OK, I am probably stupid, but I brought home 4 piglets last night

[mama24]

I just went out the feed them and the pig pellet mush was still in their bowl from this morning. If I feed them real food, they eat every single bit of it, but they keep refusing the pig pellets. They only had 1 type of hog feed at tractor supply when I was there, their store brand pellets. They don't smell very good. What do you all feed your pigs? Anyone mix up their own whole grains and supplement with table scraps and leftovers? I just left them with a big bowl of mashed hardboiled eggs, chicken livers and onions, whole wheat bread crusts, lettuce, and tomatoes. I milked my goat on top as usual and they were going nuts. This time I also sprinkled some of their pellets in, hope they learn to like them until I can find something better. I am meaning to switch to organic, and found a local-ish source of feed, whole grains or pellets already mixed w/ mineral, etc, for different animals--but I would need to order in such large quantities I haven't manage to figure that out yet.

 

[Cornish Heritage]

LOL! Pigs are smart. They are not going to eat pellets when they know "mama" is going to be bringing them out real goodies later

We feed a pelleted grain as we have a LOT of pigs so certainly do not have enough scraps or milk each day to feed them. If we only had a couple pigs probably would not feed pellets at all. We have noticed that the pigs do not like the pellets if they are mush. Let me clarify that statement - it has to be really fresh mush. We always pour eggs & milk on top & the big pigs gulp it down so in 5 mins there is nothing left. For the piglets who need to nibble all day that doesn't work. We feed just a small amount of pellets with milk & then the rest is left dry for them. If wet they will not eat it.

Sorry the little guy died but you did everything you could for him. Glad the girls are thriving. In our last litters in April we found that the girls were much more food aggressive than the boys. On average the girls grew bigger & stronger - really strange as that had not really happened before but those girls were hungry & they were going to eat. Talk about the boys being hen pecked!

Liz

 

[mama24]

I figured pigs were just like humans in that the females are a lot more hardy and able to survive hardship as infants. Premature baby boys tend to have more issues, while girls tend to do just fine.

Thanks for the tip on the mushy pellets. They sure do stink. Hopefully Southern States will have more options next time I make it out there. I hate going to TSC anyway, the manager there is such a jerk, but it's slightly closer to my house, 20min away instead of 30.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I just now saw this thread. I got 2 piglets in April that were only a few days old. They were the 2 smallest of the litter and they were given to me since the owner knew they didn't have a chance fighting against all their siblings for teats. I raised them on raw goat milk. They thrived on it, and when they got to be about a week and a half or two weeks old I started adding in pig "mash" (pig feed similar in consistency to laying mash) to make a slurry and they loved it. I wouldn't bother with buying cow milk if you have goat milk!

 

[mama24]

What kind of pigs do you think I have? Woman told me they were Yorkshires, but they have floppy ears. So does that mean they are American landrace, or just generic white pigs? That's what I figure, but just wondering. The floppy ears are way cute!

The girls recognize my green boots as well as my brown slip on shoes now. We got quite a bit of rain and it's a huge mudhole down there. My husband wore his brown slip on shoes last night to go gather up stray chickens from the barn to put them in the coop (which is part of the barn, but added onto the end) and they were nudging the tops of his feet. lol. Too cute! They're both already noticeably putting on weight, which I am very thankful for. They're thriving and are going to be just fine. And since we just have the 2, I may not have to buy pig food at all. With my 4 kids, we have a lot of wasted food, you know how kids are. Plus extra eggs and milk, and garden trimmings, and stale bread, we may just be able to feed them mostly from the table for now. I don't know if that will continue as they get to be over 100lbs each, we'll see!

 

[Hillsvale]

I read what I could quickly... I didn't see anyone mention and iron shot 4cc's which piglets need, even if they nursed from momma they wouldn't get what they need... they are not born with iron, as well injectible ivomec given orally for worming though I know you wormed them. They likely won't take a bottle so I would put the warm goats milk in a little feeding trough and perhaps add a bit of molasses or something sweet to tempt them... pigs LOVE sweets.

Congratulations on your shove into piggy raising, I love my pigs and they taste awesome. Your a good person for taking this on.

 

[Cornish Heritage]

iron shot 4cc's which piglets need,

Piglets/pigs raised on pasture do not need iron shots. They get the minerals they need from the soil. We have never given any of our pigs iron shots.

As for worming, we worm them at 8 weeks old when we wean them. We use Dectomax here which is an injectable. Don't bother much after that unless we see something. If you are raising feeder pigs you should not have to worm them again before butchering.

Liz

 

[mama24]

Omg. My husband told me he saw the bigger piglet nursing on one of our goats last night. And that the only reason the smaller one wasn't, too, was bc she can't reach. Rofl. Poor Tsunade, nursing the orphans of the world. She was already nursing twin doelings that were sold to me at 7 weeks old. Her own baby died a couple months ago when he was 4 weeks old from getting into the chicken feed. I was getting a gallon a day milking her before we took in all these orphans. My other goat only gives less than 2 quarts a day and Ive been giving it to the piglets. My poor children have had to go back to store bought cows milk.

 

[mama24]

This isn't Tsunade, this is our smaller goat who doesn't give much milk, Caramel.

She was eating grain out of the goat trough. She looked back, sniffed at the pig, looked at me like wtf? and went back to eating. I almost died laughing!!!

After that one was done, I put her up on the milking stand to give the bitty piggy a turn.

 

[daisychick]

Oh my those are the cutest pictures ever! A piggy nursing on a goat. What a nice goat momma you have there.