Bet you didn’t know these fun facts about pigs!
Good things come in threes…
A mama pig is only pregnant for three months, three weeks, and three days. When she is ready to have her babies, instinct tells her to make a hidden nest out of sticks, hay, or blankets to keep them bebes safe. With good reason—newborn piglets are tiny! They usually weigh about 2.5 pounds when they’re born. Awwww! On average, there are about 7 pigs in a litter. The best part? Mama pigs sing to their babies while they nurse and doze off.
Here’s our Mama Juniper, with her brand new babies Angelica, Cardamom, and Saffron in the little blanket nest she’s made for them.
Forgive and Forget?
That’s pretty hard for most people AND pigs. Pigs have wonderful memories. They bond with people and remember kind deeds. They also hold grudges against people who have mistreated them OR their friends. Here, our friend Magnus recognizes (and loves on) Tamerlaine’s cofounder Peter Nussbaum. He won’t ever forget Peter’s kindness when he needed it most.
Pigs in a Blanket
Pigs LOVE to snuggle. They grunt happily and the fur on their backs stands straight up! Pigs will cuddle together, dig themselves under blankets, and even cuddle up in your lap if they know you. They feel safest and snuggest when sleeping nose to nose. The only pigs in a blanket anyone needs today are these two snugbugs!➡➡
It’s getting hot in herre
Pigs can’t sweat. That means when they get hot, they have no way to cool their bodies, which can be dangerous. Luckily…there’s mud. Rolling around in mud is a great way for pigs to cool down and protect their skin from the sun. Pigs get sunburned pretty easily, and mud is “nature’s sunscreen.” Wallowing in the mud may be the source of their (false) reputation for being filthy animals. Someone needs to tell their PR peeps to reframe “mud wallow” as “spa treatment”. We humans pay a fortune to do the exact same thing.
Some Pig!
Turns out, Charlotte wasn’t the only genius in that barn. Scientists have proven that pigs are one of the smartest animals on Earth. They are easier to train than dogs. In research, they were proven smarter than a three-year-old toddler! They understand our language, and we are learning theirs. We now recognize over 20 different sounds and understand the ideas, needs, and feelings each expresses. Most impressive, they learned how to use move a cursor on a computer screen to beat a video game! Chimpanzees are known for their clever use of tools. But a wild breed of pig known as the Visayan warty pig has been repeatedly spotted using tools to dig their nests. So, make room at the table, primates (and dolphins, crows, elephants, octopi etc.) because pigs are ready to join the party!
Teacup pigs? Not exactly….
Whether you call them potbelly pigs, teacups, or micropigs, don’t expect them to stay small. People often adopt these breeds as babies, with plans of having a purse pet they can carry around. And while it’s true that this breed of pig stays small compared to other breeds that can grow as large as 900 lbs. (although they rarely get to live that long) …. an adult “micropig,” at 350 lbs. is hardly purse pet material.
Clean as a whistle…
Pigs aren’t filthy. In fact, you don’t even have to train a pig to “do his business” in a certain spot or outside—which is more than we can say for dogs! Actually forget dogs: pigs are easier to train than KIDS in many ways!
Pigs in History
Pigs may have been the first animal ever domesticated, starting about 9,000 years ago in eastern countries. In the USA, the first pigs arrived with the Spanish explorers—Columbus and De Soto. These pigs are the ancestors to the wild pigs common in most southern states today.
When you breed a species to the point it can no longer survive on its own, you become responsible for its care—but we haven’t done a great job. Domesticated pigs have been used and abused for a variety of reasons other than for food. Alexander the Great cruelly forced them into warfare. Their terrified squeals scared the elephants used by enemy forces, causing them to trample anyone in their way as they rushed to escape. Since pigs’ noses are stronger than their eyes (or our noses), they are often still used to sniff out truffles deep underground. Pigs have been genetically engineered to produce tissues used to graft burns on people, and may soon become involuntary heart donors.