The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: otto on May 06, 2009, 07:10:13 pm
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Hello, I picked up my first weaners, a Gloucester Old Spot and Tamworth on Monday. They both seem happy enough, eating and drinking normally...not too interested in scraps though, but happily chomp on their nuts. I can't pursuade them to sleep in their ark though....they cuddle up together in a hollow they have scooped. Today, the GOS has a very watery diorehea. When should I start to worry? Also, any tips on getting them to make friends?
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Hi Otto
Sara and I are new to this too
We got our British White Lop weaners two weeks ago and have them in an old building. They dont like getting up very early and when I go to let them into the field at about 8am have to wake them up... They do sleep lots though and love snuggling under the straw
They have the odd scraps and we are also feeding them on pig nuts. Neither of them seem to have runny poos and it mainly looks like small dog dumps lol
As for them making friends, they now seem a lot more confident with us (as humans) and have made great friends with the 7 tups and 1 horse they share the field with
I dont suppose this has really answered your question but yours was the first post i saw xx
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Both of my weaners had runny poohs for a couple of days after being collected - I put this down to stress and it cleared up very quicly as they got used to their new surroundings. Mine have been quite slow to eat veg as I don't think they have ever had any before. They eat the nuts first as that is what they know, but I'm sure they'll like the veg more and more as they get used to it.
[ Also, any tips on getting them to make friends?/quote]Is that with you or with each other? To get them to make friends with you put the food on the ground and then approach very slowly and start to gently stroke them - they get used to this very quickly.
Hope this helps a little bit!
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Apple slices and patience (and grunting if you can face it) have never failed me yet in the friend-making stakes.
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Make sure the "runny" one is drinking. If it fails to improve after a couple of days get the vet. Hilary had a passion for apricots when very young, and peeled banana works well too.
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Hi, had my 2 wieners (kune kune X Oxford sandy and black) for a week now, and one was
a bit runny for the first 3 days, but has cleared up now, I also put it down to stress, as its the one
that is a little more highly strung.
They too prefer the pig nuts to most veg scraps, but apples, carrots or dried nuts really
get them going, and there eating more leafy veg (old purple broccoli plants, old leeks ext) as
they get used to it.
every day they are more friendly, and now seem very content with each other, and other visitors
like me, the dogs, the kids ext. I'm sure yours will settle more and more as time goes on.
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Thanks everyone......very reassuring and pleased to have found this forum. We are now 2 pigs, 2 horses, 2 dogs, 2 cats and 7 chickens. Funny, except for the chickens they're all male and all "been done"or in the case of the piggies, immature.........not sure the future looks good for me! :'(
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Forgot to add, on the first night, at dusk, i had to catch them and put them in the arc, then
block them in for the night, i only had to do that the once, now they go in on there own.
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Thanks Paid, I'll save that one for tomorrow........I'm the one in bed today with man flu...........no jokes about what animal I picked that up from!
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On the veg front I found that boiling it into a stew made it far more paletable for them. They just aren't that hot on raw veh. Apples, Bananas, pears grapes, melon etc,. they just love but I only use it as a treat really, otherwise they're fed on rolled oats, rolled barley, ground maize etc. I often soak this in a bit of milk and they just love it.....and all the grass they eat...which is just phenomenal. Then again my Tamworths are descendants of the 'Irish Grazer'.
Morgan
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On the veg front I found that boiling it into a stew made it far more paletable for them.
I could be wrong here but I'm sure that under UK legislation, you can't feed anything that has been in a kitchen - if you intend consuming the meat.
I'll check back through old posts - I'm sure that's where I read it.
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I'm not living in the uk, and I boil it on a stove in the garage....it never goes near meat. I want lots of things in life....but not an outbreak of foot and mouth.....the other locals would shoot me....well maybe not shoot, but a good sound thrashing!!
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Its not if you intend consuming the meat its regardless. Its also really rather silly (imho). Especially as the EU are now considering allowing meat products into pre produced pig food!!!!!
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I'm not living in the uk, and I boil it on a stove in the garage....it never goes near meat. I want lots of things in life....but not an outbreak of foot and mouth.....the other locals would shoot me....well maybe not shoot, but a good sound thrashing!!
Sorry, didn't realise you weren't doing it in a kitchen - you're way ahead of me !Its not if you intend consuming the meat its regardless. Its also really rather silly (imho). Especially as the EU are now considering allowing meat products into pre produced pig food!!!!!
Thanks for that HM, in my baby fuddled brain state I got mixed up ! I agree that it's silly law because as Morgan said, none of us want any diseases so obviously wouldn't feed meat - but where's the harm in preparing / cooking veggies inside ? Government legislation.........................don't ya just love it ! ???
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Well of course we smallholders cant feed our pigs stuff from our kitchens however careful we are, we have to leave all the stupid stuff to HMG who manage to infect the whole country by their own bad hygiene/drains/practices. Which you as smallholder/tax payers had to foot the bill for.
