WE’VE GOT YOU BABE
THIS boxer dog has become the piggy in the middle. ‘Treasure’ happily nurses eight hungry piglets on a Wongawallan property as if they were her own pups.
TREASURE the Boxer dog is making a pig of herself.
Bringing home the bacon. Pork barrelling. Hamming it up. Going the whole hog.
Whatever way you look at it the former stray is giving new life to eight piglets that arrived at her Wongawallan home two weeks ago in poor health.
“She’s just a natural mother ... and started taking care of them,” said Treasure’s owner Wes Trevor of the overnight phenomenon that has become a curly tale.
“She does it for the fun of it. When the piglets started suckling she went into straight milk production.
“One day they (the piglets) escaped and she sort of went after them ... and acted like the mother.”
Mr Trevor, who owns the Spectrum Plants Gold Coast nursery, picked up Treasure as a stray 18 months ago and she’s “become very much a part of the family”.
The piglets were “sunburnt” and “muddy” after arriving from a farmer two weeks ago. The Trevors started giving them a special feed before Treasure took over.
When the piglets started suckling from the dog, Mr Trevor said he wondered if he should discourage her.
But the 47-year-old said he consulted a vet who told him it would not be a problem as long as Treasure was not being injured and the piglets continued to be fed by the family so they received the nutrients needed.
As he had only known of Treasure for 18 months, he did not know if she has been a mother previously.
“She was a stray before she came to us so we don’t know what her history is.”
Mr Trevor said the nursery he started 21 years ago was going bust when the family decided to open the Wongawallan property to the public about five months ago.
Almost overnight things changed and the family’s many pets were an immediate hit with the public.
“We were actually going down,” he said.
“We opened to the public and it’s actually turned the whole place around.
“We’ve got eight kids and always got a collection of animals.
“The animals were always the kids’ pets ... we just expanded a little bit.
“The animals were very popular. We’ve almost started an animal petting farm.”
The piglets will stay on the Trevors’ 7-hectare property.
THE ANIMALS WERE VERY POPULAR. WE’VE ALMOST STARTED AN ANIMAL PETTING FARM WES TREVOR