Micro pigs as a pet?

bungler

Just saw this http://www.donedeal.ie/find/all/for-sale/Ireland/micro%20pig?source=all and was wondering if anyone has a micro pig as a pet and whats your thoughts on having one as a pet?

Discodog

Do some googling & you will find loads of people who bought so called micropigs that grew into full sized pigs.

Irishchick

NO SUCH THING!! Please dont get drawn into something like that. They are all just pot bellied pigs.

Sows are treated terribly in the pursuit of "micro" pigs. They starve the sow to keep her malnurished and small stupidly hoping that her piglets will be small as a result.

Reported that add too. Please everyone do the same.

Coeurdepirate

Irishchick wrote: »

NO SUCH THING!! Please dont get drawn into something like that. They are all just pot bellied pigs.

Sows are treated terribly in the pursuit of "micro" pigs. They starve the sow to keep her malnurished and small stupidly hoping that her piglets will be small as a result.

Reported that add too. Please everyone do the same.

What reason should I give for reporting?

Irishchick

False advertising. There is no such thing as a micro pig. The add should be for pot bellied pigs.

bungler

Irishchick wrote: »

NO SUCH THING!! Please dont get drawn into something like that. They are all just pot bellied pigs.

Sows are treated terribly in the pursuit of "micro" pigs. They starve the sow to keep her malnurished and small stupidly hoping that her piglets will be small as a result.

Reported that add too. Please everyone do the same.

For people like me who have no knowledge can you tell me who i report this to and what am i to say?

Discodog

Irishchick wrote: »

Sows are treated terribly in the pursuit of "micro" pigs. They starve the sow to keep her malnurished and small stupidly hoping that her piglets will be small as a result.

Do you have an info/links to support this ?

Sigma Force

There is such a thing as a smaller breed of pig.
Don't know if micro pig is the proper technical term but that's what they are generally known as.
How genuine people are that advertise them I don't know but obviously anyone getting any livestock needs to do their homework on their needs etc.
They can make good pets but they are a pig at the end of the day and although small they want to do what every pig loves to do like root around n stuff.

IrishHomer

Someone told me you need a herd number to get a pig even as a pet.

Can someone please confirm this?

jill_valentine

Discodog wrote: »

Do you have an info/links to support this ?

I have heard a few anecdotal cases where the pig is kept malnourished during it's development in order to restrict it's growth -

However; there really is a real minipig breed. Originally bred for scientific study, they're making an increasingly popular pet in the US in particular. They're sometimes called teacup pigs, but that's misleading - they don't stay quite that small, but their full adult size is still far smaller than most pigs, and they're perfectly healthy.

So yes, they're real, not necessarily a scam and not necessarily the product of unscrupulous animal abuse- all I would say is try and do your homework on a particular breeder.

Cherry Blossom

IrishHomer wrote: »

Someone told me you need a herd number to get a pig even as a pet.

Can someone please confirm this?

You need a herd no. to keep any animal classified as livestock to comply with food safety and control of disease regulations. You have to apply for the herd no., the dept of agriculture send you out forms to complete and you have to register with a large animal vet and get them to sign the forms.

bungler

Irishchick wrote: »

False advertising. There is no such thing as a micro pig. The add should be for pot bellied pigs.

So am i to report this ad to donedeal.ie because they called it a micro pig instead of pot bellied, im so confused

Orlee

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniature_pig

Got this response from done deal - seems right!