The Kunekune, a small, round pig from New Zealand with wattles under its chin and a famously placid nature, is one of the tidier farm animals to house. Kunekunes typically dung in one corner away from where they sleep and eat, graze more than they root, and spend long hours napping in their shelter. Routine cleaning works with those habits: protect the sleeping area, service the toilet corner, and manage the wallow and feeding ground that change with the weather.
Shelter and toilet corner routine
Fork out the toilet corner every few days, or daily in a small pen, and leave the sleeping area's bedding largely undisturbed except for removing damp patches and adding fresh straw on top. A Kunekune that finds its bed fouled will move its toilet habits, so keeping the zones distinct is what keeps the whole pen easy. Check that bedding is deep enough in cold weather for a round pig to burrow into, and shake out and sun-dry spare straw stored in the shelter so it does not go musty before use.
Scrub water troughs and any automatic drinker, because pigs nose everything and push bedding and soil into open water. If your Kunekunes tip their water into the wallow end of the pen, treat the resulting mud patch as the wallow to maintain rather than a mess to eliminate.
Wallow, feeding ground and weekly jobs
A wallow is skin care and cooling for a pig, so refresh its water when it becomes thick soup, dig out excess silt, and keep its edges from spreading across the whole pen by siting it in a shallow, contained dip. Move the feeding spot or feeder regularly: even gentle Kunekune rooting plus trampled feed turns a fixed feeding patch into bare, sour ground, and scattered pellets left in grass ferment and attract flies. Rake up uneaten feed and any windfall fruit that has gone soft in the pasture, since these pigs will gorge on fermenting windfalls given the chance.
Weekly, check fencing at snout height for pushed-up wire or loosened boards, clear droppings from gate areas where you walk, and inspect the shelter roof and corners for wasp nests or stored clutter creeping in. Rotate pasture if you can, resting the most worn area while the grass recovers.
Do not overlook the Kunekune's sleeping shelter corners, where these sociable pigs drag in extra straw, leaves and anything portable to build up a nest that suits them. That nest-building is charming and useful in cold weather, but the base of an enthusiastically built nest can stay damp for weeks, so lift and check under it whenever you add bedding rather than forever piling fresh material on top. Clear stored clutter out of the shelter at the same time, because a pig that can move a bucket will move it into the bed. Finally, walk the pasture for droppings in the grazing area itself during summer, since scattered manure in the sward is left by the grass-cutting pigs exactly where they will graze again.
A rota that respects the pig's own system
Kunekune cleaning is light but constant, and it works best when everyone follows the same zoning the pigs have chosen. Recording the toilet-corner muck-out, wallow refresh and feeder move as named jobs in KinsLe with Care Teams means a helper does not helpfully clean the wrong corner, and each task is visibly done.