The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: Button End Beasts on September 02, 2013, 12:53:08 pm
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It never ceases to amaze me how fussy pigs can be! There's lots of lovely fresh fruit and veg from the garden going my pigs way.
They like: oversized courgettes, pears, apples
They won't touch: French beans, butternut squash, aubergines, peppers
Kunes will eat potatoes, OSB won't touch them.
Bonkers, don't they know they are supposed to be pigs!
Would be funny to hear what others pigs like ;D
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My pigs liked melon, advocados and pineapple the best.
The ate carrots eventually but wern't all that keen
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BEB... mine don't like beans, citrus and that's about it but we do have a root chopper that shreds everything so they get little shreds rather than gluts of stuff which can be off putting even to a pig, little and often I find gets rid of most garden glut. Cherry tomatoes are brucie boar's fave at the mo ten in one go taken gently from your fingers thro the fence, spolit boy :love:
mandy :pig:
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it's not breeds, its individual pigs - all are different.
overall our osb's eat everything you say yours won't, but some will not eat potatoes, and some won't touch peppers, others eat with relish !
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We are busy trying to induce our two new weaners to eat apples for goodness sakes ::) They are ploughing up the grassland so well we named one of them Fergie, the other then became the duchess of pork, it got a bit cryptic as Fergie was ginger etc, lol
I guess if they didn't start out on polytunnel surplus they need to know what it is, eh? Would it be worth us giving them short rations of the pig food so that they are a bit hungrier?
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Mine like aubergines and peppers - but wont eat cabbage or brocolli.
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I can add sweet corn and giant cucumbers to the list of likes. And this morning, the Kunes ate the squash when it was hacked up a bit. OSBs still ignored it!
The pigs are very useful as I feel less guilty now about never picking and eating the veg I grow. These days, nothing is wasted and I feel good about letting the veg grow giant or go over. Liberating!
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It took a day or two but our 2 Tamworth weaners took to eating the cabbages that I've given up - rather them than the caterpillars getting it all!
My next task is teaching the weaners to play fetch with the cabbage! ;D
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Our like everything sweet, They wont eat cabbage or beans raw but will eat most things if cooked(outside of course)
Small plot big ideas you could treat them to a horse snak ball it wont take them long to work it out! I think Rosemary has a video of hers with one.
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Mine won't touch our courgettes, which is a real pain because we're overrun with the things at the moment!
I thought about boiling them up for a bit to soften them up, but haven't done so yet.
Has anyone tried pumpkins? Apparently pigs raised in China I think it was, are fed almost entirely on pumpkin...
I planted some pumpkins a while back, but sadly overrun with weeds now :(
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Ours are like fussy children - anything sweet, no greens. Overripe plums, apples, pears, peaches, melons, squash, bananas hugely popular. All beans and cabbage type things shunned. Oddly, one of the biggest treats they love is freshly picked bindweed, which I throw into the plot as I am weeding, yards and yards of the stuff as we are over run with it. They squabble over it as if it was the best thing ever, and each new batch of pigs has exactly the same reaction. Most surprising.
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Oooh what a great tip. I must remember to give the bindweed to to the pigs. Isnt it related to deadly nightshade or some type of hallucinogenic climber? Maybe thats why they like it. ;)
I have some little mini pumpkins which I gave one to the kunes and they ate it after I smashed it up with a spade. Didnt bother with the big pig,
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We gave ours a massive sow thistle today and they ate it, yay! I was cutting it for the rabbits and I thought about the name - well it must be a favourite to be called sow thistle so result!!
Once they get used to being given cut greens of any sort the ball is rolling I think.
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In case any proof was needed, here's one of our weaners tucking into a freshly harvested cabbage. They can't wait to tuck into them now but weren't quite so enthusiastic when I first tried it...
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Wow small plot. What a great site your pigs have to live in. Wouldn't mind it myself. Lucky pigs!
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Previous pigs of ours have had their likes and dislikes. Two refused to eat carrots but would happily eat cabbage. The present two large blacks do have a dietary preference - anything (including chewing on unearthed bits of brick).
Regards, David
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All of ours love:
acorns, sweet chestnuts, plums, pears, broad beans, peas, rose bay willowherb, clover, pumpkins, raspberries, brambles, goats' milk :yum:
Most like:
apples, beetroot, bananas, avocados, tomatoes, jerusalem artichokes, potatoes (cooked)
Some like:
carrots, marrows/courgettes, parsnips, cabbages & other brassicas
The pregnant and lactating sows all like greens - even if they don't like them when they're NOT pregnant/lactating ???
They all really like a myxy rabbit if they can catch one ;)
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Yep, we have caught past pigs chewing on a rotting myxomatosis carcass! Disgusting! Males me feel I'll to remember it.
And we have also had the stone chewers, 3 berkshires always with a pebble or stone in their mouths. What is that all about?!
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And talking of rabbits, another fave treat is freshly killed pheasant, falling from the skies on shoot days in the woods where our pigs live. Sometimes it is a duck. They don't seem at all bothered by the noise of guns going off.
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And forgot to say, mine chew stones too. Obviously lots of pigs do it, I too would love to know why ???
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We were told pineapple is poisonous?? Ours are really fussy OSB. Generally like apples, love goats milk (they slk if one in their nuts!) but leave most other veg.
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A friend of mine once had a pig take a chicken that was standing on the wall of the sty, I know it's horrid but it's a mental picture that always makes me laugh.
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Our two Kune-Kune x GOS castrated boars like potatoes, apples, courgettes. Haven't got big enough butternut squashes yet or corn (maize) or French or runner beans (a bit late this year). They, too love convolvulus (bindweed). Also amphibious buckwheat, Fat hen (the plant), sow thistle and what I call wild mustard. They also like nettles which is handy. They don't seem interested in burdock yet or coltsfoot. They love sycamore, hawthorn, willow (especially) but won't eat ash leaves! I reckon they find and eat a lot of earthworms whilst rooting.
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Pumpkins - yep the luv em chopped up a bit ( like courgettes) and go for the seeds of course.
what amazes me is that they can identify the most calorific foods first then determine what food is the quickest to eat. For example - soft cooked spuds are eaten before a chunk of courgette.
Sunflower heads ! they fight over them.
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We've kept OSBs, Saddlebacks and(mostly) Gloucestershire Old Spots, hundreds of 'em, and not one has refused anything, ever.
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"Sigh" I dream of having pigs that like stinging nettles..........
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We now get a supply of waste fruit and veg from our friendly fruit and veg wholesaler. The only thing that's been left uneaten is sweetcorn. No idea why.
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Ive got 3 saddlebacks and they are fussy things!!
They used to like carrots when we first got them and we had bought a big horses bag from the farmshop!! But after being given the first windfalls of apples they wont touch hardly anything else!! They will do anything for apples and apple leaves branches that we have cut down :excited:. Also sloe twigs and leaves.
The chicken enclosure is right next to their enclosure and they whine like mad when I give the chooks lettuce,chard spinach in fact any greens, but when i give them some they look at it in disgust and keep looking over at the chickens like they are missing out on something far better!!! :yum:
Cara :pig: