Do you let your piggies free roam in the Garden

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mshappy89

mshappy89

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My lawn is fenced off from rest of the Garden. I'm thinking of letting the piggies free roam during run time. They would be supervised. We don't get any cats or anything in our Garden.
 
My mums garden is all fenced off and she lets her two rabbits roam in the garden, supervised. Aslong as you supervise them they should be fine :)
 
If the lawn is fenced off and it's supervised time then it sounds great! I unfortunately have to put my piggies in runs because they're not supervised 100% of the time, we might be in or around the garden and check on them occasionally but they're not being watched. We do also have a cat and although he's not bothered by the pigs in runs I think it might be a different story if they were free to roam and err be chased!
 
We have a secure garden, but I still wouldn't risk the girls free ranging, we live quite close to the sea and have woodlands about 500 yrds away so we have the threat of seaguls and birds of prey attacking them.
 
Back when I had only a couple, I have let my piggies roam free (always under my supervision) once I had made sure that they mastered the "come back into the shuttle" procedure.

I have spent many happy hours watching my piggies explore, snooze under a bush and build a race course through the hot border while I was gardening. Especially Minx and Mischief couldn't wait to go out; it was the highlight of their day.

My garden is also completely fenced in and I always went and checked for any holes rats and other animals may have made. Sadly, we had a series of winters when we got rats squatting in the garden, so that put an end to the roaming. I can't do it with so many piggies now; that was one of the compromises I had to make.

You still have to beware of poisonous plants, birds of prey, foxes, dogs that somebody has let roam lose and the neighbourhood cat; and you need to provide shelters dotted around and within easy reach - most piggies take time to get used to wide open spaces and will always need a safe place to run to if spooked by a sudden noise. You also need to develop a pick up ritual if you want to avoid the flight instinct kicking in with merry chases at the end.
 
No, my garden is small but id worry about them getting under the decking and getting stuck and although my cats are not bothered by them - only takes once or the neighbours cat coming in - and if they got next door daisy the dog would kill them without a second thoughts.

So definitely not, they live in a run/hutch and I have a run they can go in unsupervised.
 
I wouldn't let mine roam free even if it was securely fenced against cats etc ( and it would have to be a high fence to keep cats out! ) you've still got the threat from birds of prey ( and they are silent and fast hunters - piggies may not make it to cover in time ). Even if that wasn't a worry I'd have to be 100% that the entire lawn was composed entirely of benign plants which is almost impossible if you live in the country as you've always got seeds blowing in from the surrounding countryside which is why I check each area of grass that I put the piggies run on very carefully before putting them out ( the neighbours must think I'm nuts walking around with a run in one arm whilst peering at the ground and randomly pulling out bits of lawn! lol! ).:))
 
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I've let them out a few times and they seem to love it.
 
I live in a flat and sadly don't have a garden for the pigs but my lives 20 mins away and has a huge garden in which she has fenced off the plants as she has free range rabbits which love to have a nibble of anything. I take the pigs up when I can and they just stayed at my parents for 2 weeks when I was in mexico. When I came back they had mastered getting in and out of the back door and would run round the whole garden.....they loved it.

They are always supervised though as we do get cats/foxes/birds of pray.
 
I have a large garden and couldn't let them roam free. We have an unpredictable dog and a cat. Next door also keep pigeons so its a definite no for us.
To be honest I think it would be difficult to get them back as they are not easy to catch even in a small place.
 
I wish I could, but no. Our garden is far too big and there are too many places they could get lost. There's no way they can get out of the garden, but if one were to make a dash for the log pile/our overgrown bit where we get a lot of frogs and insects, we'd never find them!

I had a couple of boys a good few years ago now and they did free roam, but they followed me everywhere if they saw me move, so they never strayed from where they were allowed (patio/upper part of the garden where we have the runs now). We have too many guinea pigs for this to be possible now, and they're nowhere near as friendly and laid back as my boys were!
 
Everywhere is fenced off really well. They dont go to far at all and are very easy to catch :)
 
Mine have a large run, but occasionally I leave the gate open when I'm sat in the garden, they seem to have fun exploring, my garden is escape proof and has no dodgy plants growing apart from grass, dandelions and clover, which the piggies wolf down in large quantities! :)
 
I dont let me piggie out on the garden to roam unfortunatly. He does have a large run which he stays in most of the day to graze etc and we can leave him unsupervised.
We have lots of cats around this area and they can easilly scale the 6 foot fences but our dog keeps most at bay. I would love to let him have free range of the garden but just wouldnt feel at ease doing so, At least when he is in his run, I know he is protected from preditors
 
My 4 girls free range, we live in a new build house (it's 4 months old) and our garden is about 15-20 foot long and about 12 ft wide (ish) we are in the middle of a terrace and one side has a large Stafi (so no cats come near) and the estate is still being built so no birds either. They love having free range and are used to the kids now, so they just stay near the hutch when the kids are about and when the kids aren't there they venture wherever. We actually had panic stations last week as one of my big girls Meg wasn't in the hutch or on the grass, they can't get anywhere as we proffed the garden with lawn guard stuff from Wilkinson's, but we couldn't find her, so me and my hubby were looking everywhere, she was in the section behind our shed (which is plenty room, so not stuck) eating dandylions!
 
My garden has a surrounding fence, but it isn't fully secure. I do, however, let my boys roam from time to time as I know they'll stick together and won't go anywhere silly - the girls, on the other hand, are a different story and are not trusted! :))

I always watch them, but I haven't let them roam for a bit because we've just got a kitten and he's using the garden as his own personal jungle right now! rolleyes
 
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