They are lovely , I kept piggies from when I was 9yo to 22yo then my DD and I kept them from when she was 9yo to nearly 17yo (the last of our piggies who died 2 weeks ago )
They do create a lot of mess , I was constantly sweeping and hoovering up hay , it gets everywhere. They need a load more room than you;d imagine. Mine had their own Pighouse (wooden Playhouse) and the small bedroom.
They need protected against everything and are vunerable .
They don't jump.climb,kick, lunge their head round, act aggressively , scratch or bite , but they are the most un-protected animals ever.
Very sweet natured as a rule. Noisy, chatty, greedy, cuddly, great characters.
We wound down our piggie herd over the years eventually bonding our last female with our middle aged neutered boar so they could have a few months of married life till he died and we kept her indoors till she died .
There was an ongoing spiral of adding more piggies over the years . But my DD is getting to late teens and I cannot get the little toads out of the run without risking injury to myself so we didn't continue rescueing pigs .
It is sad when they get old and they die , I miss the noise and chatter and still go straight to the Veg aisle in the supermarket .
Do not rely on your DC to do the care . It is YOUR responsibilty as the adult . My DD and I did 50/50 but there were times when she was away , busy with homework or unwell and it all stopped with me (and DH)
I owned half of the pigs so feeding her pigs and tidying all the bedding was no big deal . But she did her share .
We've had (over the last eight years) 4 sows , 2 neutered boars , 2 entire boars in various mixes . I would recommend boars TBH , their temper is nicer but they need to have their housing requirements met to be harmonious.