At last, Wilbur's free to go hog-wild.

The Vietnamese potbellied pig was stuck for months in a cramped bedroom of a Staten Island apartment, but he's now living it up on a sprawling suburban estate in Coram, L.I.

"He's doing phenomenally well," said Jeannie Watson, a volunteer coordinator with the Pig Placement Network who orchestrated Wilbur's rescue.

"It wasn't that his family didn't love him," she said. "They just had no idea how to care for him."

As a tiny piglet, Wilbur spent carefree days rolling around in the mud of his owner's spacious Staten Island backyard.

But the owner moved to a cramped third-floor apartment and Wilbur got too big to climb the stairs. He spent his days idling in a bedroom, eating too much and ballooning to 300 pounds - twice the average weight for a potbellied porker.

It was a sad life for Wilbur, who was then one of the thousands of exotic animals living illegally in New York City.

Animal rescue groups came to his aid after the Daily News featured Brooklyn exotic animal rescuer Sean Casey's desperate plea to find Wilbur a more pig-centric place in September.

"It was truly a happy ending," Casey said, noting that News readers also reached out to adopt two rats, two dogs, a Burmese python, a ferret, a rabbit, a parakeet and several turtles from his menagerie of rescued critters.

As for Wilbur, the well-tempered 3-year-old swine spends his lazy days grazing on Lisa Mistretta's grassy 2-acre farm that he shares with a llama and some horses. He sleeps in his own converted horse stall.

Wilbur is even slimming down with a special diet of miniature pig chow with vegetables and plenty of exercise.

Once a willing home came forward, transporting the pig was no easy task. It took several tries - and many mint treats - before Greg Eisman, who runs the New Jersey-based rescue group Rabbit Haven by the Sea, Watson and two volunteers were able to lure Wilbur outside and herd him into a minivan.

"For him to go through these changes in one day, he was a trouper," Watson said.

Potbellied pigs originated in Vietnam and were first brought to the United States in 1984. The highly intelligent and trainable animals are known to make great pets.

"Pig people who kind of 'get it' find that the pig satisfies a type of companionship that appeals to our nurturing side," said Susan Magidson, the national coordinator for the Pig Placement Network.

But owning a potbellied pig isn't for everyone. Many end up in shelters and sanctuaries, or left on the side of the road after being dumped by owners who can't handle the commitment.

At Ross Hill Farm in Rushland, Pa., Magidson cares for 70 adoptable pigs that were either abandoned or rescued. Even though pigs are illegal as pets in New York, Magidson said pig lovers can still get their fix by sponsoring a pig and heading out to the country to meet their new friend.