A myth about keeping pigs.......

I read a lot of stuff on pig keeping, a lot....... I thought I was totally prepared and never considered that MY pigs wouldn't conform. They all tell you that pigs are clean animals, and frankly, if you met them, you'd have to concur, however! They also tell you that they don't soil their own bedding/accommodation.........WRONG!!!

I have just spent the whole of my sunday afternoon on all fours, inside a pig ark, disinfecting the floor of a pig ark. I won't trouble you with any more gory details than are absolutely necessary, but I will add that two showers later, I think I can still detect the subtle combination of Jeyes Fluid and stale pig pee on my hands and knees.

I realise now, that I made their ark a little on the large side (I so wanted to make them feel at home....) and I think this has backfired on me because the lazy little sods can't be bothered to walk outside so they go crap in the corner!!!

So, by way of revenge, I have cut down on their straw which they use as bedding. The thinking behind this being that they'll have less straw to soil and are therefore less likely to shit on it.......

I've just been out to see how they've responded to this and to my dismay, one of them has had a dump right in the middle of the "nest" and they're sleeping on the solid floor with just their heads on the straw!! Stoopid bloody pigs. Well they're not getting any more bedding out of me tonight, they have to learn not to poop on their own doorstep (so to speak).

I also spotted a bloody great rat scurrying under the ark this afternoon. If Sal knew this she'd freak, but as she's unlikely to read this, I ought to get away with it. I'll try and lay my hands on a bit of drainpipe this week and put some poison in it, under the ark, that ought to get rid of the bugger.

Well, I guess that's enough for tonight's entry, I'm off to scrub my hands again.......