the bars (showing frustration or pent up energy), or squeak at you when she perceives that she can get your attention (when you walk by, when she sees you looking at her, etc).  This is a learned behaviour - if it worked once, she's going to continue to "ask" every chance she gets. 

The biting is interesting.  She's a mouthy pig.  That's kind of the bottom line with it.  She (like any

settled and comfortable pig) explores their surroundings really the only way they can - through

smell, taste, sight and sound.  Their sense of touch is different, in that they "feel" things through their tongue and lips.  She'll give things a light little lick or rub her lips over it, then if she needs more information about it, she'll give the object a light nip or nibble.  She never once drew blood on me, I have to say.  I know that the situation with your daughter involved a bit of bloodshed.

Several points in our session, Nellie would worm her way up to my shoulder.  Linda cautioned me that was the behaviour she would exhibit when she bit your daughter.  Nellie was never given the chance to bite me other than nibble a finger and my buttons, nor did she show any inclination to do anything other than examine the buttons.

She did bite my finger.. several times.  It's really important here to understand the rudimentary cause for behaviour.  Why is she biting?  Fingers are an easy one, especially if we've handfed our fuzzy friends, they get to associate food with hands and hands with food.. pretty soon they become interchangable, particularly if they SMELL like food.  Now, I didn't have any food on me, nor had I handled any recently.  Some pigs lick the salt from our fingers, but this went beyond that, so we can discard that as an option.

The biting is now a game to Nellie.  I purposefully stuck my bent finger near her mouth as I held her on my chest.  She'd look at me, see if I was paying attention, then examine the finger.  She'd rub her lip over it, lick once, then give a very tentative bite.  She received a very light flick on the nose, and a puff of air over her face simultaneously.  She did not like it, however, she didn't associate it with the biting.  We repeated this 3 or 4 times.  Each time, she would get sneakier, and wait until my attention was diverted - then slowly turn her head, and bite my finger, never when I was looking directly at her. 

This tells me that without a doubt, she's been allowed to get away with the behaviour, and in fact, at some point, the behaviour has now become a game to her, to see if she could get away with it.  There might not have been any consequence to her biting, or it wasn't realized to her that the two went hand in hand (the cause and effect). 

She does get much much  nippier when she has to potty, like any animal.  Remember, our little friends have a bladder the size of a grape, and pretty much need to express it about every 15 minutes.  They really only have one way of telling us they have to "go," and you'll almost always see them dance a little, shift their weight (like a child!) from side to side, and get a little licky or nibbly, asking to be put back.  If we don't comply immediately, sometimes the request comes a little stronger.  If we ignore that, the pig may downright bite in it's urgency, we put the pig back, and we've just now convincingly taught our pig to bite when it wants down.   If this happens several times, we've cemented that behaviour.  What we need to do is rethink our ways of examining their behaviour, and realize time frames and how to recognize the pig's actions, and respond to that appropriately so that the biting never occurs in the first place.

I worked with her initially for about 20 minutes.  She would gradually get worse, so I put her back.  Great you say, you just told me this teachs them "if you want down, bite and you get put away."  Yes, you're right!  But, exactly 60 seconds later she'd get picked up again.  I had to do this about 5 times until she realized that she'd better potty when she got put back, and that the biting wasn't going to get the reward she wanted.  Basically, we're training her that the cage is in fact the potty spot, not the human, and when you have to go, ask politely and you can be put back, but ONLY to potty - this is making it my decision, not hers.   When the sessions were short, 5 minutes, put her back for a minute, 5 minutes out, etc.. I noticed her biting behaviour drastically decreasing.  Buttons were still her biggest interest, despite the fact that I continually had my fingers near her mouth. 

I think that you probably know that each animal is VERY different.  Despite the fact that you've had 3 other pigs before, you may not have ever had a truly dominant piggy.  Dominance levels come in 3 stages, the alpha or truly dominant animal (this animal will fight for it's right to rule the herd no matter what the cost), the subdominant (this one doesnt' care so much, he has no interest in leading the pack, is fine with somebody else leading, will put up a purely asthetic 'front' for about 2 seconds then will give in to the alpha and will never contest it) and the submissive.  The submissive animal is the one that will do anything, including self mutilation in order to assure everybody it is NOT interested in leadership and will do whatever the leader asks, it's frightened

of conflict - any conflict.  Most animals are the subdominant type, get along well with others. 

Nellie can be made into much more consistent animal.  I won't say friendlier, as she's already quite open and friendly.  Consider her age, too, when you think about this scenario.  She will outgrow her general curiousity over all things, after all, most buttons are going to eventually not be as intriguing as mine were apparently yesterday - buttons will all be alike to her after a while.   The key to this is going to be consistency, same as with modifying behaviour in your dog or your child - they HAVE to know what is acceptable and what isn't.  I understand your daughter is a bit leery of handling Nellie now, and understandably so - I myself have a scar on my forefinger where a boar ripped into my knuckle... it was my own fault for reaching in and  separating two fighting boars about seven years ago without thinking they were going to be mad at the time.  However, unless her behaviour is modified, and somebody spends some time teaching her what is acceptable and what isn't, her
 behaviour isn't going to get any better.  And until the corrections come in a manner that she can understand, and consistently so after each occurance, the biting will continue to be a game. 

I guess in the interim you and your family will have to think about how much effort you feel comfortable expending and how consistent you all feel you can be with her.   If your daughter is uncomfortable holding or working with Nellie, Nellie's going to know it and know she can still get the upper hand with her.  You can do a few things; you can just put a towel around Nellie so she can't reach anything but the towel, and still teach her that biting even the towel is unacceptable, but you're going to have to find a discipline that Nellie understands that you can offer immediately when she shows the unacceptable behaviour.  I found that the puff of air in the  face didn't work

for her, at least with me.  Neither did the sharp "No!" or a scream - some animals love the drama.

Perhaps I didn't eat enough garlic for lunch (now  that might have worked!) but instead, the light tap or flick on the nose got her attention.. and she didn't like it.  A couple of minutes later, a light bite - FLICK!  Hmm... now you could see the wheels turning. 

Light bite - FLICK!  She chattered her teeth at me, and I chattered back.  She stopped immediately - people aren't supposed to understand that, they're supposed to be afraid of me - you could see it so clearly written on her face.  Hm.  Light bi ... - FLICK!  Hey!  I didn't even bite all the way!  I don't like that!   It started working when she began thinking about it, and it stopped being fun for her.

She's going to be a handful for about a month, if even that long.  She's a smart little pig, and one that needs to be stimulated with her environment – things to explore, things to examine, toys, etc. 

Anyways, that was the assessment I can give you at this time.  I think the ball is in your court as to how badly your kids want to keep her, and how effective you think her training can be  over the next few weeks to redirect this behaviour into something more positive.  Piggies really can be fun, and very addictive.  It's amazing how much a part of the family they truly become.   I hope that you can continue to enjoy her antics, and yet still work with her in a positive way so that this behaviour trend stops soon. 

I'd be glad to offer the option of keeping her for a couple of weeks and trying to stop the behaviour by working with her, and I have no doubt that would work - but only between me and Nellie.  When she comes back, she's going to fall into the same behaviour patterns, and unless you do exactly what we found works with her at the right times, no progress will have been made.

 



“God could not be everywhere at once, so he gave each child a mother.” - Hasidic saying