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Understanding your Pig - the Natural Lifecycle of a Pig
Providing a pig with an environment that is as close to possible
to its natural habitat is an essential goal for your pig's health
and happiness. In order to understand your pig and your pig's
needs you need to look at the natural life cycle of a wild pig.
Then you can better meet your pet's needs in whatever environment
in which you keep it.
Most wild pigs live in tropical conditions under a leafy canopy
where it is humid and shadowed. Dry, hot, direct sun is bad for a
pig's health. A pig is also not designed to live in extreme cold
or extreme heat. You will need to modify the environment for your
pig according to the climate extremes where you live.
In the wild piglets are not weaned until five months of age. When
raised by humans pigs are weaned at a very young age and often
these pigs have troubles that range from socialization problems
to sudden death. Humans can not provide all the proper
socialization a piglet needs. He has to learn from other pigs how
to be a pig. If you have to bottle feed your piglet then he was
removed from his mother at far too young an age.
Wild piglets are taught by their parents how to survive and be
good pigs. They learn and grown under the guidance of both
parents. Boars in the proper conditions in the wild do not attack
and kill their piglets - it is pinning up a boar with little
space and inadequate food or socialization that makes a boar a
killer. Wild boars act as the protectors of the family. They
guard the family in all kinds of weather, putting themselves in
front of the dry hide and blocking all access to the sow and her
piglets.
The pigs will stay together until the piglets are 4 to 5 years of
age, at which time some may leave to start their own herd. Pigs
are very social creatures and often they stay together in family
units that make up herds. Pigs develop such strong bonds with
their parents, siblings, mates and friends that if they get
separated from their herd when they didn't want to, often they
die. Isolated wild pigs often just stop eating and drinking and
wither away, essentially committing suicide.
Pigs that are bonded to humans often die as a result of what is
termed abandonment. When pigs are given up to a shelter or given
to a stranger they become distressed, depressed and then often
just die. Pigs are not like most other pets. Even dogs don't
usually develop such deep bonds and often their memory isn't that
great. A pig remembers and suffers. Pigs are not meant to be
confined and they are not meant to be separated from their herd
mates for long periods. Frankly, it is abuse to pen a pig up and
leave it alone for hours with no interaction and very little room
to do anything. Pigs are meant to graze, play and interact with
other pigs. NEVER EVER confine a pig alone in a garage or a
single room. You are asking for property damage and maybe even
the death of your pig.
Pigs are very social and in the wild they learn survival
techniques that are necessary to protect them from predators.
Pigs don't get obese in the wild because they get enough
exercise. They learn how to survive from their parents. They run
and play and box with the other piglets. They fight over food. A
pig's social interactions are as complex as any human
relationships.
Pigs that are always kept indoors are often stunted in their
emotional growth and are usually picky, finicky, afraid of change
and wimpy. A normal, healthy, well-adjusted pig can weather just
about anything and isn't picky, finicky or afraid. They thrive in
the wild or on a large sprawling farm where family groups are
kept together.
In short, pigs were never meant to be kept indoors and it doesn't
matter how much selective breeding is done. Instinct is too
strong in pigs for them to ever be happy confined and given very
little attention. Even the highly domesticated dog pines away in
such conditions. Pigs die in conditions of lack of attention and
space all the time. In a normal herd they would live and die with
siblings, mates and friends and have the woods to roam. They
would be happy and healthy. These conditions can be reproduced on
a farm but never in an apartment.
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