The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: zeeteecee on March 17, 2011, 06:34:14 pm
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:pig:
I'm posting this for my hubby who has 2lovely kune kune sows, who love rooting. They seem to keep it shallow, but they sometimes turn up debris from the ground. Just yesterday they found some glass whilst out on the ground.
Obviously we check and remove everything as it comes up, but short of digging the whole area over there doesn't seem to be anything else we can do!
Should we consider ringing? Any suggestions? Now the ground is drying up it may not be so much of a problem again! Not sure how much to panic!
Thanks for reading,
Z
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No, I wouldn't nose ring, as you've checked the site already it's just bad luck that there was some glass.
If there's lots of glass or if there are other dangerous items near or on the surface, then you need to consider another site as nose ringing won't stop the pigs from getting cut or hurt.
Don't worry about panicking, it's better than not caring enough ;)
:wave:
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Hi,
I wouldn't worry too much just remove anything that looks dodgy when they root it up. Pigs are unbelievable resilient and there snouts are really tough some of mine have somehow managed to root up concrete slabs, bricks and boulders when they've been in the way of getting at a tasty root ;D
Rob
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Thankyou,
My husband was all for digging over the area (no mean feat!) but i guess that'd just make the ground easier for the girls to go deeper. Also, we would never find all the stuff the pigs might,however much we 'rooted'!
We will keep checking the ground, as the problem has only come up once or twice in the year that we've had the girls there isn't a lot of stuff.
thanks again!
Z
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I suspect the pigs can dig far deeper than your OH. Our OSBs dug up a huge length of metal piping, when we first noticed it we couldn't budge it. it got higher and higher above groung until it stood about 3 feet high and still we couldn't get to the bottom of it. They eventually dug it all up. I had worried they would injure themselves on it but they were fine, pretty tough animals pigs.
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wev been here 6 years and still find glass and rubbish rising to the surface from the mud. im just waitng to find some nice size granite slabs to finish my fireplace, i know theyre under there somewhere!! ;D ;D ;D :wave:
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Thanks,
I told the girls to keep going till they struck gold, so I'm hoping... any day now...!
Z
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If you are concerned about rooting and hurting themselves put rings in their noses an curb the practice. Wont interfere with feeding or nesting, they just wont be able to dig a :wave:hole to China.