Cute baby pictures
11/2020
Since we’ve been spending some time on a property with plenty of space and I’m going to be in New Zealand a while longer, we thought it would be a great time to get a new addition to our family. Actually, to be specific, my partner always wanted a kunekune pig. And I felt, especially in times where the only certain thing is how uncertain everything is, you just have to dive in instead of overthinking it.
On the 20th of September this year, at the animal park close by, a bunch of kunekune pigs were born. We visited them at four days old. We wanted a girl so she could have babies herself, but seeing the litter we almost instantly set our mind on getting the runt, a boy, and call it peanut.
Around six weeks later we picked him up – despite the fact that we wasn’t quite big enough. His mom is a bit old and wasn’t giving him as much milk as he needed. And the fact that he was the runt and always coming a bit shorter than the others did not help either.
Not really knowing what we were doing (except for the advice from the animal park lady), but prepared to give him all the love and food he needs to grow into a proper pig, we loaded up on pig pellets and animal milk powder and brought him to his new home.
We tried keeping him in an enclosure, but once he managed to escape he kept escaping. He wasn’t going far after escaping, he just didn’t want to be fenced in. So we ditched the fence and crossed our fingers that he would not run away over night. Which worked for us so far. We’ll try and pen him in a different way and train him with electrical fencing so we can leave for extended periods of time without worrying too much. He seems to be a little rascal and we expect that he might be hard to keep in a paddock further away from us.
Teaching him the sit command was surprisingly easy but kind of backfired on us. He does sit now when he’s anticipating food, but he certainly does not listen to us when we want him to sit on command. He looks awfully cute looking up like a dog hoping to get the food he was promised for sitting in the first place.
He’s mostly hanging out with us. Seldom he wanders off and lies down in an awkward spot or nibbling on some plants, ultimately ruining them. We take him for walks around the property and he’s running eagerly to catch up with us. We want to get him a lamb friend that can teach him how to graze properly, keeps him warm at night and makes him feel less lonely when we’re not there.
Like all new parents probably do, we feel the need to share cute baby pictures of him. I should probably also add some videos, because pictures can’t describe the sounds he makes and the way he moves. We were even wondering if he might look cuter to us than to other people… And yes, like a couple with a newly born, we are freaking out about every itch and sneeze, wondering if we’re doing this right – even tho he’s “just a pig”. We know the feeling now of leaving the property without him, having a weird feeling, wondering if he’ll be up to no good and wander away or get confused about us not being there.
Chances are high tho, that he’ll just accidentally walk into a cozy spot that he’s not allowed in and just takes a nap (like the other day).
Parenthood is hard but worth it, right? 😂