Tatty and Pet are the piglets of Mama and Papa Meagles.Â
Like their parents, they are miniature pigs. They arrived at Far From with Mama and Papa after being born at a rescue centre.Â
Pet is just like her mother – very laid back and loves cuddles in bed. Activity isn’t her favourite thing; in fact she tends to need a treat ball to get her moving. Due to overbreeding that makes miniature pigs so small, many are born with problems. Sadly, this is the case for Pet. Her front legs are deformed and her movement is laboured. She’s not in discomfort but it does slow her down – she’s on pain relief daily, and will be until she no longer enjoys life.
Tatty is one of the most active animals on the farm. She loves mud and, on rainy days, she’ll be playing in it nearly all day. She is a happy, friendly little pig who loves exercise – an unusual quality for a pig. She is one-of-a-kind.Â
Mama, Papa, Pet and Tatty all thrive on human contact. If it’s not dinner time and they hear you coming, they’ll call for you to come and join them in bed. All of them love cuddles and tummy rubs,
Fun fact: all our pigs are named after characters in Charles Dickens’ classic novel Little Dorrit.Â
UPDATE: Sadly Pet is no longer with us. Her deformity became unmanageable and the kindest thing was to have her put to sleep. May our little Pet rest in peace.
Like most of our wonderful rescue animals, Tatty and Pet require lots of love and looking after. Whilst we’ve got the cuddles sorted, we need some help with the more expensive things. If you’d like to gift Tatty and Pet some vegetables for snacking, straw bedding or even a treat toy, we’d all be extremely grateful.Â
We opened the Far From Holiday Retreat in order to provide us with funds to enable us to continue our work with these beautiful animals. All new arrivals must be microchipped and passported (and normally they aren’t), vaccinated three times, rasped, wormed and given a general health check by the vet – with the majority requiring many more visits to ensure that they are happy and healthy.
If you are unable to come and visit us, you can still help us to continue our work by supporting us financially. We have included a couple of options below.
The pig nuts have everything they need to keep them healthy, however pigs are intelligent animals with a love for food, so a variation in their diet is important. After living with a house pig we clearly see that their appreciation for different flavours and textures is much greater than dogs.
We use Badminton Country Pig Nuts for all of our pigs as it’s a high quality protein source and contains digestible cereal which is great to support their growth and encourages a balanced diet.
Pigs love digging around and sleeping in a deep bed of Barley straw as it offers comfort, warmth and the ability to carry out natural behaviour. Even our house pig has a deep bed of straw in the house.
Pigs need forage and love chomping and squeaking on a bit of hay each day. Often consumed in a horizontal position by the more lazy members of the parcel.
We use Badminton Country Pig Nuts for all of our pigs as it’s a high quality protein source and contains digestible cereal which is great to support their growth and encourages a balanced diet.
The pig nuts have everything they need to keep them healthy, however pigs are intelligent animals with a love for food, so a variation in their diet is important. After living with a house pig we clearly see that their appreciation for different flavours and textures is much greater than dogs.
These treat toys encourage activity, mental stimulation and helps make a happy pig. The pigs love their treat toys and they keep them entertained for hours each week. They are used everyday with our house pig but you have to keep changing the toys around each day, keeping things new and fresh
We have extended the pig pens and are creating an orchard for the pigs to enjoy. Rooting around is a natural behaviour for pigs and helps stimulate these intelligent animals, mentally and physically. An apple tree will give them years of food and entertainment.