New Piggy Alert......This makes 13!

[Karen]

We adopted a new pig from the SPCA where we volunteer at on the weekend. A 3 month old male tortishell silkie, his name is Ceasar. He is very sweet but a biter! (as I found out 3 times already, ouch!).

He is friendly though, likes to be petted and stretch out on you. You just have to watch when he starts to sniff the fingers. We are working with him on this issue.

I´ll post pictures of him as soon as possible. I seem to have a baker´s dozen now.....hee hee!

[TXMommy]

Is it a warning nip or a true bite? OUt of curiousity, how do you work with him on the biting?

Congratualations on your new family member! I am sure you will love each otehr for years to come!

[Lynx]

I think part of it is just to keep picking them up, win their trust, and perhaps use some protection (leather gloves) if it really gets bad.

Congrats! Hope he fits in and learns you are his friend.

[Karen]

The family got rid of him because of the biting (I think they had small kids).

It´s a big time bite, not a nibble (want to see me fingers, ouch!). The minute he goes to bite down hard I say "no" and he gets a blow of air in the face from me (not a huge blow, but enough to deter him) and it doesn´t hurt him. It has already started to work, this morning I picked him up and after a while he decided to go for the fingers and I said no and he stopped. He is starting to associate the word no with a blow in the face which he doesn´t like whenever he bites. I´m sure I´ll have more bites by the time we work it out, but that´s ok, I have a lot of patience......and bandaids!!! hee hee

[stickyfroggi]

That´s a really good way to teach them... Hmm.. wonder if it´d work for potty training.

[Jill]

He´s lucky he ended up with you, Karen.

[TXMommy]

He is very lucky. Thank you for the information on biting "redirection". You never know when you will end up needing it!

[Karen]

I don´t think that Ceasar was ever introduced to veggies. He eats the pellet and hay ok but avoids the veggies. I finally have convinced him that romaine is a good thing eat (I poked some into his little mouth and he decided to chew) now he eats romaine but still avoids all other veggies. I guess I´ll have to just keep trying different ones with him.

Any other suggestions guys??

[Kat]

You could try putting sugar on the veggies. Not always, just once to attract him. I don´t know if it will work with veggies, but it works with guinea pigs who aren´t used to drinking water out of the bottle. He may go a little hyper, but as far as I know there aren´t any other side effects.

[Lynx]

I think some people try shredding vegs (grate them fine) and adding them to the pellet bowl so the pig cannot eat anything without getting some vegs along with the pellets.