I am considering it. I heard they are domesticated and could be good pets. Any thoughts or experiences???
Dude! You’ve got the word chef in your user name.
IIRC the main problems are
1: They start small, but they don’t stay all that small and can easily reach 200-300+ lbs.
2: Many jurisdictions forbid the keeping of pigs as household pets.
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My wife, in her teenage years, used to babysit for a little girl whose family had one.
She said other than its predilection to try and eat your toes, it was relatively clean and easy to take care of.
My mom had one. It was super-adorable as a baby, but eventually grew to be an adult weighing a couple hundred pounds. Still a friendly and loveable animal, but no longer cuddly. My mom had to build a pen for him underneath her deck. Then, he developed some infections and hauling him to the vet and giving him his medicine turned out to be very expensive and difficult. She stuck with him, though, and though he eventually died prematurely (about age 9 or 10) and she was very sad, she considered it a positive experience overall.
I wouldn’t get one, though.
I got my mom a potbelly as a gift several years ago. He was a refugee from Biosphere 2 after they decided not to use them as food animals. Tiny and cute when he was a piglet but he grew to over 250lb, far too large for his frame. He was, and let me emphasize this, not a suitable indoor pet.
I know they are supposed to be intelligent and easy to potty-train. As far as potty-training, one woman brought hers down to visit on a regular basis. When she once brought him in to fit him for a larger harness, he proceeded to pee on her foot. Not sure if he was nervous, but she did say it was unusual for him. Overall, he seemed like a pretty good pet.
The other pig I saw regularly, did appear fairly intelligent to me, but he was also possessive and the owner told me he had tried to bite her grandson on two occasions. She also said he was destructive to the house when he became bored (chewing on baseboard, chewing on linoleum). The latter to me, is not as much of a drawback, since dogs, birds, and other animals can become destructive when bored, too, and crates are available to help prevent this. Her solution was to make a piggy safe room in her house, so she wouldn’t have to crate him while she was at work. Sounds like a lot of work, but she seemed happy with him.
Both of the pigs were fed Mazuri pellets, but one was overweight. I’m guessing the owner fed a few too many treats. Her vet told her he was overweight, but I think it’s so difficult to tell, this would be another thing I’d be leery of. I don’t doubt the vet at all, I’d just worry about making sure my pig had enough to eat and not too much. I mention this because when you actually measure out the pelleted food, it doesn’t look like much, and I can see how it would be easy to go overboard on feeding.
Why not just get a dog?
good catch, UrbanChic!
chefIL11, I think you would be better off with a cat, IMHO.
The best of all worlds: Friendly and tasty!
From what I understand, pot-bellied pigs are more territorial than other domesticated animals. By that I mean they have a reputation for exerting dominance over everyone else in the household, including humans. I wouldn’t want 250 pounds of pig trying to gore me.
Check your local bylaws too. Pot-bellied pigs aren’t allowed in some towns (particularly some urban municipalties).
And I’ve never seen an adult pot bellied pig that was under 150 lbs. That significantly larger than me, an adult human, and I don’t shred my blankets and burp all the time.
(Neighbour had one, it practuically burped with every breath.)
If you are looking for something a little more exciting than a cat or a dog, I would love to have one of these little guys if I had the means or the space. Hopefully some day…
Awwwww. They are so cute!
Sorry, chefIL11, I have no advice about the pig. I’ve never known anyone who had one.
Years ago, when pot-bellied pigs first became popular, I was working at a zoo/wildlife rehab center. In one year, we went from having no pigs, to having in excess of thirty of the critters and turning down more weekly. Many people had gotten them thinking that they were the perfect alternative to a dog or cat, but not realizing that they don’t stay tiny and cute forever. They’re intelligent animals, and therefore require quite a bit of care and attention. They’re easily bored, and when bored can become incredibly destructive. Here’s a site with some pros and cons and overall good advice. http://www.pigs.org/article.asp?article_id=3
My ex and I owned one that never got over 80 pounds. But you have to watch their diet very carefully.
You have to realize most of all that they are very food-centered. You can’t feed them all they want because they will just keep eating. You can’t let them see where you keep the food because they will do anything to get it. A friend of ours who had a pot-bellied pig said that their pig found out that they kept food in the refrigerator. When they came home, the pig had eaten all the food on the bottom shelves and was so fat that its feet barely reached past its belly to touch the ground.
The pig got along pretty well with the other animals. We had 3 dogs and 4 or 5 cats at the time. The pit bulls would lay down next to the pig and they would all sleep in a big heap. They would line up for treats and we taught the pig to sit and beg with the dogs. (Something that she didn’t really like to do – it was hilarious watching her wiggle her little butt before finally plopping it down.)
We trained her to use a litter box which was a cheap plastic kiddie pool filled with cedar shavings. She could go up and down stairs, although she really didn’t like going down – their weight is balanced on disproportionally small legs.
If she got bored, she would tear up linoleum, as was mentioned by one other poster. Their noses are unbelievably strong.
She loved to lay next to me on the couch while I watched television, because I would rub her belly for her.
They do require a lot of attention. It helped that my ex was a veterinary technician. But in the end, that became part of the reason we got rid of it after a couple of years – both of us worked and it just wasn’t fair to the animal. We did find it a good home. Please don’t get one if you aren’t willing to spend the time and money required to give it the attention it needs. Read about it first, there is a lot of information on the Internet. I can point you to some if you need it.
I have one. He’s a fun pet, but what a pain he is! I have NO shrubs left in the back yard, and he baa’s when I take his dog away, and he head butts the side of the house for fun.
But he comes when I call him, plays with the kids, and eats dog food. Yes, he has goat chow; he prefers the dog food. He really thinks he should be a house goat, but I disagree.
My cousin got rid of hers because its hooves would destroy the furniture.
We had one when I was growing up. His name was Fluffy and he was great. I was the only member of the family to really play with him but boy could he go. He naturally knew how to play hide and go seek and tag and he loved it. He was extremely smart and funny. He was certainly the smartest animal that I ever had and I have had pretty much everything. His major problem was that he would “root”. You would be sitting down doing something and he would come over, bury his nose between your feet and just go crazy trying to dig between them. His snout smelled a little too so it was kind of gross. In the end, my mother decided that he needed a family that could give him more attention because we were all so busy and we gave him away to a couple with a farm that had two others.