40. Research for novel

From: jknight@spade.net
Category: General Discussion
Date: 1/31/03
Time: 10:28:44 AM
Remote Name: 63.192.148.164

40.1. Comments

I’m writing a middle grade novel that has a scene where a potbellied pig gives birth. If any of you could reply to any of the questions I have below I would be most grateful. Please send your reply to me via email: jknight@spade.net.

Here are my questions:

*I’m imagining a barn in which horses, chickens, roosters and pigs co-habitate. Anything wrong about that concept?

*I’m imagining if you walk in that barn at night time, they all wake up and start making a bunch of noise. It’s not like they’d be sleeping, right?

*I’ve written that the pig stays in a wooden compartment next to the horses. Is that okay? Or would she be outside? In a special cage?

*When a pig gives birth, is she on her side? Squatting?

*I’ve read you wouldn’t go near a pig in labor because she’s liable to bite. But you would go help if a piglet got stuck or something? I’ve also read the pig will ignore piglet one until piglet two is born and so on, true?

*In my story, after the two piglettes are born, the characters go in and start cleaning them off and pet them. Would the mother pig allow this?

*Any details you can offer about what piglets look like or how they act when they are born or afterward? (The mother is a black potbellied pig)

Thanks so much! Julie Knight jknight@spade.net