I’m going to start this post with a disclaimer by saying that Boy5 is absolutely obsessed with pigs: pig toys, pig bears, pig clothes, and endless pig chatter. They are his one great love! So that day out (and his birthday treat) was always going to be a dream one for him. What surprised me though was how much we all loved the experience too!
Kew Little Pigs Miniature Pig Petting: The Facts
Kew Little Pigs is a miniature pig farm that specialises in breeding miniature pigs and they are famous as making the best micro pigs in the world. Based in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, Kew Little Pig offers a wide array of different experiences to learn more about micro pigs, as well as to pet them.
We booked the ‘pet and play’ session, which cost £30 per person and allowed you to get inside the miniature pig pens, be given an introduction to all the pigs, brush and groom the pigs, and plenty of photo opportunities too. (The price for adults and children is the same, but children under 3 go free). Our experience lasted an hour and a half.
Other visits include a one hour experience which costs £24 per person, mini keeper experiences which cost £48 per person and Pig Enthusiast experiences which cost £60 per person (but this experience is only available to children over 12).
Our Micropig Experience
Firstly, I want to say something about the covid-security of our experience. When we arrived, we were directed to a sink to wash our hands, and we also stood in a bowlful of disinfectant to clean our wellies. Check-in was contact-free (we just needed our name and booking number) and then in the outdoor ‘reception area’ there were three picnic benches, each two metres away from the next, where we waited for our time slot to begin.
We were each given our own brush, which was ours to use for the duration of our stay, and then there was a vat full of disinfectant to put the brush in at the end of our visit. The whole thing was incredibly well thought out!
There were ten pens full of pigs in total, and four of these were open for the petting experience: as there were only four family groups in our time slot, this made social distancing at all times incredibly easy. We had so much space that we were able to enjoy our time without worrying once about people being too close, or any other covid issues.
The pen we were most excited to visit was the one with the smallest piglets in: these little beauties were just seven weeks old, but (understandably) they were also the most skittish. We learnt that we had to sit quietly and wait for them to come to us, rather than move about too much in their pen. By sitting still and waiting, though, they were soon clambering over us and happily coming to us to be brushed, and stroked and loved.
The bigger pigs were a little calmer, and the biggest of all actively sought cuddles and belly rubs. It was lovely to have them move towards us as we entered our pens (which you have to do loudly, as pigs have very poor eyesight and they might not know you’re there otherwise. Loudly is something my boys are very good at!)
It would be nice if the farm had a decent café to grab a coffee at the end of your experience (although you can get a coffee from the portacabin that doubles up as the staff office) and I feel they’re missing a trick by not having a well stocked gift shop for pig fanatics like my son (they have a couple of shelves of gifts, and we managed to get a very cute teddy, but a bigger selection would be nice, and we would have been happily manipulated into growing the pig collection if the stuff had been available). But these things are minor niggles: afterthoughts that would have made the day but that didn’t ruin it.
If you’re not a huge pig fan then honestly? This isn’t the right day out for you. It’s a whole morning that completely revolved around indulging your love of perfect tiny piglets. Stroking them, brushing them, listening to their sounds and generally admiring how bloody adorable they are. If you’re a big pig fan then I would suggest that there is nowhere better to be in the UK. Boy5 had the time of his life, and hasn’t stopped talking about the experience since, and is already planning his next trip back. And the rest of us? We were totally enchanted too.
You can find out more about book tickets at Kew Little Pigs.
That Mum Travel Life 