AIBU ... to want to know once and for all that micropigs are fake?!

[TheFoodtheFadandtheFugly]

This has turned into a protracted playful but semi-serious argument with a friend.

She has talked for a while about 'one day' getting a pig - one of those cute micropigs. That you can

I, having read it somewhere, was of the opinion they are a con - and the pig grows up into a hefty big pig! There do seem to be miniature pig breeds - but are they the same thing?

I did some googling and found sites like this that describe "micro miniature piglets" - gave up and decided to consult the repository of swine expertise that is MN.

Does any one know?

*That you can apparently keep domesticated in a house/flat according to her - is what it should say, sorry.

And here is the site!:

www.preloved.co.uk/classifieds/all/uk/micro+pig

Following with interest

Micro or teacup pigs are not a real thing.

Noooo! Don't do it! They will be the size of a medium-size dog and will scratch and root up your carpet and garden.

Compared to a standard pig which may weigh in at 300 kg they are micro. Most full grown micro pigs weigh in at 50 kg + or so.

I have a friend with a farm who has had lots of freebie pigs offered to her. However, she only has room for half a dozen.

www.minipiginfo.com/mini-pig-breeds-and-registries.html

Small breeds of pig do exist, but lots of people get sold small piglets which grow into full sized pigs (you might say they are buying a pig in a poke)
More info www.britishkunekunesociety.org.uk/articles/micropigs.aspx

And you are not recommended to keep them in the house. They need land.

I think when people refer to micro or teacup pigs, there referring to pigs that are so tiny they only weigh 10-15 lbs. There are small breeds that can be kept as pets, but they're more like 50-60 lbs full grown. Not teeny tiny like what people think.

I'm sure I remember reading that you can get 'smaller' breeds of pig, often sold as cutsey little piglets and marketed as 'teacup' or 'micro' pigs.... But then, a few years down the line, you still end up with a big fuck off pig roaming about your back yard and it's off to the slaughter House you go before you spend the next four months crying over your bacon sarnies 😉

AFAIK there are small (ish) breeds of pig like the Vietnamese potbellied and the Kune Kune. There are no micro or teacup pigs. Just baby pigs. Apparently pigs don't reach their adult size until the age or four or five, in contrast to other domestic animals, but can breed from much younger. So the unscrupulous individuals selling minipigs can truthfully show the parents of the litter who will still be very small, but they won't stay that way. I personally know someone who has an adult pet sow about the size of a single bed that sat in her hand the day she bought it.

You do get 'mini pigs' but they're about the size of a Labrador when full grown so not actually that mini! Most pictures of teacup pigs are just babies.

Are those pigs small, or are they just far away?

I clarify these facts with the knowledge that I am the daughter of a pig farmer. #justsayin
There are
A Few Rare micro breeds, but as adults even they will be small dog size.
My reasonably intelligent (!) neighbour bought a micro pig. Turns out it wasn’t. 4 years later they had a 200kg pot belly tearing up thwir kitchen and conaervatory. I kid you not. They didn’t want to lose faith, so they claimed they knew she wasn’t ‘really’ a micro. She lived for 6 years. Best winter ever in the storms of 2016 when she kept escaping and running a mock round our sleepy village.

OP, am I the friend? I am only now reluctantly believing that micro-pigs don't exist after asking a pig farmer!

they are classed as lifestock.
you need to register the pig, get a license if you want to move it (including taking it on walks), slaughter it if defra says so (swine flu or other disease)

plus it's really cruel to keep such an intelligent social animal without companions of it's own kind.

plus they stink.

www.gov.uk/guidance/keeping-a-pet-pig-or-micropig

If you've ever smelled the unmistakable honk of pig shit, you wouldn't want to buy one, no matter what the size. The smell is something else.

But no. Micro/teacup pigs are a very clever marketing ploy based around photos of piglets. If people took the time to actually see a pig in a farmyard environment, these scamsters who coined the term to sell the animals wouldn't have made a penny.

Pigs are large animals, even the smaller breeds.
In fact the last live pig I ever saw was as long as me and twice as wide and was swallowing the wee of another pig who was pissing on its face. Lovely.

All these comments and points basically are exactly what I have needed thank you! I don't know why she is so adamant - I think other people have said the same.

Those articles and facts are ideal. I will link to one if and when we ever next discuss it.