Selfsufficientish.com

I don't keep animals other than a cat ... but the weekend while away I spotted some sheep on a lottie site ... errrrrrr not sheep they were pigs ... woolly pigs ... having got closer to them it looked more like long curly hair ... I didnt touch them at all as I was about to have my picnic ... and no way of cleaning my hands, I would like to know if they are soft or course to the touch... I thought them lovely ... and yes I addmit my first thought was can I spin that ... lol

They're so cute, and just a little confusing

Have a look at this http://www.pigparadise.com/curly.html

WOW ... what a story ... thanks for the link... rare breed and theres two of them in Shropshire .... My fella reckoned a ram got in with the pigs ...

mangalitza

I dont know if anyone has tried spinning their wool yet...imagine it would smell a tad piggy though

They're Hungarian or some where similar,people have tried to make them popular,as they are similar to the now extinct Lincolnshire Curly Coated pig.

Aren't they cutel? I especially like the Red Mangalitza, looks like it has used henna! It seems such a shame they died out in UK and a real triumph to bring them back again!

they are indeed mangalitaz they seek to be making quite the impression on smallholders not so much farmers as they are a new breed to england from wat i know of them

I've just read GA's link and what a lovely story!

Dont take this the wrong way,but I'm a bit dubious about breeds of any domesticated animal that are primarily cute,the last thing we need is another debacle like the pot-bellied nonsense of a few years ago,when a pbpig became THE thing to have,and loads ended up getting dumped on animal shelters all over the place(though given the new keeping regs I accept that is less likely to happen now).This breed died out because nobody thought it worth keeping here,and thats not just a result of more intensive production,many other really rare free range breeds did survive,and are now expanding because they were of pracical value to the small-scale pig-keeper.I've not kept them,and they may be brilliant, I'm just wary of people looking at farm animals as just pets,and that's primarily for animal welfare reasons.

I've seen these pigs kept on farms in Surrey were essentially they were kept as something different from the neighbours pigs!! Well off people kept them and I suppose to a certain degree they were pets that they paid somebody else to care for!!
Apparently their meat does taste good but they don't fatten up well, that's just what I've been told I've no experience of it myself. Personally I don't think they r that cute looking although coming from a farming background I do tend to look at animals by the quality of the cuts we could get of them!!!
I'd be interested to know if anybody has managed to spin there wooly coat!!!
Hopefully the new licencing regs should prevent people keeping them as pets in unsuitable conditions. Xx

Well I love pigs and think they are cute but I don't find these woolly curly ones cute at all - they look more like wild boars just curly. I can't imagine anyone wanting them as pets, anyway the in thing these days are those miniature pigs that all the celebs now have instead of dogs.