Meet the Pigs -Dixie and Truffles!
Dixie
Dixie is our Vietnamese potbelly pig. She came to us the week of Thanksgiving 2015 after her human parents got divorced. Mom couldn’t keep her after she moved out of the family home, so she brought Dixie to us. Dixie was born on March 11, 2011.
Truffles
Truffles is a kunekune pig mixed with another unknown breed. She joined our family on October 3, 2020. We adopted her from an elderly couple who told us she was born on April 3, 2020.
Temperament
Dixie is sweet, but she’s also intimidating at times. When she first came to us, she only allowed Doug to go near her. She would snap and lunge at Tabitha and me when we tried to go into her yard. After a lot of belly rubs and animal crackers, she and I have become best buddies. She still doesn’t like Tabitha in her territory and aggressively defends her space from Tabitha.
Truffles is sweet, but she’s also a bundle of nervous energy. She wants to interact with us the way Dixie does, but she’s so timid. We took Truffles in to get spayed on January 15, 2021. Spaying has helped her calm down a lot. We’re now at the point where we can pet her when she’s walking around in her yard and she even brushes up against our legs when she walks by.
She Knows What She Wants
Like most potbelly pigs, Dixie is sensitive, opinionated, smart, and set in her ways. She loves laying in mud puddles when it’s hot outside and spends the majority of the time in her heated house when it’s cold. If the weather isn’t perfect, she gets grumpy and stays in her house. She gets fed three times a day and if she doesn’t like the weather, she’ll stand in the doorway of her house until we ask her where she wants to eat. She’ll show us what she prefers, either a picnic outside or fine dining inside.
Loves Me, Loves Me Not
Dixie wasn’t happy about her new friend at first. Truffles loved Dixie from the very beginning and she followed her everywhere. Dixie didn’t feel the same towards Truffles and grunted and lunged towards her if she got too close. Now, they cuddle together in their house and Dixie seems less annoyed when Truffles is nearby.
Housing
The girls share a big pink house and yard. We use straw for bedding. Two heat panels are mounted on opposite walls to keep the girls comfortable in cold weather. There are two doors in the house on opposite walls that we open to help with air-flow when it gets hot.
Along with each other and lots of blankets, the girls also have a big teddy bear in their house to snuggle with. When the weather is especially nice outside, Dixie pulls a blanket out of the house and takes a nap on it.
Yard
We use a couple of ways to enclose the pig yard. A six-foot privacy fence for the north and west sides does a great job at blocking the harsh winter wind and blowing snow. The four-foot wooden split rail fence with chicken wire attached to it allows for airflow on the east and south sides of the yard.
Out of Quarantine
When we brought Truffles home, we had her in a separate house and yard inside Dixie’s yard to make sure she was healthy, and so she and Dixie could get to know each other through the fence. We thought it was too soon to put them together, but one day when we went out to feed the girls, Truffles was excitedly, and very proudly, running around Dixie’s run. She decided she was done being in quarantine and wasn’t about to let a fence stop her. She used her snout and lifted the fence and was able to crawl under it.
The Perfect Arrangement
After Truffles’ spay appointment, she lived in one of our bathrooms for several days. We didn’t want her to acclimate to the warm house so we decided once she was done with her pain meds it would be best to move her back outside. We assumed that because she and Dixie lived together for a couple of months, and got along great, it wouldn’t be a problem. When we put Truffles in with Dixie they acted like they didn’t know each other and there was a lot of fighting. Pigs are very territorial and both girls were trying to claim the house and yard as theirs.
We were concerned about the girls fighting, especially before Truffles was completely healed from her surgery, so we set up a dog igloo for her. We put a heat panel, blankets, and straw in her igloo to keep her warm. She even had a yard to walk around in. Her temporary house and yard were in a fenced area within Dixie’s yard and we lined the fencing with heavy tree stumps. We were happy with the temporary housing and we were sure that Truffles would stay in her yard this time.
Truffles’ Plan
Our plan was Truffles was going to completely heal in her separate area and the girls would get to know each other again through the fence. Once we knew they wouldn’t hurt each other, we would try to combine them. Two mornings after we separated the girls, we realized Truffles had a different plan. We discovered when we went outside to feed the girls breakfast that they were both were in the same yard and getting along great. Truffles decided she couldn’t be apart from Dixie and had to break out of quarantine. So, the girls are back together in their pink house and yard.
Feeding
The girls love to eat! When they excitedly wait for us to dish out their food, they whimper and whine and wag their tails in circles. When they’re eating, they foam at their mouths to try to scare us away from their food dishes. Any time they eat is the best time of the day for them!
The girls are fed in separate areas of the yard. We carefully supervise feedings so the slower eater can finish eating in peace. If we didn’t supervise feedings, whoever gets done first runs over to the other one, pushes her away from her dish, and eats what’s left of her meal.
A Meal Fit For A Pig
The girls get a large salad for both breakfast and dinner. The base of the salad is two cups of either green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce, or romaine lettuce. We add at least two different colors of vegetables to the lettuce. A couple of times a week they get a hard boiled egg in their salad. The eggs are always the first thing to be eaten!
Along with each salad, they get a cup of pig pellets made for potbelly pigs and a heaping teaspoon of ground flax. At breakfast, both girls get a Flintstone vitamin. At dinnertime, Dixie gets a tablespoon of a herbal supplement made for pigs who have a hard time walking around because of arthritis.
For lunch, the girls get a cup of potbelly pig pellets and 1/2 cup of cooked oatmeal. Occasionally they get fruit in their oatmeal. When they do, it’s either bananas, berries, grapes cut in half, pears, or apples. Bananas are their favorite!
Since fiber is so important for potbelly pigs, the girls get a handful of grass hay every day. They love taking it into their house to snack on in between mealtimes.
Hoof Care
Dixie hates having her hooves trimmed so we space out trimming to lessen her stress. We work on one hoof every week. By the end of four weeks, we start over again.
The veterinarian trimmed Truffles’ hooves when she was sedated during her spay surgery. We plan on putting her on the same trimming schedule as Dixie.
Toys
Dixie loves belly rubs and has a variety of toys, but her favorite toys are her wood stumps. She loves scratching herself on them and she tries to push them around her yard.
The girls have a bunch of colorful balls in all sizes to play with, but Truffles’ favorite toy is Dixie. She loves following Dixie everywhere and pushing her snout into Dixie’s side to provoke her to play. It never works, but she keeps trying!
