The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: secuono on August 30, 2012, 12:41:21 am
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So my Potbelly piglets are still tiny, it's been a month and I really see very little growth. If they wouldn't scream bloody murder, I would weigh them.
How fast do they grow??
First 3 pics from the first week I got them. Last two pics from today with my hand as size reference. They are about 9-10in tall. The two black pigs have gotten a little taller. Pink boy was 3mo, blacks were 2mo. Now, obviously, 4 and 3mo old.
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d101/secuono/oink.jpg)
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d101/secuono/piuyiop.jpg)
(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d101/secuono/a18.jpg)
(http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/421718_458918917474955_455557457_n.jpg)
(http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/574936_458918884141625_2041482938_n.jpg)
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and they said micro pigs don't exist!
You don't need to pick them up to weigh them, you can calculate their weight (which is what I do). I have a pig tape but there's a calculation you can do with a normal tape thats better. If you scroll down, you'll see a post "do pig tape measures work", the calculation is posted on there.
I think they are adorable though!!
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Hiya :wave:
Because you're looking at them every day you won't notice the size change ( a bit like how it is with kids ;))
Pot bellied pigs are slower growing anyway, I wouldn't worry overly much at the minute :)
As long as they are healthy and eating well try not to panic.
If you don't want to pick them up (I put my small pigs & piglets in one of the blue woven Ikea bags and hang on a luggage scale to weigh them ;)) You could measure behind their front legs and their length, there's a calculation to figure out approx weight (heart girth x heart girth x length - all measured in meters so you'd have 0.something ;) muliply that answer by 69.3 and you've got their weight in Kg) or you could just take their photo in the same spot every time (against a gate or something of fixed size) to give you a visual reference.
HTH
Karen
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My Kune piglets seem to stay tiny for weeks, then I suddenly see chunky, meaty weaners flying across the field towards me. I dare say you will find the same :o :o
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So cute :thumbsup:
Love 'em when they're babies.
Mandy :pig:
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pigs can stay at what looks like a standstill then take a burst of growing even with pigs that can put on 12 kilos a week they don't look much bigger :farmer:
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Thanks!
Only pig I have a chance at measuring would be the pink boy, I'll look for my tape measure and give it a shot.
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They look healthy enough, anyway :pig: :pig:
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:love: they look cute.
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Well, here's one of their rare meals.
Usually, they get nothing but pellets and the grass under their feet. Today we made pickles and I had some left overs as well as slightly spoiled veggies I tossed in. I mixed their pellets in as well to absorb any excess liquids.
(http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/547202_459606830739497_1812212069_n.jpg)
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Not sure if anyone has mentioned it earlier but measure them with a pig tape (or normal tape) while they're eating and they will hardly notice! Well, mine don't anyway.
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When they are eating is the only time I can get so close as in the pics. Only the pink pig lets me rub and pat him, even w/o food. Black boy I can sort of pet when eating, black girl sometimes squeals when she notices I touched her. So, they are far from domesticated, lol.
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Hopefully none of that food has been in your kitchen.
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op is in usa bb.
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Oh sorry didn't realise. :innocent:
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Hopefully none of that food has been in your kitchen.
Why?
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It is illegal to give your pigs anything that comes out of your domestic kitchen as it may have came into contact with meat and got contaminated. The rules are very strict on this. You can prepair the veg in a shed and you are OK with that. :farmer: but this only applies in Britain and Europe :farmer:
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Does that apply to pet pigs over there, too?
That seems very backwards, anything to do with those mad cow type scares that went on years ago?
Also very weird since I've always heard pigs eat meat...
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its to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease. hardly backward really. this applies to all pigs.
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to those in the EU it is certainly not backward swill had been fed to pigs for years and the last outbreak of F&M in Britain was traced back to a farm that used swill to feed to the pigs all this goes to landfill now poultry used to get recycled poultry manure fed back to them this practise originated in the states they were fed very high protein content feed and they just crap the protein out them so what better way to cut costs Britain used to feed meat and bone meal to cattle this i also understand is done in the states or was common practise two things happened in Britain for two consecutive years we were forced to treat our cattle with organophosphate to eradicate warble fly during the treatment period these cattle if they died were made into meat and bone meal for inclusion in there feed at the same time the renderers went from a batch process to a continuous flow process therefore it did not reach the temp of before and you have the bones of mad cow disease (no pun intended) the Americans only need to look at there gulf war veterans to see the affect of organophosphate agent orange is one of them :farmer:
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I've never agreed with feeding herbivores meat, that is appalling. But to feed an omnivore meat, as long as it's clean and not drugged or diseased, it should be fine.
How does the Foot & Mouth disease come about? If someone feeds infected meat back, no?
I'm not arguing with you guys. I just have no idea about this stuff. I don't pay attention to such scares and the news, it's rarely anything but lies and depressing. The media likes to control people, so I just skip it and search for the real truth.
We are trying to raise our own meat and greens. I haven't fed the pigs any meat myself, as the dogs and chickens get those scraps. The rabbits eat the meadow under their feet with clean rabbit pellets. Sheep and horses eat nothing but the green under them and hay.
I don't know, I never liked those large commercial places. I really don't know how such an idea ever came to 'work', all they do is pump chemicals into them to make them live to butcher date and then feed them what ever is cheapest...it's unbelievable...
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somewhere at any one time there will be an outbreak of foot and mouth somewhere in the world the one problem area is south America which was supposed to be the originating source of the foot and mouth contaminated meat that was supplied to the British army barracks near to the farm that was identified
Britain's animal herd is free of foot and mouth although some would opt for an inoculation programme if the same scenario were to reoccur personally i have no experience of this disease although in the last outbreak a friends entire herd was taken out
no argument on my part either
large commercial herds of whatever can be beneficial you have huge feed lots/ dairy's /poultry/and swine herds far larger than in Britain and there is complaints in Britain when they are proposed :farmer: