HELP my 1st Pig

[CrealCritter]

Another way to return her to health, while also saving on feed and fattening her up more quickly, is to ferment her feed. It's easy, really. Just place her feed in some water overnight and it will have started to ferment, especially in these temps. The next day, save back a cup or so of the feed to inoculate the next day's feed and do it all again...this will cause it to ferment quicker and more deeply by the next day.

She'll be better able to digest it and the nutrients will be more available to her, her feces will smell less, and she will have some great intestinal flora going on.

All it takes is that one little step...wetting the feed the night before and backslopping(using each day's fermented feed to jumpstart the next day's feed).

Pigs are monogastric animals, so they have a little more trouble digesting grains than those animals that have multiple stomachs, like cattle, goats, sheep , or specialized bowels like horses and rabbits. Fermenting the grains first helps them utilize all the available nutrients more readily, changing the sugars to amino acids, which are used immediately on a cellular level.

https://jasbsci.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2049-1891-6-4

https://www.pig333.com/nutrition/fermented-liquid-feed-for-pigs_378/

http://www.allaboutfeed.net/Home/General/2010/1/Pigs-benefit-from-fermented-liquid-diets-AAF011461W/

I didn't read the links as you explaination was good enough. It sounds pretty easy to do in a few 5 gallon buckets... I'll give it a try.

Thanks again for all your help.

 

[CrealCritter]

One good thing about having a pig in the chicken yard. Now I don't have to pick up eggs out of the yard. Pork Chop eats them first

 

[Beekissed]

One good thing about having a pig in the chicken yard. Now I don't have to pick up eggs out of the yard. Pork Chop eats them first

Be aware...pigs are omnivores and will eat a chicken slick as a dog will. That pig seems pretty small and may not have that tendency, but we've raised pigs that ate anything that wandered into the pen....chickens come to steal the pig's food? Chomp...no more chicken. You'd be surprised at how quick a pig can move when it comes to catching a chicken!

Once she starts feeling a little more sprightly, it may be that you'll have to separate them due to that.

 

[sumi]

But for now, she looks right at home over there!

 

[Chic Rustler]

awesome find! I need to get off my butt and build a pig pen

 

[baymule]

Give her plenty of room. Pigs are clean animals and she will use a potty spot. Our last batch of pigs had a half acre. They used a potty spot, had a mudhole spot, trees for shade and they were happy pigs. Pigs root, it's what they do. If confined in too small of a space, they wind up eating their own poop. It's not fair to the pig, understanding their physiology goes a long way to making a good environment for a pig.

Yes, you have a potbelly. She will get up to 300 pounds or so. This might be the nudge you need to get a couple of feeder pigs and feed them out for the freezer. It's not hard to raise pigs. I never used a hot wire for my pigs.

 

[Beekissed]

It's not fair to the pig, understanding their physiology goes a long way to making a good environment for a pig.

Agreed. And that goes for all animals...contributes a lot to their overall health if they have a good habitat and another of their own kind for companionship.

 

[baymule]

I used apple flavored ivermectin horse wormer for my pigs. I tossed them bread, which they loved. Then I tossed them little bread pockets that I had put the wormer in. They smelled the apple flavor (it did smell good) and went nuts for it. I put the wormer on a piece of bread, folded it over and mashed the edges together. No, I did NOT walk in with them, but stood safely on the OUTSIDE and lobbed the bread over the fence.

 

[Beekissed]

Bay, you don't spend quality time with your pigs, petting them and holding them on your lap and such?

 

[CrealCritter]

She seems to enjoy being in with the chickens and I seen a few younger chickens hitching a ride on her back today. What a difference a day makes.