From: kte@INEL.GOV (Kathryn L Cook)
Newsgroups: rec.pets
Subject: Re: vietnamese pot-bellied pig
Date: 19 Aug 92 14:05:43 GMT
Reply-To: kte@INEL.GOV (Kathryn L Cook)
Organization: Idaho National Engineering Lab

In article <1992Aug15.183539.29891@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>, mas6d@uvacs.cs.Virginia.EDU (M. Anne Shackelford) writes:
|> Does anyone know anything about vietnamese pot-bellied pigs?  I have many 
|> questions:
|> 
|> 1) Are they good pets?
|> 2) Are they clean?
|> 3) What do you feed them?
|> 4) How large do they grow?
|> 5) How many years do they live?
|> 6) If you are allergic to dogs and cats, will you be allergic to these?
|> 7) How much do they cost?
|> 8) Anything I'm forgetting.
|> 
|> 
|> 
|> Thanks,
|> 
|> Anne
|> mas6d@cs.virginia.edu

I don't have a pot-bellied pig, but my neighbors across the street do.  
The following are my observations of said pig:
  - They say he's housebroken, so I assume he is.
  - He is about 26 - 28 inches tall.
  - I would guess he weighs at least 150lbs. I'm not a good judge, but he is
    very big and fat and his owners can't lift him.
  - He is about a year old. So I guess he's through  growing.
  - He has very dry flaky skin and a few very coarse hairs. Not very
    pleasant to touch IMHO.
  - He knows his name. He comes when I call him, but very very slowly.
  - He squeals really loudly (not screaming just talking I think).  When he
    is in their house with the doors shut and I am in my house with the doors
    shut I can hear him quite well.  The first time I heard him, I thought a
    kid had been hit by a car, and my husband and I went racing out the front
    door to see what was going on.  After we determined that no one was
    lying wounded in the street, I said to my husband "it sounds like a stuck
    pig".  Didn't know how close I was tell me discovered Hamlet (then a baby).
  - He squeals often enough that the first thing another neighbor's little
    boy learned to say wasn't mama or dad, but "pig, E-E-K-K-K, E-E-K-K-K, 
    E-K-K-K".  This because every time the pig squealed he (the little boy)
    would run to the window and his mom would tell him it's a pig.  By the way
    these people live on the other end of the block and across the street from
    the pig.
  - His owners say he is not a miniature, good thing, because if he is, I'd hate
    to see a standard.
  - Other neighbors say his owner's yard stinks, I haven't noticed this myself.

My opinion if your planning to get one of these guys is:
 - Make sure you can put up with the noise (it must be deafening in their
    house).  
 - Make sure zoning laws will allow you to keep him, I think Hamlet is illegal
   in our residential neighborhood.  He doesn't bother me, but I know that a
   few of the neighbors are starting to get a bit annoyed;
 - I'm an animal lover/sucker, but although Hamlet was cute as a baby, he
   really isn't to endearing any more.  I can't imagine wanting to pet or
   snuggle him.
  - He may be smart, but physically he is very slow, it takes them about
    five minutes to call him into the house from the yard.

            Just my thoughts, hope they help
                     -Kayti
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