Domestic Pig Facts – Benefits of Early Socialization
My Saturday morning routine was suddenly interrupted when I received a call from a new owner of a micro mini pig. I could hear a note bordering on desperation in his voice as he apologized for the call since he had bought his pig from another breeder. “Debra” had been surfing the web trying to find a solution to the problems she was having with her new pet pig and she came across my website and thought she would try calling.
After listening to her for a few minutes, Debra struck me as someone who really wanted a pet pig, but was a bit taken aback by the behavior her pig was displaying. She and her husband traveled quite a distance to pick up a 4 month old micro mini pig that turned out to be bigger than the breeder had led her to believe. This should have been her first red flag. The next cause for concern was that the pig was living in an outside pen among other pigs. The breeder had said that the pig was socialized.
Debra and her husband almost decided to forgo buying the pig, but she thought it was cute and would have been sorely disappointed if she had gone home empty-handed.
He has since learned that the pig was not socialized and that its diet consisted of dog food. I gasped when I heard that a person who professes to be a breeder of micro mini pigs was actually feeding them dog food. As a result, the pig was not only overweight for its age, but also undernourished.
Debra had tried to contact the breeder over and over again with no response and her problems with the pig; not being socialized, not being potty trained, not being well cared for and not having been neutered, were causing a lot of frustration.
The problem then was: How to turn an outer pig into an inner pet.
My first suggestion to Debra was to get him neutered ASAP and I recommended that she make an appointment with my vet since she didn’t have her own vet.
So it’s a matter of TRUST.
• The owner has to earn the trust of the pig by:
Patience, and lots of it – Praise him when he does something right. Above all, be patient and give him lots of love.
• An established routine – Establish a specific time to feed, potty, play with, train and sleep.
• Close human interaction: Debra needs to talk gently to her pig to help him acclimate to his indoor environment and give him more time.
Get to know the pig on her level: Pigs’ bodies aren’t made to allow them to look up, so you should make it easier for her to get to know you by sitting on the floor and offering her small apple pieces, some Cheerios, or raisins. to him to begin to approach her while he said “come”.
Because Debra loves her pig and wants to be able to keep it, she is willing to do anything in her power to get it back.
Although the situation is frustrating, we must remember that it is not the pig’s fault. In fact, dealing with Debra and her pig brought to mind an interesting study showing how pigs that were kept clean and lived in an enriched environment were
• More optimistic
• More confidence
• And, I expected a good result
According to the study by Dr Catherine Davis from Newcastle University’s School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development: “We found that almost without exception, pigs in the enriched environment were optimistic about what this new noise might mean and they approached hoping to get the deliciousness,” he said.
“In contrast, the pigs in the dull environment were pessimistic about this strange new noise and, fearing it might be the mildly unpleasant plastic bag, did not go near it for a treat.” Dr. Davis further explained,
“It’s a response we see all the time in humans, where how we feel affects our judgment about ambiguous events.”
Dr. Davis’s study shows exactly why the socialization of a pig that will spend its life with a human family is so crucial. As Debra is discovering, it’s also much easier and more enjoyable to interact with a pet pig who has an optimistic outlook and expects good things to happen. It certainly makes a difference for mini pig owners who love their pigs and want the best for them.