We have a new addition.

[Melanie]

We finally gave in after several months of our teenage daughter asking for a pig. She named him Prince Julian. He is 5 months old and was being raised as a house pet. We are going to continue raising him indoors but are going to give him much more time outside. He is potty trained and very sweet. We do not know much about pigs so any advice would be appreciated.

 

[goatgurl]

all i know about these little guys is that you have to be careful not to feed them to much or they will become so fat they have a hard time getting around. he is a real cutie too. pigs are so smart, i like raising them and watching them figure stuff out. that and their antics make me laugh.

 

[Sumi]

Sweet! Pigs are some of the easiest and most fun animals to raise. They are really clever and will eat about anything, but be careful, they get spoiled quickly! As goatgurl said, watch out for too much food, they will eat themselves to a standstill if given the chance. A rule of thumb with pigs is to feed them no more than they will enthusiastically eat in 10 minutes, twice a day. Though some snacks in-between won't hurt as long as it's given in moderation.

 

[jk47]

once you get pigs you wont be happy with out them. but for advice I wouldn't feed any ration meant for market pigs or they well get large fast I don't want to give feed advice but I have always fed my pigs a sow ration or something similar if they were growing too fast. and don't forget to worm them

 

[Melanie]

Thank you for all the advice. Prince Julian is quite the character and settling in great. My only concern for now is that he pigs out on all the fallen apples under our apple tree. I fed him less of his food yesterday because of the apples. At least the apples are seasonal and we have picked most of them. For wormer what should you use for pigs? Also do I need to do coccidia prevention like I need to with my goat kids?
On hand the wormers I have are:
Valbazen
Dimethox 40% injectable
Corid
Ivermec

Thank you

 

[jk47]

I use ivermec for a wormer but there is other wormers you can use and for coccidia I don't normally use anything for a prevention normally and for the apples I wouldn't let prince Julian have all the apples he wants because it might cause scours but in moderation its fine

 

[M.L. McKnight]

I'm not big on the micro and mini pigs personally, my interests are more towards the larger breeds and eating them. That being said, those little rascals are cute and I guess it would be neat to have a little pig trotting around like a dog. Stay aware of how much your pig eats and take it easy on the junk food. Don't say you won't give him any because if you're eating cookies or cheetos then Prince Julian will be too! (My pigs like lemon cookies!) Think about getting him a shallow kid pool with sturdy in and out ramps, get a large dog harness or a horse halter to use as a harness and take him for walks, let him be a pig and root every now and then no matter how big of a hole you will have to fill back in, give him a few eggs a week and smile knowing your little critter is easily the smartest pet in the neighborhood.

 

[Melanie]

Thank you all again. Prince Julian loves it outside and he spends most of the day in our fenced in acre back yard. His previous owners never took him outside other then on their back deck. He is really enjoying rooting around and playing. We have two kiddie pools out side, I will have to build him a ramp for one of them. He has a harness but he absolutely hates it!!! Does he need to know how to walk on a leash if we have fenced in property for him? We are also going to be calling around to get him nutered because he has some bad behavior.