Pigs as pets

[daffy654]

Has anybody here ever had a pig as a pet? I am thinking of getting one of these:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/70448 97.stm

If anyone has any experience of having a house pig I would welcome their input.

[society]

A word of caution, you will smell like one (I am serious) and when they do have bowel movements in your home, everywhere will smell awful. So think twice before you make a final decision.

[TIGGERLIT]

plus you will need to get a small holders liecence, i wanted to get a goat or a small pig as we used to have one years ago and now i see you have to have a liecence.

[daffy654]

Pigs can be house trained so the "bowel movements in the house" problem should be minimal with any luck :-)
I didn't know you needed a smallholding permit though,how difficult are they to get in a semi-rural area?

[kita1]

Lots of info. here:

http://www.potbelliedpigs.co.uk/

[Illyria54]

Pigs are one of the cleanest animals and very easy to house train, they are also very intelligent creatures, if you do get one, a boar is probably your best bet as sows come into season on a very regular basis, every 3 weeks in fact and although they don't bleed like for instance dogs, they can be a nuisance nonetheless, if you get a boar then get him castrated at the earliest possible age, usually 6-8 weeks of age and this will lessen any unwanted aroma's.
Good luck if you get 1, I love pigs of all types, even the enormous ones.

[TIGGERLIT]

i couldnt beleive it too when i found out you needed a permit for a pig etc, basically anything with hooves, it started when we had the foot and mouth a few years ago.
and also if you do get a permit, you cant just take it out for a walk you then have to apply for a pass for that day to be able to take it off your property. i looked in to this alot as i really wanted 2 little goats, as when younger we had one. the only type of farm animal you can have without a permit is a chicken..someone had applied for one and while he was waiting for it he went and got the animals, which i think was a sheep and 2 pigs, he got found out and wasnt given the permit but worst of all he was fined �50,000.

[Illyria54]

The reason for the permit is because of things like foot and mouth, if you want to move your pet pig/goat/sheep etc you need to get permission so that if another outbreak occurred, then the powers that be can track it back to the source, it only applies to cloven hooved animals.

[daffy654]

I'm beginning to think that maybe it isn't such a good idea
:-(
Maybe i'd be best to not consider it any further,if I can't even take the pig out of the property what would happen if it needed vet treatment?

[gelda]

You'd have to call the vet out to treat it.

[garner]

And as you can guess that will be costly.with the vets.