Oh my...she's a cutie!!! How big is she? I've never heard of a feral pig.

Oh my! Do you still have the pot bellied pig? I wonder how they will get along? I LOVE her name! LOL

She is cute!! Is she just a baby? Will you eventually release her?

She's adorable! I want a pig so much!

Does she OINK OINK!

No, Pignacious died. I think it was from stress when the shelter sent me a rooster. I have Piggy Sue in the pen where I kept Pignacious, but during the day I put the rooster on a tie out stake and now at night, I will put him in the old RV in a cage. I was putting him in the pen, on top of the house that Pignache slept in. I don't want his crowing to stress her. I had a duck in there, but she panicked and escaped when I put the pig in there. If I can catch her tomorrow, I will take her to a lake and let her go with some other ducks. She can fly and flew to the bayou, so I don't know if she will make it back or a raccoon will eat her. (sigh)

No, I won't be releasing Piggy Sue. They are a nuissance and hunted with dogs. They get humongus. I have another one here that comes to eat with the coons. It was the size of Piggy Sue the first time I saw it, which was just a few months ago, and now it is the size of a pony!!! It comes every night. As long as it stays in my pasture and woods, it will be safe. I give it special things, like bananas, apples and treats...but it is very, very skittish. They can be dangerous if corned. Of course, in wide open spaces, they will run away. I don't allow my dogs out at night to harass any of the animals.

Feral hogs are just like feral cats or even, wild horses.
Animals that were domestic, but got loose. These pigs have been crossed with various European stock to make a big hog that people like to hunt, but they do a lot of damage to land and most people don't want them around. There have been no feral hogs here...but the local hog hunter just went to the penitentiary for DWIs and I think he released the one that comes here every night that is so big. I am not opposed to hunting...if you eat what you kill, but I don't believe in harassing animals before you kill them...so I don't tolerate stuff like that, and have had a lot of trouble with the hog hunter's dogs before.

Piggy Sue is a baby that someone probably brought home from a deer hunting trip a couple of months ago, and then decided they didn't want her any more, and she ended up at the Wildlife Center or maybe the SPCA, since they are next door to each other.

She will soon lose the stripes and she will get very, very large.

Will she keep all that "fur"?

Yes, they are fairly shaggy.

oh my gosh how adorable! alot of work marylin! ive never heard of a feral pig before, but someone not far from here released a wild boar which got shot during hunting season, it was sad as he was huge and charged so what are you going to do..people are so damned irresponsible with their pets makes me mad as heck. you with youre possums..my friend nicknamed me pq.the porqupine queen lol hes from the city and ive never seen as many porkys as i did last summer, we would see at least 20 a night, everynight, and i know theres one old giant grandaddy whos a constant lol..btw i think opposums are adorable lol must be why i like skunks too..only not when they spray lol i raised and released some....now they were cute

She's so cute. Dom't let her out of your care,I'd hate for hunters to get her. You are so good to take her under your wings. Truly an angel. I hads never heard of a feral pig before.

How cute...I have always wanted a pig..but a pot bellied one.

Piggy Sue is a pretty girl! will she get to wander around your yard during the day?

Bless you marilyn. She is in hog heaven and doesn't know it yet!!

I thought it might be a javelina, but after googling a little, I found that many states have feral pigs that are not the same as the javelina. Even my own state, which was a surprise to me. Very interesting. I hope she stays gentle for you.

What does she eat? Is she an omnivore? (All I can think of is the descriptions of the food that Wilbur ate in Charlottes Web.)

I don't know if she will be tame enough to be out of a pen...if she is, I will let her out when I am there to keep an eye on her, but if not, then she will have to stay confined.
Right now she is in a chain link dog kennel that has a top on it. It's about 12 x 8. We will fix a bigger pen for her. There is a little house that sits on a pallet with playwood on top of it, and I put shavings in the house and on the front where the plywood is, and behind it, in the corner. I gave her a blanket in the house, but right now, she is asleep under the deep shavings in the corner.

I tried to find some pig starter for her, but none of the local feed stores had it. I guess not very many people raise hogs around here. I gave her some all stock pellets that has a little molasses and corn in it and some banana and some grapes.

