demanding Pot belly pig

Question
We have a 6-month old neutured male.  He is kennel trained.  He likes his kennel until 5:00 in the morning when he demands to eat.  He screams and thrashes in his kennel.  We have ignored him, but he breaks out of the kennel, so of course we have to get up so he does not pee in the house.  How do we keep him in the kennel.  He digs his snout up and down until the pins come out then he rams the door.  Please help.

Answer
Pigs love to get up early. Pigs also learn very quickly how to get their own way. I understand your concern about piggy peeing in the wrong place.

Piggy has learned that he can escape and get breakfast if he just works hard enough. Teaching him differently will not be easy, but it can be done.

If he is litter trained, put his kennel in the room with his litter box, and shut the door. Piggy will wake up at the usual time and scream, thrash and escape the kennel, but with the door shut he will have no place to go, except to his litter box which is in the usual spot that he's used to going.

He will continue to scream and bang, because up until now, screaming and banging always worked.

So, the hard part is - you MUST ignore him. Completely and totally until it is your normal wake up time. The even harder part is - he will probably continue this behavior for several days. If you are in the United States, the long holiday weekend coming up might be a good opportunity to do this.

If his litter box is not in a room with a door, or he does not use a box, you'll need to figure out a way to keep him confined in his crate until you're ready to let him out. Maybe a lock on a latch, or duct tape on the pins or hinges. Again, he's learned that if he works hard enough he can escape and eat, so he will keep trying hard for a couple of days.

Or move his kennel to a very small, confined place, like a closet, where there is room for only the kennel and a litter box. The problem with this solution is that when you move the kennel back to his original position, he may revert to his original behavior.

Another solution is to get up when he gets up, make him go potty, then go back to bed until normal wake up time. DO NOT GIVE HIM ANY TREATS OR FOOD! He will probably still make a fuss, especially if he's used to eating at this time. But you won't have to worry about potty in the wrong place, and he won't be banging the crate.

When he learns that he will never get any food until normal wake up time, he might start sleeping a bit later. But, he might really need to go potty before then. If he learns to wake up and use his litter box, he won't bother you. If he needs to go outside to potty, and needs to potty, he'll wake you up. But as he grows older and is able to hold it longer, he won't need to wake you up.