Caring For Pot-Bellied Pigs

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By peace | January 1, 2008

Socialize
Pigs are very gregarious animals, which is to say that they need to socialize with others of their own kind, with other species, with people, or a mixture of these. If this vital area of their needs is missing, they will become unhappy, moody and potentially very aggressive animals. If you cannot devote a reasonable amount of time to socializing with them, it would be better if you considered another pet.

Training
The fact that pigs are highly intelligent means that their training is a crucial need. An untrained pig can be a real burden on its owner. It will rip up clothes, carpets and furniture. It will defecate all over your home, and may charge at any person who it does not know, or whom it dislikes for any number of reasons. It will not hesitate to rummage through cupboards in order to satisfy its very healthy love of food items. In short, and especially in the home of the softhearted people, it can make their lives a worry and a misery.

Nutrition
Pigs are extremely easy pets to cater for in respect to their diet. The importance of correct feeding is critical in maintaining a healthy pet. Feed a piglet under 14 weeks old four meals per day. Each meal should contain a mixture of food such that it features items from each of the major food groups. The alimentary canal of a pig is not a precise machine. Its digestive system was evolved to cope with a whole range of food items, some of which are readily available, and some which are less frequently encountered in its day-to-day lifestyle. If a food item is of low nutritional value, the pig will need a large quantity of it in order to meet its metabolic needs. If the food is of high content value, much less will be needed. The pig can survive at either extreme, but for optimum health the norm would be a food intake that represents a balance between these extremes.

Accommodation
Pot-bellies are best kept where there is an available yard or garden. If you live in an apartment, the number of difficulties you may need to overcome will most likely make a pig an unsuitable pet. Pigs cannot climb up and down the stairs like a dog or cat. They also need a rooting box to forage in. No large pet should ever be confined into a home.

Litter Box
If your piglet is to spend most of its time in the confines of your home, you will need to provide a litter box of one sort or another. The box must be larger than the piglet. It must enable your pet to attend to its natural needs without any difficulties whatsoever. The box itself is merely a means of containing the fecal matter or urine. The pig relates the box to the area, thus goes there if it is so trained. It is very important that you change the litter on a regular basis.

Toy
There is no need to purchase squeaky plastic toys for your piglet as there are plenty of alternatives that are both safer and will be thoroughly enjoyed. A pile of newspapers will amuse a piglet for ages, as will cardboard boxes that can be rummaged through and flung about your neat and tidy home! A piglet will happily push around a number of scatter cushions, and of course its rooting box is really both an essential and a toy. Pigs will enjoy chewing on short branches of fruit trees. As they get older, they can amuse themselves with an old rubber tyre or inner tube.