mini pot belly !

Question
Me and my boyfriend just bought a mini pot belly piggy Wednesday. We took her straight out of the pig pen at a breeders house a few hours away from us. The first day was good, she was really scared and we made her meet a lot of people so she got used to being pet. Sometimes i would hear a little growl and she would try to snip my fingers, i guess she was getting irritated cause she is still a baby (2 months) or run away. After a few hours she lightened up a lot! that night she slept in a nice comfy bed (dog bed) with a nice fluffy wool blanket. Now the second day she would come to us and became more comfy with her potty training tray. But that second day she slept a little more than usual. I think she got so comfy with her bed that she doesn't sleep at night! Because this morning we woke up at 3 am to her oinking so loud and it sounded like a bark ! I wouldn't mind ignoring her when it was a more decent hour but at 3 am, that was to crazy. When she finally relaxed she went back to bed on her own and i began to fall back asleep. There it was, the loud barks coming from the floor again, and it was only 20 minutes away from the original one and then at 5, 620, 653, 8, and then 9. Now my question is how do i stop her from doing that in the middle of the night? Do i take her bed away and keep her up throughout the day? or do i do something different? Also the harness thing she is not enjoying. She picks her feet up and takes it off. How do I keep her in it? I really want her to trust me and i don't want to be mean to her. I haven't hit her butt and i don't plan on it. The only discipline i ever gave her was i taped her nose when she was biting on the electrical wires and she hasn't done it again. I just want to be a good mommy and it is true when they say taking care of one of the minis (or a pig in general) is like a 3 year old child or toddler. You constantly have to look after them . Please help!

Answer
Piglets, like other babies, seldom sleep all the way through the night. They have to go potty very often, once every 60 - 90 minutes.

Put her litter box fairly close to her bed, so she needs to take only a few steps to reach it. She will quickly learn to use the box when she wakes up to go potty.

But, she'll also be be lonely and probably a little hungry when she wakes, so she'll continue to complain for a while. The best thing to do is ignore her completely. It's hard, and she'll probably cry even harder to get your attention at first. But after a few days, she'll learn that humans, not pigs, set the schedule.

Pigs are creatures of habit and easily pick up on a steady, weekly schedule. The downside to this is, if mealtime is late, she'll be frantic.

Piglets need to go potty often. Baby piglets make very tiny potties, and leave very tiny spots. Often, people do not notice these tiny accident spots, and mistakenly think their very young piglet is completely potty trained. When the piglet gets larger, and leave larger spots that people notice, they think their pig has "forgotten" potty training, when in fact, they've been teaching their pig it's Ok to potty anywhere. If your piglet seems to be going potty only a few times a day, she's really going more often and leaving tiny potty spots.

If she can put her feet through her harness and wiggle out, then I suspect it's either too big or the wrong shape. Pig bodies are different from dog bodies, so dog harnesses don't fit quite right. I highly recommend the Fig 8 shaped harness, which is two loops that hook on the back. The harness slips on underneath the pig. They're available from Ross Mill Farm rossmillfarm.com and Pigstuff.com

Use food to distract her. Set her dish on the floor, and while rubbing her, tell her it's time to wear the harness, or time to get dressed, or whatever phrase you want to use. Slip the harness under her and buckle it on the back.

The first time you have her on a leash on the harness, and she runs until the leash ends, she might freak out. In the wild, the only time a piglet is restrained like that is when they are about to be eaten, so all her survival instincts will kick in. Approach her, trying to keep the leash taut, and try to calm her with soothing words and maybe a treat.

I highly recommend the book Pot-Bellied Pig Behavior and Training by Priscilla Valentine. Pris really understands how pigs think and why they do the things they do. She goes into much more detail than I can here. Her book is available from Amazon.