The Pet Pig Podcast · Episode 53 · December 26, 2023 · 48 min

53. Merlin the Pig - With Mina

***This episode is sponsored by Hold Onto Your Hooves*** Hold Onto Your Hooves can be found at https://www.instagram.com/hold_onto_your_hooves and HTTP://Facebook.com/holdontoyourhooves Mina Alali is a 26 year old from Sacramento, California, who grew up loving animals but expanded her love for exotics through adopting her first pet (all to herself), Mochi, a bearded dragon. Through lots of time together during Covid, she began to train Mochi like a dog. Mochi mastered tricks such as: come here, high five, kiss, wait for his food (bugs), and even to use Mina's hand as stairs. Mina amassed over 700,000 followers on TikTok through sharing videos about training and daily life with Mochi. Over the next two years, Mina would adopt rats, another bearded dragon, and a pet pig - Merlin. Mina adopted Merlin in March of 2022. Merlin specifically, brought in surge of followers, who loved to see his ability to communicate through buttons, pre-recorded with Mina's voices, incorporating humor in phrases like, "Dance With Me Mommy," "Ice Cube, Ice Cube!" and "Pay attention to me right now," among others. Mina has shown the world just how intelligent and emotional animals can be, given the time, space, patience, and positive reinforcement. Mina had heard about mini pigs but also knew that micro pigs were not a real thing. And that if they were they were probably being underfed and wouldn't be healthy. She learned that a mini pig is anything under 300 pounds. She also learned that someone could sell you a mini pig but you wouldn't really know until 3 or 4 years down the line because they grow so slow. She wasn't concerned about the size very much but at the time she lived in an apartment. So she knew she did want a mini pig because she wasn't sure when she would move next. She loves to rescue but she found a very nice place called California Mini Pigs so she reached out to them and they sent her the names of a few pigs and then they said "Oh and then there is Peter." She asked about him and they told her that he was the older of their pigs and 2 homes had fallen through for him already and he was 50% off. She asked for pictures of him and they sent her a picture of Merlin and she decided to take him. She feels that even though he was through a breeder she decided to get him because he hadn't been picked so far. She noticed that people always want the smallest and youngest pigs they can get and that didn't matter to her. She knows that all pigs grow. 48 hours later she was driving 4 hours north to go pick him up. She had spent the whole day before prepping and getting the necessary things she needed for him. There is always a learning curve because every pig has its own personality, so you have to learn what their experience has been and what they need. Bringing Merlin home was such an exciting thing. She has a video of her crying on the drive up to get him because she was so excited. He was totally calm in the kennel in the car and slept the entire drive home. When they got home she opened the kennel and had a trail of food leading out of it. He was definitely curious and very food motivated. He got used to her presence very quickly because at that point Mina worked from home so she was spending 24/7 with him. The first night he slept in the kennel she had set up for him but every day since then he has slept in bed with her cuddling her. Mina did so much training when she first got him that he got used to a leash very fast. She noticed right away that he was so attentive and smart. From the beginning she could sense that so she started teaching the typical dog tricks to him. He learned each of his tricks within 5 minutes or less. As long as there was food involved, training was not very hard at all. The biggest thing he needed to adjust to was being picked up like most pigs. With training he got used to being picked up within a week or two. He would do hot pants (a way of showing affection from a pig) within a couple days of being home when Mina would be out to run an errand or two. Mina was able to establish that she was the boss in the house very quickly. She was pretty adamant that she would have positive discipline right away so that she would not have spoiled pig syndrome to deal with. She really did her best to avoid it at all costs. She is very glad she did that early on. Also, on their walks (3x's a day) she would bring treats with her and when people would be excited to see him she would offer to let them give him a snack. She feels that this is why he is so comfortable with people and such a people lover. He is not aggressive at all and just loves people. Mina shares some of the other things she has trained Merlin to do. She potty trained him to go potty outside. She had a litter box inside but gave him treats every time he would go potty outside. She also got those buttons that you can record your voice on to train him to use. The first button Merlin had was "outside". When she would put his harness and leash on him and then press the button herself so he would associate that button with going outside. The way she would train him to press the button was to boop the button on his nose. Then they would go outside and as soon as they were outside she would give him a treat. That has been so helpful because now he will press the button and tell her when he needs to go outside to go to the bathroom. Merlin grew out of the litter box phase. She moved in March 2023 and he hasn't had a single accident in this house. If Mina isn't home he will hold it and go to the bathroom outside as soon as she gets home again. Merlin has about 20 buttons that he uses at this point. The easiest one to teach him was hungry. He also knows his water button. If he goes to his bowl and it is empty he will press the button so Mina knows to fill it again. Those are his practical buttons but he also has fun ones. He has one button that says "Pay attention to me right now". He loves to press that button when she is preparing