Amersham micro piglets keep warm in knitted blankets

Tiny blankets have been knitted for the tiny piglets

Four tiny micro piglets born during a cold snap are being kept warm in specially knitted little blankets.

The piglets are the newest arrivals at Kew Little Pigs, a micro pig petting farm in Amersham, Buckinghamshire.

Cratchit, Tim, Scrooge and Marley - named after characters from Dickens' A Christmas Carol - are tucked up in their woolly wraps each night.

The pigs in blankets are the offspring of one of the farm's boars - whose name is, coincidentally - Blanket.

Sisters Judy Pearce and Debbie DeGroeve knitted the colourful little blankets.

The four piglets have been named after characters from Charles Dickens' novel, A Christmas Carol

The micro pigs were born at a petting farm

"When we heard about the new piglets we wanted to make sure they didn't get cold, and really enjoyed making the knitted blankets," Mrs Pearce, from Aylesbury, said.

"It's a far kinder version of pigs in blankets for Christmas than the sausage and bacon version, and they look super cute all wrapped up."

The piglets are wrapped up warmly each night

The late births of the piglets took staff at the farm a little by surprise.

Their mother Daisy had been secretly impregnated by Blanket the boar, who had been escaping over a fence in order to mate with the sows in the next enclosure.

The persistent pig, described by the farm as a "horny hog", took to climbing on a bench and launching himself over the fence.

His latest offspring are just some of the 70 or so piglets he has fathered this year at the farm.

Blanket the boar devised a way of climbing on a bench and leaping over a fence

Oliva Mikhail, who runs Kew Little Pigs, said: "The piglets are very hardy, but we were blown away by the kindness of Judy and Debbie, and can't thank them enough for the gorgeous blankets.

"It is very cold at the moment, but all the pigs and piglets are doing well."

The farm breeds micro pigs which will go to live in people's homes as pets.