Introducing... Dante piglet, Hilda's secret chocolate-ginger filling!

PigglePuggle

PigglePuggle

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2023-03-09 10.42.20.webp
It's been very hard to keep Hilda's secret, a secret- but we are 4 days old now and gaining weight and running round eating hay, so...
This is baby Dante- short for Dantyllew, Welsh for dandelion! Dante appeared early on Sunday morning, after a mysterious and rather worrying pregnancy with very little maternal weight gain- weighing a healthy 86g.
Hilda was one of The Potteries new year school rescue piggies, all those poor girls pregnant to naughty Romeo and kept outside in the winter...
Dante was born 64 days after rescue, Romeo's next-to-last attempt at overwhelming every foster home in North West England with partly ginger babies!
Hilda has been keeping me and Auntie @VickiA guessing for weeks whether she would deliver successfully, and when, with a positive pregnamcy scan before we brought her home, then no weight gain- but paws crossed, Dante seems healthy and growing and Hilda is a very good mum :)
 
It’s such a relief that mum & pup are doing so well. If it weren’t for the scan at 5 weeks we really would not have had much indication of this pregnancy as Hilda hid it so well. It’s no surprise that the very beautiful and very petite Hilda has produced a very beautiful (but not so petite) pup.
We are so grateful that @PigglePuggle took the family group as unit even when the scan showed a tiny moving pup fetus. Poor @PigglePuggle has had such an anxious weight to find out what Hilda was hiding under her skirts. She’s done great job with these lovely ladies. So it’s time for great relief and much joy all round.
 
Just to add, huge thanks to @VickiA for trusting me with a malnourished pregnant rescue piggy, and providing so much advice and support! And of course @Wiebke 's forum pregnancy and birth guides have been really helpful too.
Really rewarding to have a successful birth, after all the bereavements of last year/early this year- we are back to 8 piggies! :)
 
Pound Shilling & Pig said:
Welcome to the world Dante! I am glad all is well with you and your mum. Are you a boy or a girl? I hope you will be able to stay with your family.
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We don't know yet whether Dante is a boy or a girl, Auntie @VickiA is coming to visit and check this out soon.
But Dante is staying with us, even if we have to make some adjustments or temporary foster plans until safely post-neuter if Dante is a boy. Couldn't give this cutie back lol!
 
poggle said:
Such a sad situation but my goodness, what a cutie! 😍
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Dante is beautiful, but the whole situation before rescue (and the consequences after rescue) is such an awful example of uncontrolled breeding- every female rescued was pregnant, including probably a teenage daughter pregnant to dad... and older ladies who had probably been pregnant back to back their whole lives...
We are very lucky with Dante, but the risks were huge, and even the successful rescue births have produced a massive number of babies needing fostering, then neutering for the boys, then rehoming- the rescue was just before new year, but this is 6 months of ongoing work for The Potteries team, at full capacity, just with the wives and babies from one very amorous ginger boar!
 
PigglePuggle said:
Dante is beautiful, but the whole situation before rescue (and the consequences after rescue) is such an awful example of uncontrolled breeding- every female rescued was pregnant, including probably a teenage daughter pregnant to dad... and older ladies who had probably been pregnant back to back their whole lives...
We are very lucky with Dante, but the risks were huge, and even the successful rescue births have produced a massive number of babies needing fostering, then neutering for the boys, then rehoming- the rescue was just before new year, but this is 6 months of ongoing work for The Potteries team, at full capacity, just with the wives and babies from one very amorous ginger boar!
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Don't want to make everyone sad, but I think its really important to emphasise that although baby piggies are adorable, they put a huge drain on the mums, and frisky un-neutered males are a menace! Piggy pregnancy and birth are so risky, and what to do with babies is logistically and emotionally very challenging (males needing separating at 3 weeks, and very few vets can sex them that young, then they can't be neutered until 4 months so need a different cage and companions, then there's the neutering operation to get through and 6 weeks post-neuter wait to reunite with mum and sisters, then only 1 male to a group) so really shouldn't ever be done deliberately.
Adopting a pregnant piggy was a big decision for us, and we only did this as experienced piggy people liasing closely with a rescue and wanting to fill a 4 pig gap after a series of old age and cancer bereavements!
 
It should also be added that the rescue would not have agreed to Hilda’s adoption whilst pregnant with any other proposed adopter. This was an exceptional set of circumstances with an exceptional home offered to the group by the lovely @PigglePuggle and Piggy Daddy who went ahead with the adoption in spite of the circumstances. It’s been very stressful for them during the waiting period. I’m looking forward to eyeballing Dante and doing a hands on sexing on due course. Meanwhile it’s so lovely to see that they are thriving in this wonderful home.
 
What a lovely little bundle, and very healthy looking, too! Love the name. :love:

Great that all has gone well and that Dante was a perfectly comfortable birth weight for a smooth birth for his mum.
Births are exciting but they always come with a lot of anxiety; especially at the very end, don't they? It is always such a relief when the babies are out and all has gone well.

Glad that our forum guides and info have helped you. And that you have been able to help out as a foster-adopter home that qualifies for both roles and has the full trust of the rescue - the same as I did with my little Cornish family last October. You can't miss who is my babies' dad, either! :)

Hilda will soon have time to fully rebuild her own body and enjoy the rest of her life in your good care and in a stable environment. You'll know when the nutrients have finally fully arrived when she has a mad weight gain spurt but that is still a couple of months away, or even a few weeks more; it can be up to 50g in a week and give you a bit of the wobbles. ;)

Enjoy the short days of puphood! Babies grow so fast that about every two days they jump another develoment hurdle.
 
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