“Tail-Biters”
By: Paul Walker Thompson
August 13, 2016
Whenever we used to have Tail-biting going on in pen we would look for the “Tail-Biter”. Often times it was an under-sized pig in the pen. When you could see blood on the top of the snout of the “Tail-Biter” you knew you had the culprit. Sometimes you could actually catch the “Tail-Biter” in the act of biting a tail. Hopefully you caught him, or her, before too many tails were chewed on, or a tail was chewed on so badly that it made a pig lame in the hind-end.
We would look to see if there were any drafts in the pen, or plugged feeders or waterers to set off this phenomenon. Stress is commonly considered the trigger for such behavior. I used to reason that it was a way to get back at the larger, more dominant pigs. I would but the “Tail-Biter” in the “Sick-pen” as they would have no competition for feed or water there. The Tail-biting seemed to stop. We supposed that once a pig got the liking for the tasted of blood the tail-biting got worse. A “Tail-biter” could ruin half a pen of breeding gilts if not caught quickly.
Be Blessed by God!
Paul Walker Thompson
