2 micropiggies need a good home urgently - maystar

[Deleted]

2 pigs need a good home, 'micropigs' they are about the size of a labrador and won't get any larger. both boys, they have been reared together and get on fine. nice and friendly, come to call, get on well with horses (yes, really! ours graze happily with them! ) 12 months old, reg'd with defra, you need a smallholder number to have them. but this is easily obtained over the phone. Urgently need a new home as I have no suitable building for them to live in as I need their stable for a horse! free to good home, they are located near Derby.

pm Maystar

[heathera]

It might help if people knew whether they were castrated or entire.

[Deleted]

They are entire, but get on well together and are not remotely aggresive.

[dollylanedales]

If they had been female they could have come and lived with us ....but we have 4 Kune Kunes and they are all female ....so entire boys would not be ideal!!

[Deleted]

Awww, but wouldn't you like the patter of tiny trotters? I'm sure the boys would love come and live with yours! Lol.

[lucydales]

Can they live out with an ark? What sort of fencing do they need? How much looking after do they take (I've never had pigs!).

[Deleted]

They can live out with an ark, they are currently in a pen with a straw bale shelter tarped over. So long as they have somewhere dry and a big pile of straw to sleep in they are happy. Our only prob is the mud! as this was their summer pen and fine for them then but a mudbath now!
Their existing fencing is sheep netting, but they really a strand of barbed wire at the bottom, or, as we have, a line of electric tape. They eat pretty well anything a horse will, and food scraps though you are not supposed to feed them anything with meat. They love potato peelings though! They are easy to keep generally, just feed twice daily, currently on sugar beet and a bit of rolled barley, and a handfull of hay at night.

[dollylanedales]

I think your boys would find our KK girls a little big to try anything on with them!!

I have had to put mine in the field shelter .....they did live out in two arks, but the mud is terrible. It was up to their bellies, and getting in to feed them was awful. Ours have pig meal, or nuts, and soaked beet pulp. Like lots of hay too. Carrots and peelings too. Now illegal to give them anything that has been in your kitchen.....including the carrots etc .......a shame when they could eat leftovers.

[valerie n scout]

is that cause there for meat ? is it illegal if they are just pets ?

[heathera]

They are classed as farm animals so you have to meet all the legislation that goes with that. If you go to the DEFRA website you'll be able to see it all. You may need to register as a holding and you always used to need a licence to move them.

They will root and plough up whatever pen they are in. You need electric fencing (preferably mains powered) to keep them in, they'll normally go through standard sheep net fencing by digging and rooting underneath it until it bends up and breaks.

They hate being wet and cold. They also get sunburn in the summer if you aren't careful so you need to balance the need for them to have a warm and dry area against them needing mud to cover their skin for protection in the summer.

If they don't have access to hard standing you'll need to trim their feet very regularly otherwise they curl round like donkeys and this can deform their limbs and create problems with foot rot.

Food wise you'll need a good pig meal or nuts balanced to provide appropriate vitamins and minerals. Not sure if you need annual vaccinations for anything. We never used to note small piggery that SO worked at but you might need to now or for pigs kept as pets. It is against regulations to feed them kitchen scraps even if kept as pets.

Full boars also have a particular smell so you may want to go and visit some to see if you mind it or not. SO had separate overalls he wore when working with the boars and they went in the washing machine if in the house or hung in the shed.

You can have them castrated as adults. It's like horses and quite a big surgery when they're adult. It does cut the smell down though and makes them much easier to handle although bleeding and anaesthetic risks are high.

I've never known two entire boars to happily live together if they have breeding age sows within sight or smell. At the piggery thy lived on their own but could see and smell other pigs all the time and the boats were given their own small group of sows each when they lived out over the summer.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the advice, though have to admit I'm puzzled about the smell bit, ours don't smell at all, had male goats that are really pungent, so familiar with smells, but none at all with our boys. They get on really well, perhaps because they have been reared together, we have no females so they don't have any prob there.
Have heard about pigs getting sunburnt, but wouldn't that be only the pink ones? ours are black so we haven't found that to happen, (they are also quite hairy!) though they do love a bucket of water tipped over them when it is hot. ;D Not had any need to trim their feet as they trundle about on the yard when we let them out and it seems to keep them in order. Can imagine that if they are kept on soft ground, like any other hooved animal, they'd need trimming though.
We have also found they can get under sheep wire but running a battery operated line of elec fence has stopped them doing that completely. They have huge respect for it! very intelligent, pigs! you can see them looking at it and thinking!
I guess full size pigs are a different story though!.

[heathera]

It was Large Whites we had and they really are a pig and a half! Pigs are incredibly intelligent and you can teach them all sorts of tricks, they also love a good scritchies and human company. I'd never have them as a pet but I can see how they appeal to others.

[dollylanedales]

Yes, you need a Parish Holding Number, and keep records of movement from one place to another (the owner has to give you a completed form, which has to be sent to your local animal health).Any medicine or wormer given has to be logged in a book, they must be ear tagged ......having a large goat herd, and sheep, I have a bulging file of forms and movement books.

Once you apply for a holding number - which must be got before getting pigs - its likely you will get a visit from Animal Health to check where the pigs will live, etc. Oh, and for some reason, you must be able to keep their feed separate from other animal feed.

It does not matter if the pigs are pets or for eating, they still cannot have any household scraps or leftovers.

I love my pigs, but have to admit that if they are out in the field, they do root and make a right mess. Ideally, they need moving round the field regularly, as their plot soon becomes muddy.

[Deleted]

Wow, must admit It was really simple when I got mine, I phoned up for CPH no, which arrived a week later in letter form, all they wanted to know was how many pigs and where from. Never mentioned anything about visiting. The breeder did the necessary movement info online, which apparently you can do now. It did amuse me a little that it was stated you have to inform them each time you take your pigs for a walk! (on the road, I presume?).
Mine have ear tags but they have not been fitted as neither the breeder or myself could bring ourselves to fit them!Lol, (quite common with micropigs apparently, though they'd need to be fitted if they went to market or butcher.) Wasn't told anything about keeping feed seperate or anything. Maybe because we only have the 2 pigs and not sheep/cattle or anything as well?

Have had several people contact me who just wanted to take them!(not off here! I hasten to add ) in spite of the fact that I always state need smallholder no in the ads. One can imagine what they want them for!
Whilst I might let them go for sausages as a last resort, It would only be to an approved and ethical source.
Hopefully not come to that though

[lucydales]

Although I do have a holding number, I have weighed up the pros and cons and sadly don't feel I can offer them a home at the moment. I have just had an out of the blue illness which hospitalised me, am on nasty drugs to make me better and don't think I should take on anything more in the short term (my non farming husband would also kill me!), one thing too many before Xmas.

If you still have then next year I will think again. I hope you don't have to resort to sausages.

Good luck with finding a good home. Have you tried the Derbyshire Smallholders Association, they have a for sale section?

www.derbyshiresmallholders.co.uk