Up close and personal with Pearl!

So many of you have been asking all sort of questions about Pearl and as much I was I would love to answer each of your messages I unfortunately would not be able to get anything else done or snuggle with Pearl and my babies if I did that, so instead I am going to try and answer your questions here all at once!

I hope this is helpful and I plan to do an update on Pearl every several weeks here so that you can can see how she is growing and changing in both size and behavior for all of you piggy lovers out there!

Pearl has become such a little lover! She wants to be up on my lap cuddling all the time now! If I sit down to work in my office, she climbs right up and nudges around until she gets comfy. She doesn’t like me to have my computer on my lap so I have to work with it on a cushion next to me! If I’m on the couch I have to pull the ottoman and a blanket next to me so that she can climb up the blanket and onto the ottoman and then onto the couch to get on my lap! It is so funny to see her little personality developing. She definitely is attached mostly to me and Libby since we spend the most time down on the floor with her. She will visit with other people but is much shyer around them.

Pearls size: A lot of you ask about Pearls size and how old she is. Pearl is 4 months old now and weighs about 7lbs. We feed her special mini pig food and an occasional carrot. She is supposed to be full grown to roughly the same size as a medium size dog but of course I have no way of knowing for sure how big she will get as lots has to do with genetics and then how much we feed her and how much exercise she gets.  We of course will love Pearl no matter what size she gets but we did research and try to find a breeder who had smaller parents in hopes that Pearl would stay a little on the smaller size. When looking for a breeder seeing the  size of the parents is important because most likely your baby will end up around their same size.

Pearl is a bit obsessed with our kitty Elsa and tends to follow her around whenever she graces us with her presence. Elsa tolerates Pearl and is usually curious of her enough that she will hang around for awhile but if Pearl gets too nosey Elsa takes off! I love watching them interact with each other.

Since so many of you have asked about caring for Pearl I thought I would touch on that a little. She is not difficult to care for but it does take time as with any animal. I change her blankets in her playpen about every day to every other day. She usually has about two blankets and several plushies in her pen that she can cuddle with. She loves to burrow under blankets so most of the time when she’s in her pen you can’t even see her. She naps throughout the day in between coming out to play and eat. I feed her twice a day in her pen, once in the morning and once in the evening. She has a pee pad in the corner of her pen that she uses to go to the bathroom on.  She is really a pretty clean girl. I change her pee pad usually three to four times a day whenever she uses it. I use puppy pee pads for her. When she is out and about playing she very rarely has accidents any more. She was similar to train to a puppy and once the weather warms up we will start training her to go outside instead of on the pee pad.

Before getting Pearl when I would read things about pigs I had a hard time understanding what they would be like as a pet but now after having her I feel like she is a cross between a dog and a cat. She’s very sweet and affectionate but can also be needy if she wants some attention and you don’t have time to give it her. I feel that we have found a very happy balance by letting her out to play several times a day with the kids and then usually once or twice a day during nap time or in the evening after the kids go to bed she snuggles with me.

So to answer so many of you who have asked “Is she a lot of work?” My answer would be no because I love taking care of her, nurturing her and spending time with her, but my life is taking care of babies and animals and that’s what I love! However if you asked me “Does she require a lot of time?” I would say absolutely, as all animals do. I spend hours and hours every day tending to, caring for and loving on all of my animals and I wouldn’t have it any other way but a pet piggy is not something to take on lightly. It fits into my life and schedule and I sacrifice other activities to be home with my pets. I am sure many of you would make great piggy parents, just be sure you are ready to commit a large part of your free time to them.

If you missed our first post Pearl The Pig click here to read more about her and where we got her!