peeing

Question
We adopted a 6 week, male juliana pig,who is now 7 months old. He was litter trained when we got him. We kept him in the laundry room, no problems. In time we gave him more freedom, the kitchen and hallway, no problem. Then we added the front foyer, he had a couple of accidents by the door, we took back that space. Everything good. About a month ago we let him into the family room, everything was good for about a week, peeing accident under the end table, good for a few days and caught him peeing again. When cleaning up I found behind the couch a few more spots. Banned from the family room. He is not happy. Now he is starting to have accidents in the kitchen (same spot, under desk) gated that area off. Now tonight he peed in the middle of the hallway, we are frustrated.
He drinks a lot of water, at least 8 cups a day. Uses his litter box all the time. In the morning his litter box is usually saturated. He will stop what he is doing and runs into the laundry room to go pee. He poops outside mostly and pees too. I try to take him out a few times a day, hard with the weather and winter coming. Not sure if he needs to see a vet.
Thanks for your help.

Answer
A 7 month old pig is still very young and has to pee often. He will be close to a year old before he has any real control. Sometimes he doesn't know he has to pee until it's too late for him to dash to the litter box, so he looks for a convenient spot.

Keep him in the laundry room unless you can be right next to him, ideally on a harness and lead. Set clocks and timers everywhere, and take him to his litter box ever hour or so (unless he is confined to the laundry room). For the next couple of weeks, make him pee in his litter box before letting him out of the laundry room. Later, you can take him directly from the laundry room to outside, no detours or delays. Also, make him potty before he eats, either outside or in the box.

As  you keep him with you and take him to the box throughout the day, notice his habits. Sometimes he will need to pee a lot, other times, not so much. Over the next few months, you can slowly begin skipping a few of the hourly pees.

Some pigs like to drink a lot. Other pigs refuse water, and often suffer from chronic dehydration and constipation. Drinking lots of water helps prevent urinary tract infections and crystals. So as a general rule, it's better for pigs to drink a bit too much than not enough.

Some pigs love to take a bite of food, then a drink of water, then a bite of food, etc. If this is the big issue, move the water dish farther from the food dish, or make sure it's only about 1/4 full of water at mealtimes.

If you are really concerned about the amount of water he is drinking, the first step is to measure how much he's actually drinking.