First there were chickens, then turtles, then bunnies. Now the breedable pet realm has been expanded with the addition of PinkyPigs – cute little polka-dotted porkers who eat, wallow in the mud and produce piglets.

As the info notecard states, PinkyPigs “are just like any other animal you’d raise as a pet; they age, they grow, they mate and become sad and/or sick. And just like any animal, they pass away from old age or negligence when their time comes.”

A PinkyPigs starter pack will set you back 675L but contains everything you’ll need to get going: three piglets, one PinkyPigs HUD, three food bowls, a mudpit and a healing kit.

PinkyPigs can breed at two weeks and die at three months – “Whoa!” you say. “Three months? That’s ALL?” But there’s a reason; the short lifespan combined with a relatively low reproductive rate – two piglets per week – should help keep the PinkyPigs market from becoming oversaturated, as has happened with other breedable pets.

The pigs do have some things in common with other breedables. The piglets’ color – their spots – is determined by the parents’ color vectors. First-generation pigs are red, green or blue. A red sow and blue boar would produce piglets in shades of purple. With each generation, more and more colors will be produced.

Of course, pigs need food. One bowl, which should last one pig about two weeks, is 125L, or you can save by buying in bulk and get a 10-pack of food for 1150L.

Pigs also can become sad. Toys will be available in the future and anyone will be able to make them; in the meantime, pigs must have a mudpit to keep their sadness at bay. If they get too sad – when their sadness meter reaches 75, which the HUD will tell you – they’ll stop breeding. Playing in the mudpit decreases sadness. A single mudpit runs 125L and lasts a single pig about a month. As with the food, you can save with the bulk pack – five pits for 525L. A cool feature of the mudpit is its appearance. “The texture of the mudpit will change from nice, wet, shiny mud to dry, cracked mud when it needs to be replaced,” according to the notecard.

Male pigs are also susceptible to getting sick and won’t breed if their sickness meter reaches 50. A healing kit (included in the starter kit or available separately for 25L) will fix up a sick male pig in a jiffy.

The HUD (75L if purchased separately) is a MUST for pig farmers. Pigs can’t be taken into inventory, even if boxed, or they’ll die – they must be loaded into the HUD. The piglets in the starter kit come pre-loaded into the included HUD (just click the Vend Check button on the HUD to register additional piglets purchased from PinkyPigs vendors).

That has its advantages, though. If a pig is “griefed,” it can be resurrected through the HUD. Another nice HUD feature is “Teleport to pig,” which lets you TP to within 10 meters of any pig registered in your HUD. Any chicken or turtle farmer who’s lost track of one of their charges has probably wished for something like this.

The pigs are whimsically designed, a nice combination of lifelike and comic. The item descriptions on the vendors are humorous; pig food is described as “Quality slop for hungry bellies,” while the mudpit’s description says, “Dirt + Water = Something you’re paying money for.”

Pigs can be traded and sold, just like chickens, turtles and bunnies, and give pet enthusiasts a fun new choice in breedable pets.