As to what they eat...they like to root for grubs, eat acorns, etc. but will eat anything. I used to know an old woman who lived next to my mother, and one time I asked her where her daughter was, and she said..."She went to ****, and the hogs ate her." :)))

Wild hogs can be dangerous if set upon by dogs or cornered but they will run away if given a chance. I don't think she will be very tame, and since she will probably lose her fear of me, I am afraid I won't be able to trust her. Not that I want her to be afraid of me...I just don't plan to be petting her unless she is a whole lot more friendly than I think she will be.

Hopefully, it will work out and she can stay here, but I will have to keep her in a very secure pen.

she is a beauty!

Oh she is so cute!!!! I know that people hunt wild pigs. But, I could never eat anything I just met, or named. One summer when I was younger I stayed with my grandparents and they had an old milk cow (Nancy) that was really friendly and you could hand feed her and we kids would get around her alot. I never will forget my grandpa shooing us away and telling us not to "play with our food." Next Thanksgiving we partook of Nancy along with our regular Turkey, but I didn't. I went off and cried like a baby. I was really mad a grandpa. LOL.

Lucky Piggy Sue has you for a mama!

Bless ya Marilyn, Donna (^_^)

marilyn, do you run a shelter for the unusual pets/animals? i found your post extremely interesting.

are you on a good deal of land to take in the animals that you do?

maryanne

Piggy Sue..gotta love that name and how cute she is right now.

Question: Is there a reason you're still keeping the pesky rooster?

So sad about Pignacious. :(

Maryanne, I am a wildlife rehabber, taking mostly possums, but I feed the wildlife here where I live. I have 50 acres and there is a lot of land around me.

At the shelter where I go to pick up possums, they get in other animals and no one wants them. It is either come home with me or be put down.

The rooster was one of those Easter chicks most likely...no one to take him. I don't mind him now...except he beat up on the duck...but he tethers very well....every day, I put him out on a tether and put him back into a cage at night.

All of my animals were someone's rejects. That includes my horses...or at least, two of them were rescues, and the other two were born here.

She's adorable and I love her stripes. Please don't ever let her eat you!

You're a real treasure to Mother Nature, Marilyn. I don't know anyone with a heart as big as yours and the energy to do everything you do. Thanks, Marilyn, for all you do.

Flamey, well, if I ever just drop out of sight....at least you all will know what happened to me. :))

Awwww.....she is soooo cute. I'm sure she knows how fortunate she is to be part of your family.

Loggerbaby, feral pigs are definitely around. Being a city girl, I have never seen any. But it was feral pigs, as I recall, that was the problem with the e coli and the spinach in California fields a year or two ago. The feral pigs got into the spinach patch, ate, pooped, and the spinach plants grew and absorbed e coli when they absorbed the ground water. At first they thought cattle from feed lots were the problem with the run off getting to the spinach from a creek, but I do believe they finally decided it was feral pigs sneaking in through broken fences at night.

omg sheilajoyce is that for real? i never heard that, im in nys but i did eat the spinach and omg was i sick, so sick i was wishing i was dead (well not really but you know how it is) darn i never knew that..thanks for the heads up. whats going to be next deer poop? because we always have deer here? are we ever going to be ably to safely eat anything ever again? lol, not really funny but...

I've seen pictures of those long rows of crops....and I have yet to see any port-a-potties out there for the workers, which
makes me wonder if the e coli is coming from wild pigs, cows, or the people who pick the crops. Just wondering. That's all.

marilyn, that's a wonderful thing you do. i guess i never realized that possums need rehabbing. interesting.

i had a dove or some type of bird in my yard a few years back. it seemed water logged and unable to fly. my neighbor had a cat carrier and we were able to contain it. i called the local SPCA who put me in touch with a woman that rehabs birds. she told me most likely it was a pigeon that someone was either done with or wasn't able to make it back to the homing station.

i'm all for recycling and rehabbing. a gold medal to you.

maryanne

Most of the possums don't need rehabbing. People trap them because they get in their yards and eat their cat food. I relocate them. Fortunately, possums relocate easily...most wildlife doesn't. If they would just leave them alone and put up their darned cat food, the possums would move on. They seldom stay in one place for very long and they have a very short life span. I also get orphans that I raise and injured ones that truly do need help. Right now I have 5 possums here that are non releasable, one that is a baby, one that has a broken leg but is almost well, and one that could leave if she wanted to, and one that was raised by someone as a pet and is too tame to be turned loose because he has no aggression, whatsoever. Sometimes I have as many as 40 or more, tho.