Can't catch piggies!

[Simplemind]

Just brought home 2 girl piggies yesterday. They are are 7 weeks old and gorgeous. Last night we decided that we need to make the hutch more robust as we have lots of foxes and badgers in the garden so decided to move hutch into garage over night. Could I catch the girls ? They are like lightening and seem to charge towards the door gap as soon as I open it.i am terrified that they are going to fall out of the hutch. Eventually managed to catch one of them but had to carry they hutch with other in it as it was getting to late ! How do you catch them ? any suggestions please as kids are keen to have cuddle them but I am too scared to open door as gps are going to fall.

[Callmegeoff]

I would let them settle in for a week before you start trying to handle them. Offer tempting treats through the bars so they get to know you. Mine love grass especially with the seed heads on, carrot, celery, greens.

You can buy those little houses with a floor, guinea runs in and you can pick the hole house up. Actually if you have a hidey house for them they will run into that instead of bolting for the door to the hutch.

[FernieB]

Small pigs are fast critters. Fortunately they aren't that bright so you can outwit them. If you have a house for them, they'll run into that then you can whip it up and grab the pig if you're fast. With practice you'll get better at it. By the time you've mastered the art of capturing pigs, they'll have grown into large lazy pigs that wander up to you looking for food and are easy to catch.

[FernieB]

When the kids cuddle them, use an old towel underneath and have lots of treats available. Pigs are foodies and will be bribed easily. We have a cheap cat litter tray - was £1 - which I stick a towel in and then the pigs go in there. It's easy to move them around and kids can stroke them easily in that. Now my boys are larger and lazy, I can fit both of them, their food bowl and water bottle in it when I'm transporting them outside.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

We have a few tunnels, my dense very obliging piggies never fail to run into them so we can scoop them up. They never learn

YY they are new and skittery. When you open the hutch they are far more likely to skip to the back than fall out the front.

Food and time is the way forward with piggies.

Taps foot.

[Wellwellwell3holesintheground]

Bits of plastic drainpipe. They invariably run in and you can pick it up with a hand over each end. They are not bright...

[clippityclop]

We use the tunnel trick too! Love how they peer out, as if to say "Ooh, we're somewhere else, hmmm, so where's the food?" They stay quite still on any obliging and towel covered lap as long as there's chin and behind the ear tickling on offer. Banana, parsley and green beans are the snacks of choice. They have us trained to put them back down with a certain look and noise, then pee copiously on the fresh new bedding in their house. Slaves, I tell you, slaves we are!

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

they do the 'pee on fresh bedding' thing. I'm sure it's territory marking.

Our GP1 could squeeze a few drops out even if he'd already had a pee but 99% of the time he kept a good bladderful.
DD was "oh isn't he good, he saved it, didn't pee me"
I was "I just changed that"

Bless them.