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Mini Pig (Not Teacup Dog)

10/28/2015

There is a huge misconception when it comes to Miniature Pigs. Some people have the idea that a miniature pig is one of the smallest pets out there on the market. Wrong wrong wrong.

When we are talking about a mini pig, the animal is miniature compared to a regular pig. Not compared to a dog. Mini pigs are bred to be small pigs, small compared to a pig that is raised to be butchered.
Mini pig owners get tired of hearing the same thing over and over, “Oh, I thought it was supposed to be small? That’s the biggest pig I have ever seen! Wasn’t it a tiny baby pig?” So to clear up this misconception, let’s all understand what a Pig is. Since the majority of the public doesn’t seem to know anything about this animal.

The most common pig is the “Domestic Pig” which is used primarily for the consumption of meat. These pigs are usually pink and are the image that usually comes to mind when people talk about pigs. Most people have never seen one of these pigs in real life so they have no idea how wrong they are when comparing them to miniature pigs.

The average domestic pig can weigh over 700lb and be over 5 feet long when full gown. Below is a picture of what that looks like next to a person.

These are photos of Esther the Wonder Pig who you can follow on facebook at this link https://www.facebook.com/estherthewonderpig/info/?tab=page_info.

Esther was adopted under the impression that she was a mini pig, but clearly Esther is a domestic pig. This is what typical pigs look like. They are huge! Hopefully this gives you a better understanding of how big an actual pig is. So it’s silly then to compare a mini pig to a standard pig.

And I have also heard, “I thought she was a tiny baby pig?!” Well we all start off that way don’t we? What pet out there can you buy as a baby that won’t grow as it ages? …. …. Hmm? Hmm? Got nothing? Babies grow! Animals get big as they mature, just like humans! Some don’t grow fast, some do grow fast, some get huge, some stay relatively small. But all of them grow!

So its ridiculous to see a tiny baby pig that’s 4 weeks old and think that it is going to stay that size for the rest of its life! But then again, that is the reason why so many dogs are in shelters right? “Oh I got it as a puppy and it grew. It was just so unexpected!”

So if you want a pet that will be tiny forever, the size of the pig in the photo below, then don’t get a pig! Get a teacup Chihuahua or a guinea pig instead.

So in regards to the size of a mini pig, they are not tiny pets. Teacup pig/mini pig is not in reference to a dog. As I keep saying, it is in comparison to a pig. Mini pigs will grow to be the size of medium to large dogs.

They can make great pets, but if a big dog is too much for you, then you have no business buying a pig! But if you are someone with space and means to enjoy the company of large dogs, then by all means a mini pig could be a great pet for you!

The photo below has a diagram of different size pigs. The real pig next to the woman is a mini pig. The other pigs are the standard size for different pig breeds, the pink one being a domestic pig and the very large pig is the one that holds the world record for size.

There is a lot of bad publicity of the supposed “Mini Pig Craze.” There are a lot of people that get these pigs and cannot handle them. But it’s not because “mini pig” is a made up lie to scam people out of money. The majority of cases that have gone bad are because of ignorance, people’s lack of understanding of what a mini pig really is. Either they don’t know what type of breed to buy or they buy the right one not understanding that a pig not a Chihuahua.

As always, research before you buy. For your own sake and the sake of the animal.

Photo credit above: Mary Efflandt

About Animal Care Expert Meghan Arriola
Meghan Arriola is an animal care consultant from Texas that spends her time promoting holistic wellbeing for humans and animals, while also caring for her many pets including dogs, ferrets, reptiles, goats and much more!
Copyright 2015 – All Rights Reserved MJ Arriola Creations LLC

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Understanding different types of working dogs.

10/12/2015

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Dogs are incredible smart animals that have been trained to help people for thousands of years. In modern times dogs have become even more essential to helping us humans survive. Some service dogs are the difference between life and death for disabled people. There are many working dogs and many ways in which our canine companions help us, so let’s first learn how to tell different working dogs apart. There has been several occasion that I have been in a store and someone points at me as says, “That is a search and rescue dog!” No, far from it. Search and rescue dogs are not allowed into grocery stores!

Police and Military dogs

These dogs are trained to work with officers and aid them in getting their job done. They are trained for different things such as drug detection, attack on demand, as well as many other things. These dogs are often trained to be aggressive while on the job. The officer must go through training in order to use a dog like this. These dogs are only out in public with trained officers that are on duty.

Search and Rescue dogs

These dogs are trained to help search teams find survivors after catastrophic events. These dogs were used during 9/11, are used during floods, tornados aftermaths, snow storms, etc. These dogs are not taken out in public unless they are educating the public about search and rescue teams or they are on the job searching for a person.

Therapy Dogs

Therapy dogs only going through basic training. This means that they are trained to obey simple commends, are house broken and have passed good behavior tests. These dogs are not trained to perform tasks. These dogs are taken to hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and other community environments where they relieve stress by greeting people and allowing themselves to be pet. These dogs are solely used to make people feel better emotionally. These dogs do not have access rights and are only allowed to go into places if the management of that location has agreed to let dog in.

Emotional Support Dogs

An emotional support dog is a dog needed by an individual for emotional reasons. An emotional support dog may by recommended by a doctor or psychiatric therapist. Under federal law, landlords are not allowed to charge extra fees for an emotional support dog and emotional support dogs are also allowed to board airplanes with their handler. Besides these two things, emotional support dogs do not have any access rights.

