New mini pig owners usually worry the first time their piglet foams at the mouth, but foaming at the mouth is completely normal for mini pigs. Mini pigs foam at the mouth in anticipation of food which, in Oscar’s case, means he foams most of the day. He foams when it’s within a few hours of meal time, when he thinks about food, and even when I’m cooking and he smells food.
When Oscar was really young, he foamed only lightly in the corners of his mouth. It was cute and endearing to see baby Oscar so excited about his next meal. Before we had our schedule down, the foaming was even occasionally helpful in reminding me that it was Oscar’s dinner time (his squealing tipped me off if I fed him too late).
Now that Oscar is a little older, he produces so much foam that it gets on everything. We regularly have foam on the floor, us, our clothing, appliances, and walls. The foam quickly dries and doesn’t have a scent, so it’s usually not an issue. In fact, Oscar getting foam on our arm or pants as he brushes up against us is one of the things we find so entertaining about him.
However, it took some time for me to relax about foam on the floor. We have hardwood floors, and the foam leaves a slightly noticeable mark when it dries. It wipes up quickly and easily, but it bothered me at first when Oscar foamed on my newly mopped floors. For full disclosure, I am a bit uptight when it comes to cleaning so, if you aren’t, you probably won’t even notice foam on the floor. With time, I’ve learned to relax about the foam on the floor and accept it as part of owning a mini pig.
Now that I’m used to his foam on the floor, the biggest downside is that it’s slippery until it dries. Since the foam dries quickly, it’s not a huge hazard, but it is a concern if you don’t watch your step. We usually just walk around his foam but, if you’re concerned, it’s an easy problem to solve by just wiping up the area.
Mini pig foam is a part of owning Oscar that we didn’t expect. It’s not my favorite part, but it can be really cute and has few real downsides. Anytime his foam bothers me, I remind myself that the daily joy and entertainment Oscar provides heavily outweighs a bit of foam on the floor.
Hey! I have a mini female pig and she is around 8 months old. She has a biting problem. Not toward me, (well, sometimes) but to my dog. Even if he is just walking past her, she chases him and bites him. She doesn’t go away from him, my dog just runs away from her and she chases him. When she does it, we flick the side of her face lightly and put her in her playpen. What should I do?
Hi Ava! That’s a tough situation, and we’ve had a really similar problem between Oscar and our dog, Rylee. We go through phases where they tolerate each other and then phases where Oscar goes after Rylee in about the same way as you described with your two. Since I never know when we’ll go from the friendly phase to the fighting phase, I never feel comfortable leaving them alone which at least I’m used to by now. Even if I run out to grab the mail, I put one of them in a crate just to separate them. Unfortunately, since we are still dealing with their arguing, I haven’t found a way to fix the biting issue between Oscar and Rylee. I used to intervene a lot and would pick my dog up and remove her from the situation, but I noticed that the fighting was getting worse. Now, I keep a very close eye on them when they start to get into it, but I try to let them work it out as much as I can. They are both small at this point, so I can quickly swoop in if I need to and make sure I’m at least standing close to them when one of them starts up with the other, but I do my best to wait and see if they need my intervention. Usually one of them will get distracted or run off and things are fine for a while, but I’m always there just in case. Our issue is that neither one of them is willing to just allow the other one to be dominant, so we’ve been in this dominance battle for months and months. I have hopes that the fighting will stop when one of them gives in and just allows the other one to be the dominant of them, but I’m still waiting to see. I’m not sure if what we’re doing is the best course of action, but it’s simply what I’m in the process of trying now. Of course, if you think there’s any concern of your two out of hand working things out between them, I wouldn’t recommend trying it. Here’s a post where I wrote more about our mini pig and dog challenges in case you want to check it out: http://lifewithaminipig.com/our-mini-pig-and-dog-are-enemies-again/.