We have a 3 month old male pot belly (he is neutered, litter box trained, leash trained, sit, stay) some Problems we are having: he eats paint off the walls, roots and digs off drywall, he pretty much gets into everything: underneath our sofa he pulls off the lining and eats it, he tries to root up carpet, floor boards, door stops, rugs, pretty much anything that he can reach he wants to sabotage!

A bit about his environment: he gets to go outside one day a week to root and be a pig (this is the best we can offer him at our current residence: we where told by our breeder that pigs are 100% content on indoor living only…but I think that he gets restless being inside all day. We work 10 hr days so he is in his kennel for that long 5 days a week) we have a dog (shes older and does not really pay to much attention to our pig they play every once in a while) and other exotics (our guinea pigs love Othello, he will just lay down and let them clean him) which are caged, we feed him ½ a cup (Mazuri Adult potbelly pig feed) twice a day plus 1 cup a veggies twice a day (are we feeding him the right amount?), we have toys for him but he gets bored with them easily and moves onto more lucrative items such as walls!!

When he acts up we will either tell him NO!! and if he stops we will change our tone and verbally give him praise. When he does something really bad like eat paint and drywall we will put him in his kennel for about 15 min in time out and tell him NO!!!! Most of the time NO in a upset authoritative voice is not sufficient he will simply wait until your distracted or you leave the room and then he will go right back to doing the wrong action. We are feeling a bit overwhelmed because he needs to be watched every second he is out of his kennel! I have read that getting another pig (female) might help so he could have a playmate and when he matures and tries to establish his place in his herd he would not shows signs of aggression towards us but towards the other pig in the house. Thank you for your time. Please help!!

Hi! i have joined a group PigINFOandCHAT @ yahoo groups. They are very experienced and deal alot w/ rescue so they may be able to be a big help. The woman running it has a book out for helping w/ rooting etc.. you mentioned you bought him from a breeder would you mind telling me who and where because i am looking to buy and there are not many who are coming through as reputable. From all the posts etc.. i have read it is very normal for them to become destructive while bored. The people at piginfo should be able to help.

Phoebe

Don't know really where to start but....
Looks like you have a typical pig!
He's quite young yet and has the whole world to explore and is just keeping himself busy.
I believe males are probably more active than females anyway but I would say either one needs much more time outside than just once a week. Mine goes out every day. (especially for her bathroom duties) I have also found they find drywall tasty for some reason too! If you got another one, you'd probably just have twice as much destruction. He'll settle down when he gets older. If you do get a female for a buddy, she'll have to be spayed or you'll have to deal with her heat cycles. (not something you want to deal with in the house)
Mine would also root up carpet where she liked to lay so I put heavy rubber anti-fatigue mats in those spots. She root those but they are to tough for her to tear up. If you want to give her something to rip up then give her some newspapers. Mine loved to rip them up and roll around in them. Be careful there isn't anything plastic like ink pens or plastic shopping bags laying around, they'll eat them like chewing gum. Once, when she was pooping, I saw something hanging out of her rear end so I pulled on it and about 8 inches of a walmart shopping bag came out. Sounds funny but that could have been bad news had it gotten stuck and plugged her up. If your pig has access to cabinets, be sure there isn't anything hazardous that could be reached. Mine had no problem opening cabinets, even the drawers!
Pigs are very curious, especially when young so they need much more of your attention than when they are older. Mine will be 8 years old this winter and about all she ever does is sleep.
I guess in a way, they are sort of like dogs. When a dog is a puppy, they are always up to something, like chewing or digging, but not so much when they get older.
Of course now, you still will have that challenging thing to overcome when your pig gets older like between 1 and 5 years old. Kind of like when a parent has teenagers.
I love my pig very much but I doubt if I'd ever get another one!
It's very hard to get a pig to conform to your lifestyle. It's much more easy to just adjust to theirs. (pig proof your house)
They are not stupid animals by any means and can quickly figure out stuff. They know what NO means but you have to keep in mind that they also are pig headed and will test your authority! If you ever visit a hog farm that ranges hogs, you'll see they bicker and argue with each other. It's just what they do. Of course you are part of the herd now and will treat you no different.
I hate to see so many folks get a pet pig, thinking they can train them to conform to their busy lifestyle and then find they are too much to handle.
Pet pigs do need lots of ourdoor time or place outside they can just be a pig. That way, coming inside will be a treat for them and they will be much more behaved. It's not good for them to be cooped up inside all day.
Mine has a place (shelter) outside and plenty of yard and stays out all day and then comes in for the evening. She seems happy with that arrangement and I don't have to worry what she's up to in the house when I'm gone.

Your pig is behaving badly because he's BORED. Pigs don't make excellent house pets, I don't care what any breeder says! They are primarily outside pets! They need to be able to dig and root and roll in the mud like a "normal" pet. Although they like sleeping and laying around, which they can do inside quite nicely, they aren't going to be happy inside, and especially in a kennel for long periods of time. Especially since your pig is quite young.

I don't know what you can do with him.. it's not a good situation. The more you put him in the kennel, the more aggressive he's going to be. I don't think getting the pig without being able to let him be outside for at least part of the day was a good idea.

My pig has a kennel with a roof on it outside and I leave the door open so she can come or go. She chooses to spend most of the day in there. It's hot here in Louisiana and I have a fan turned on in there for her.
Sometimes I have to go get her so she can come into the house in the evening.
She's 8 years old though and prefers to lay around more than anything now.

Pigs are very social animals. If you are gone 10 hours a day 5 days a week he is probaly getting VERY bored. Even though he has a guinea pig a dog and toys to play with they probaly aren't the same as another pig. If you have the money why not consider getting another pig to keep him company? I had 4 outside pet pigs and I hardly saw them seprate when they did wander away from each other if one of them relized it it would go running over to it sqealing with the others following.