Adorable Doncaster piglet hailed a ‘little miracle baby’ – after being fathered by a castrated pig

The piglet, named Babe, left staff at Manor Estate Farm in Toll Bar stunned when he appeared one morning last month in the sty with mum, Charlotte, and dad, Wilbur.

Charlotte was put in with Babe’s dad, Wilbur, as a rescue animal. Wilbur had arrived after Doncaster Council had asked the farm to take him after he was found abandoned.

Wilbur had been castrated, with the scars to prove it, so there was not thought to be a problem.

Ami Downs, who founded the farm to look after rescue animals, said: “They lived together happily for a year and were inseparable. They snuggled up to each other when they slept.

"Then on Saturday I had just fed the pigs and I was walking across the field. I heard both pigs screaming – and I mean screaming.

"I saw this little black thing on the floor so I thought it was a rat at first. But it was this gorgeous little boy! Mum only had the one piglet and everyone is healthy.”

After Babe’s surprise arrival, Wilbur was examined by a vet – and then it emerged Wilbur had a hidden testicle inside his body which had not descended to where it should have been.

Ami added: “His testicles had been removed from where they would normally be found – but he seems to have another one inside his abdomen. Babe’s our little miracle baby.”

She said Wilbur’s hidden testicle had been close to his kidney, and it was felt it would be too dangerous to remove it.

But now the farm has taken action to avoid the patter of any more little trotters in Toll Bar.

Wilbur has now been relocated to an animal rescue park near Gainsborough, where he is living with an elderly male pig.

"We were sad to see him go,” said Ami. “He was like a pet to us.

"But he seems to have become firm friends with the pig at Gainsborough.”