Decorative Mini Pig Mini Pig
The decorative mini piggy pig is gaining more and more popularity as a pet. This animal, due to its miniature size, can be kept both in a country house and in the confined space of an apartment.
Decorative pig
About decorative mini pigs
The dwarf domestic pig mini-pigs began to be bred as an object for laboratory research and medical experiments. Due to their unusual appearance, mini-pigs found admirers and began to be used as pets.
The dwarf pig owes its appearance to the scientists of Germany, who decided to cross a wild boar and pot-bellied Vietnamese, which are distinguished by their small size, among themselves.
Today, mini-pigs do not have a clearly defined standard. Their variety can be seen in the photo. Breeders of different countries striving to get more miniature sizes of mini-pigs are actively working on the issue of breeding micropigs.
Due to the lack of a fixed standard, breeders distinguish several main areas of mini-pigs.
- Vietnamese puffy-bellies, which are the progenitors of miniature pigs for home keeping, which served as the beginning of breeding work to reduce the size of piglets. Their weight varies from 45 to 100 kg. The pot-bellied Vietnamese breed is most in demand among Americans, who prefer to keep it in a suburban economy.
- German goettingen mini-pig. This is a fairly young direction. According to the external description, such a pet is similar to Vietnamese miniature pigs. Average weight ranges from 70 to 90 kg.
- Micro-mini Mayyalino, bred in Italy and belonging to the selective breed types, entered in the Guinness Book of Records due to its miniature size. The weight of an adult mini-pig does not exceed 12 kg. There are no micropigs in Russia. The breed did not receive its further distribution, since animals have a weak immunity to diseases and they are unsuitable for reproduction.
- The European Wiesenau pig stands out for its compact, square-shaped constitution with a wrinkle-free muzzle. The weight of adult domestic pigs reaches no more than 60 kg.
- European toddler bergstrasser knirt, which has gained the greatest popularity in Europe and reaches a weight of no more than 20-30 kg.
General features
Most of the hatched mini-pigs grow to 0.7 m at the withers. The maximum weight of the first domestic pigs was up to 150 kg. In color, miniature mini-pigs can be varied: black and brindle, sand and red, marble and mixed shades.
The life expectancy of small domestic pigs is no more than 15 years.
Miniature pigs gain their weight and form a constitution up to 2 years of age. After that, the animals begin to gain weight, increasing their weight throughout their entire life period. Today, the standard weight of the average miniature pig ranges from 40 to 80 kg.Micro-specimens derived from it weigh no more than 30 kg. Large representatives of small domestic pig breeds can gain weight up to 120 kg. In nature, there are isolated cases when small mini-pigs weigh 5-10 kg.
Subtleties of home content
Decorative pigs in a home environment are raised like dogs and cats, without restricting animals in moving around the apartment. For large breeds, they prefer suburban accommodation, where they should organize special booths and enclosures. Miniature animals close to micro-size are easy to keep in a city apartment.
The tendency of pigs to obesity, especially after they reach 2 years of age, makes it mandatory for the owner to include in their dietary diet and daily walking. The growth of animals and their weight directly depends on the diet established for them and food restrictions.
Intelligent by nature, dwarf mini-pigs are easy to train, quickly learn simple commands and are quite obedient in nature.
Unlike ordinary pig breeds, the decorative lines of the animals practically do not smell. They can quickly become accustomed to using the litter box. Among the main problems noted by the owners of domestic pigs, willfulness of character stands out, therefore, in the absence of proper training, these animals can be disobedient and often do not get along with children and elderly people, showing aggression.
Dwarf mini-pigs, ill-mannered from an early age, like domestic dogs and cats, can spoil the furniture interior, so it is worth starting to accustom them to order at home from an early age, when the baby has not yet grown into a big prankster.
Product priorities
Dwarf pigs are omnivorous by nature, but in order to keep the pig in good physical shape and maintain the desired size for feeding pets, a special nutrition system is being developed that regulates weight gain, but provides the animal with all the necessary nutrients.
The diet of decorative pig breeds resembles the dietary feeding of young children, when all spicy and salty foods, fried and fatty, sweet and baked, are contraindicated.
The priority in feeding ornamental pigs is given to a healthy diet, which consists of healthy vegetables and fruits, without the use of salt and sugar, without cooking dishes using frying in oils. The menu should include dairy products and cottage cheese, cereals from various cereals, fresh herbs.
The frequency of feeding miniature pigs should be at least 3 times a day.
Cons and caveats
Lovely decorative dwarf piglets have practically no flaws. However, those who intend to have such a pet should remember that, despite successful experiments to reduce the weight and size of animals, they still remain pigs by nature. Some owners are often unhappy when the pigs emit the shrill squeals characteristic of pigs and clatter their hooves on the floor.
To create comfort for those around you when keeping a pygmy pig at home, it is recommended to use special soft shoes to prevent loud sounds from the pounding of animals' hooves on the floor surface.
The artificially bred dwarf breeds of decorative mini-pigs, along with the usual weight for pigs, have lost some of the body's resistance to various diseases. Their often weak immunity is not able to withstand dampness and drafts, from which small pets often catch colds and get sick.
In order to reduce the economic losses from keeping dwarf mini-pigs in the form of damaged furniture at home, it is recommended to close animals in aviaries when they are forced to stay at home alone.
If you include in the disadvantages the price of how much a pet costs, then the high cost of a mini-piggy pig is really a very big disadvantage when deciding to start a dwarf breed at home. Depending on the breed and size of a decorative domestic pig, it costs in the range from 10-15 to 100-150 thousand rubles. or from $ 200 to $ 2,000 abroad.
When buying a pet, you should carefully approach the choice of the seller, as cases of fraud with these breeds have become more frequent lately, therefore, under the guise of a dwarf mini-pig, you can easily buy an ordinary large pig from small breeds.