Service Dogs

A service dog is a dog that has been trained to perform tasks to help an individual with a disability. To qualify for a service dog you must be diagnosed with a disability by a medical doctor. Having a disability does not make a pet a service animal. The dog must be trained to help you with your disability. For example, if you have diabetes the dog must be trained to detect your blood sugar during spikes and drops and alert you. Service dogs are the only dogs with access rights. What this means is that your service dog is protected under The Americans with Disability Act to accompany you into all public places. If the public is allowed to enter, a service animal is allowed to enter. Which would mean that certain places are excluded, such as privately owned homes, and “employee only” places. Using a fake service dog is a federal offense! For example putting a puppy in your purse and entering a grocery store, stating that your dog is a service animal, is a federal offense and punishable by severe fines and possibly jail time.

These are the different types of working dogs and hopefully this article will help you in the future to identify what kind of working dog you are seeing. Keep up to date with my blog to learn more about service dogs and rights under the ADA. I am happy to answer any questions you have about service animals, so leave a comment!

About Animal Care Expert Meghan Arriola
Meghan Arriola is an animal care consultant from Texas that spends her time promoting holistic wellbeing for humans and animals, while also caring for her many pets including dogs, ferrets, reptiles, goats and much more!
Copyright 2015 – All Rights Reserved MJ Arriola Creations LLC

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Introduction to Pet Rat Care

10/5/2015

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Rats are awesome! Not only are rats extremely intelligent, I would say rats are arguably the cheapest pets to own. Rats, like any pet, is something you can end up spending a lot of money on, but if you are looking for something cost effective, rats are definitely it. The initial cost will always be the most expensive part of owning them and the cage will be where most of your money goes. Pet rats themselves can be purchased anywhere between $3 to $15. Cages start at around $20 and go up from there depending on how big and how elaborate it is. You can always build you own as well. Other essential items are, a food bowl and water bottle, as well as bedding. Then comes food, and I’m going to say this now, don’t buy rat food at a pet store! It is a waste of money!

Selecting a rat.
I always recommend adopting first. You can check local animal shelters, but usually rats are only available in pet stores. I recommend buying feeder rat pups. These will cost about $3 each and they will be around 6 weeks old. This is a perfect age to start taming them. For the most part these rats will be afraid of humans, but it is not hard to tame down a rat and it also does not take long. Start at an early age and work with them every day. When buying a feeder rat make sure that you check to see if it is healthy. These rats are often over bred and may have some problems. What to look for… Eyes, ears and nose are not runny, teeth are clean, straight and not too long, body is clean with no bite marks or tumor growths. Always keep at least two rats together. They are social animals and it considered animal cruelty to only have one.

Cage
The size of the cage really depends on how many rats you have. I start off two rat ups in a ten gallon tank for about two weeks. This makes it easy to catch them and handle them every day. After two weeks they should be tame enough to move to a better cage. A 30” x 18” x 18” cage is large enough for two rats provided that they are allowed to play outside of the cage on a regular basis. Provide a larger cage for to house more rats.

Items for the cage should include the following…

Bedding. There are different types of bedding that you can choose to go with. You can provide old blankets and towels; these will need to be washed every few days. Or you can go with shavings, cob, paper bedding, etc. There is a lot on the market. My favorite is recycled paper bedding for pets.
Hides. Your pet rats should have different places to hide and sleep. Hides in my rat cage currently include, a card board box, a soft material bag I sewed, a ferret banana hammock, and a flower pot. You can get as creative as you like when it comes to their hides.

Water bottle. For small animals it is important to have a water bottle. Putting water in a bowl causes unnecessary messes, makes the bedding smell bad sooner, and makes the whole cage dirtier. The animal will often step in its poo and then step in the water. Avoid all this and buy a bottle!
Food Bowl. Do not use anything plastic as a food bowl. Tupper wear and other similar items can be chewed by the rat (or any small rodent) and ingested. This will kill your pet. Safer options are a tin dog food bowl from the dollar store, or a ceramic bowl.

Toys. Rats are very intelligent and require a lot of brain stimulation to live happy lives. Toys are essential! There are plenty of rat toys you can buy at the store, but I have found homemade toys are usually more successful. For example, fill up a tub with rocks and sticks and then sprinkle treats throughout the tub. This will keep the rats busy for hours as they search through the rocks for toys. Follow my blog for more rat toy ideas.

And now we get down to food. Pet rat food sold at pet stores is a waste of money! You can keep pet rats and never buy a bag of rat food. Rats can eat almost any human food. Before they were pets, that is what they lived off of! You can provide a balanced meal to your pet rats buy giving them fresh food from your own kitchen every day! And this is another reason why I say rats are the cheapest pets. Provide your rat with fresh fruits, veggies, seeds, pastas, cheese, bread, grains, and seeds, and you will have very happy rats! Follow my blog to learn more about their diets. I will be talking more about what foods you can feed pet rats in another blog.

Pet rats are great pets for adults and responsible children. And, in my opinion they are the most economical pets to own!

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About Animal Care Expert Meghan Arriola - Meghan Arriola is an animal care consultant from Texas that spends her time promoting holistic wellbeing for humans and animals, while also caring for her many pets including dogs, ferrets, reptiles, goats and more!
Copyright 2015 All Rights Reserved MJ Arriola Creations LLC

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Mini Pig (Not Teacup Dog)

Understanding different types of working dogs.

Introduction to Pet Rat Care

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