socializing pbp

Question
I recently got an 11 week old female pbp. She has not been socialized by the breeder. When I go to pet her she screams and tries to run away from me. I have been feeding her from my hand and she will get in my lap when I am feeding her but that is the only time she comes to me. I have been sitting with her in the bathroom but she runs away every time I try to pet her. Do you have some suggestions on socializing her to like being touched. In your experience how long does it take. I have only had her for 3 days now. i dont want her to be afraid of me forever.

Answer
You're on the right track! She will come around, eventually. She's been through a very traumatic experience, torn from everything she knows and thrust into a strange new place with strange new people who want to touch her!

Pot-bellied pigs are prey animals. In the wild, other animals eat them. All of a pig's instincts are based on this fact. The ONLY time something touches a wild piglet in a natural habitat is a predator about to grab and eat the piglet! That's why she's so scared of being touched, but soon she will grow to enjoy it.

Continue to try to touch her as you feed her. Say "Touch", tell her where you're going to touch her, then touch her gently. Pretty soon she'll learn the word "touch" means she's going to get touched.

Break her meals down into smaller meals, and visit her more frequently with those little meals. Try teaching her to "spin" or "twirl" by giving her a treat, then holding a second treat just above her nose and make her turn in a circle while you say her name and the cue word (spin or twirl). Learning simple tricks like this helps both pig and person learn how to communicate with the other.

Socializing a baby piglet is a lot of fun but also a lot of work. I totally recommend Priscilla Valentine's book Pot-Bellied Pig Behavior and Training. She really understands how pigs think, and covers much, much more material than I can here. Her book is available on Amazon and through her website www.valentinesperformingpigs.com