Phew, final 6!
Oliver was up for sale online. His pictures were so depressing, his eye was ulcerated from the straw they were feeding (no hay at all) and his cage was suspiciously clean, his hair shaved short to hide what was probably filthy matted hair considering the bits they'd missed. After talking to his owners and arranging to take him I was asked if I wanted a female too, his sister. Oliver was supposed to be a female when purchased from a breeder, so he and his sister had babies. The males kept with Ol, and the females with his sister. 3 males is rarely a good idea, of course the baby boys grew up and attacked Oliver so he was separated, they didn't have room for multiple cages so decided to sell him. Unfortunately their 2 daughters had died recently leaving the sister all alone so they also wanted rid of her.. I immediately agreed to take her also, didn't even see a picture of recieve any details, if her brother was anything to go by, she also needed out of there.
So off I went, the night of November the 5th, the first day of the 2nd lockdown, not a single soul anywhere to be seen.. the date had already been confirmed, prior to the lockdown being announced so we figured we would take our chances. When we got them both home, they were both a mess. Oliver was skin and bone, his back legs too weak to support his weight very well, blisters on the bottoms of his feet, bits of matted hair and poop on his feet. He drank like he'd never seen water before, his kidneys had been damaged by starvation. It took a good 6 months or so to get him healthy again, after which he went with Finley to be castrated by my vet, he recovered without issue and rejoined his sister in the largest herd of ladies, living his best life!
Lily was another pet shop purchase, after Tillys daughter passed away after an accident, Finley was relentlessly mounting and chasing her, the buffer of another female had been lost and now poor special needs Tilly was being hounded, so on the way back from dropping Hazel off at the crematorium I stopped at the petstore I got Bailey and Pippin from and found a tiny little white baby all alone, of course, because white and black animals are always the last to find a home. But to me she is absolutely gorgeous, an absolute character, I didnt see her for the first few days, she was terrified, I was tempted to change her name to Ghost at one point
but eventually she learned I wasn't going to eat her, food bribery and copying adults is usually more than enough for them to find a bit of courage! She is the first and only pig of over 50 to make me have to baby proof a cage, the little bugger kept putting her head through the cage grids to nose at the other piggies. Obviously I couldn't let her continue as eventually she would get big enough for her head to get stuck which can cause fatal injuries so now that cage has ugly wire mesh all around it but she's safe, although she is still a nosy little madam!
Iris is Amber's sister, I had seen her lovely lilac bum disappearing into the hay and houses several times over the course of about 2 weeks, I'd even taken Forrest and Silver over to say hello one day after their vet visit
in the end I had to inquire about them, the staff weren't sure what sex they were so tried to catch little Iris to have a look, with zero success! So instead they managed to grab Amber. As soon as I saw how similar the pair were to my Daisy and Delilah I decided stuff it, I'll have them. They were kept reserved out the back for me as they had to be checked by the vet first as they potentially had mites but ended up being clear. So off I went the next day to pick them up.
Iris has always been the more timid of the 2, although she does enjoy trying to yank my fingernails off if I dare to boop her nose
Bailey is Pippins sister, Bailey was the more fearful of the 2 and Pippins bullying did nothing so solve her fear aggression. Between us though we actually managed to find a new way of bonding adult piggies so not all bad!
Bailey helps Paddington lead his herd, and keeps the other girls in line. She can be a little moody but the others are all quite similar so it doesn't bother them at all
Fern is Olivers sister, she was in an even worse state than he was which probably explains why I wasn't sent any pictures of her after I'd agreed to take her. She was also skin and bone, I have never had to rehabilitate such a thin animal before and it was months before we managed to get weight to stick to her, my vet had warmed me she likely wouldn't live a very long life.
Upon inspection when I got her home her feet were absolutely encrusted with poo, it took several soaks to get it all off and found underneath that she (or a rat at somepoint maybe, through the bars?) Had bitten off the end of several of her toes. Half of the nails on her front feet are extremely deformed, growing upwards, sideways, curled, straight, thick..any which way but how they're meant to, and her little foot pads are more like primate hands than piggy feet.
Poor Fern also suffered what we believe to be a miscarriage as she passed a fair amount of blood and discharge one day and lost another good chunk of weight, while sad, if she was pregnant it likely would have killed her so really losing them was the best thing for her.
We were told that their 2 daughters were frightened to death by fireworks, but we believe it was more likely that they starved, given the conditions Fern and Oliver came in.
Fern has grown into a huge girl, lovely and chunky, happy, and healthy minus the deformities and we had her and Oliver 2 years this 5th of November!
And lastly we have Biscuit. I first saw Biscuit and her sister being sold by their breeder. Texels are my absolute favourite breed so it took a lot to resist buying them! But I saw their new owner posting about them on Facebook so I figured that was that. Until one day I was checking pigs for adoption on the selling site, they were badly stunted from not being fed properly and this time I immediately reached out to offer them a home. They were absolutely terrified, the previous owners cat and dog liked to sit and watch them intently which had scared the life out of them. It took a lot of hard work but eventually they both became beautiful, big adults! Sadly Biscuits sister Coco passed away at the beginning of the year, from sudden heart failure, her post mortem seemed to suggest she had been born with this ticking time bomb and eventually it went off. Biscuit has been thoroughly checked out, and for now all I can do is cross my fingers and give her lots of good days in case we lose her prematurely too. But she's a happy little thing, blissfully unaware of the stress she causes me
Thank goodness you found them when you did. It is so lucky you have space for so many piggies. 