Squealling

Question
Hello. I live in Taiwan and have a Taiwanese dwarf pig that I recently bought. I have done a lot of research online about pot-bellied pigs in an attempt to figure out how to house train her. I feel she is very young, probably only about a month or so old. She immediately attached herself to me with very little effort and I was able to potty train her in a day. However, at night she screams to the point it wakes up my neighbors. I have her bed next to my own and she has plenty of blankets and pillows as well as water and a litter box. I can't really figure out what to do about it. She will go on for some time. I usually give her a little food before bed at a regular time interval, but I feel she is waking my up for food in the middle of the night. I feed her at lunch, midnight and then 8:00 in the morning. Is this ok?  I think she also wants to sleep with me because she is so little. Is it ok to let her share the bed with me at a young age, or will she grow to expect it? Also, I am trying to put a harness on her. She completely resents it. Any suggestions? Thanks, Byron

Answer
Young piglets do wake up in the middle of the night. If nothing exciting happens and nobody responds to them, they will usually go back to sleep.

Unfortunately, your piglet has learned that screaming gets results. Even more unfortunate, is that your neighbors hear her and are complaining. That means it's going to be a lot harder to teach her not to do this.

If you take her in bed with you, she'll always want to sleep in your bed. A better solution is to lay on the floor next to her bed.

When she wakes up at night, do not turn on lights, do not make a big deal. Just lay down on the floor next to her (have a sleeping bag or comfy cushions ready), and let her come to you. Scratch her belly, talk softly to her, explain that it's night time and she needs to go back to sleep. Do NOT give her food! If she gets so much as a tiny nibble, she'll come to expect it and the problem will only get worse.

Piglets should gain about 1 lb a week until they are about 6 months old. The rule of thumb is 1/2 cup of pig food per day per 15 lb of piglets, with a minimum of 1/2 cup per day.

Pigs don't like harnesses, to a piglet, it feels like a predator is grabbing them. Using the harnesses that slip underneath and fasten over the back helps a lot (available from pigstuff.com). Sometimes it helps to slip the harness on while she's eating, when she's too busy with food to care. When she's used to that, start putting the harness on at other times.

The first few times she's attached to a leash, she'll probably thrash and scream when she reaches the end of the leash.

I highly recommend the book Pot-Bellied Pig Behavior and Training by Priscilla Valentine. Pris really understands how pigs think, and she goes into harness training in much more detail than I can cover here. Her book is available from her website valentinesperformingpigs.com and amazon.com