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Otto
As everyone says probably stress and could also be change in water, so long as eating and drinking should settle down.
We always have bother getting them in the ark but if you have the time sit in its doorway, their natural curiosity will get the better and they'll come to have sniff & chew and learn its nothing to be scared of. if it has a sacking door leave it open, if theres plenty of straw they'll be warm enufff, pigs aren't daft, they'll soon learn.
hth
Mandy
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watch the apples young pigs love them but it really gives them the runs. I thought the no kitchen waste was EU wide not just uk. Is this just the Brits keeping to the rules again or is it super nanny again. Its not worth the risk if your local animal health person sees scraps you will get hammered.
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No its Europe wide, just the Brits take it literally everyone else picks out the bits that suit. Thats not to say that if anyone fed their pig a chicken carcass (and it happens) and then disease broke out that they would not throw the book at them cos they would. Just more relaxed here.
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thats the trouble we can understand why the slops had to stop. but there has to be sense. how can veg waste from a domestic house pose any risk. Its the feeding of animal waste to animals that is very dangerous.
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Some people in Whitehall have to justify their existence. Amazes me that Bernard Matthews bends/breaks many rules causes an outbreak of turkey flu and gets what ???? Yet a smallholder infringing the tiniest rule and down comes the huge great foot.
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I suppose the government can't trust people to use common sense!
I approached a smallish supermarket chain, that is renowned for its ethical practices, to get the out of date fruit and veg, which all goes in the bin. The answer was "our policy is to throw all vegetable/fruit waste away." When I tried to question them about it I just got the same sentence over and over and over!! Everybody is just too nervous!!
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I dont know how possible it is to perhaps remove the veggies after they have thrown them away. We get most of our veggies from the frozen food factory. Here its normal to ask at the bakers for stale bread and cakes. Local cake factory supplies a large local pig elevage. Rules?????? Quoi???? What rules!!!!!! Well it is France.
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yet you dont get foot and mouth. Yet if it did happen you would be stuffed maybe thats why were more conceren about the rules. BSE/foot and mouth avian flu ect ect has cost us a fortune.
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Aren't pigs naturaly omnivorous anyway? What meat would they naturally eat? I gather they are quite partial to chicken from other posts! Personally I could never understand why one would even think about feeding meat to cows and sheep who are naturally herbivores, must have been ££ involved. However if meat gets re-introduced to pig food does that mean we can go back to feeding kitchen waste?
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Basically, the experts screwed up in a big way when they decided to dispose of the carcasses of scrapie-infected sheep by adding them to cattle nuts - and BSE was born. They then decided to completely ignore the well-known, and now, proven fact that viruses mutate and CJD was born.....
Now smallholders, ( who would have had the good sense at the time to destroy those carcasses in a deep pit of Quicklime), are paying the price!
Is it just me, or does that remind anyone of the current economic crisis?
Equal rights for all, ? I think not!
Donard
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'I approached a smallish supermarket chain, that is renowned for its ethical practices, to get the out of date fruit and veg, which all goes in the bin. The answer was "our policy is to throw all vegetable/fruit waste away." When I tried to question them about it I just got the same sentence over and over and over!! Everybody is just too nervous!!'
The supermarket chain almost certainly couldn't care less about disease control (if they were they wouldn't be importing meat from some very dodgy countries) but scared stiff that you might dispense their out-of-date fruit and veg to people who might otherwise shop there. A friend of mine used to get lorry loads of potatoes delivered free from a producer contracted to one of the big three. His potatoes were surplus to requirements - perfectly saleable - but he couldn't even give them to an old people's home - he was forced by the contract to supply them as animal feed and my friend also had to sign a contract that they would only ever to fed to livestock.
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Pleased to say that piggies all happy and healthy now that they have settled down. Interestingly, the Tamworth is far more friendly and open to human interraction and touch than the supposedly more laid back GOS. One thing that I haven't overcome is getting them into their arc. Last evening was pretty chilly with a strong/gale force Easterly, but they still hunkered down in a hollow.
I have a possible theory that the more experienced among you may have an opinion of. When I was building the arc, one of the wooden panels got a big lump of dog poo on it (as did my boot!), as I suspect that my dogs had had a couple of dumps down under the oak tree where I positioned the arc. I know that pigs are suposedly very clean and only poo in one place, but for the first few days my boys were pretty free and easy about that! However, I now notice that their main dumping ground is around the arc. Is this my problem and do you think they will adopt it [the arc]as their boudoir if I move it to the other end of the run?
As a learner, all advice and experience gratefully received.
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Glad to here alls well now. I had the same probs with mine and them sleeping out doors, They'd made a lovely little hole to sleep in right in the middle of the pen. I moved the ark over there sleeping place and they do now sleep in it, although they will sleep outside when the weathers nice. One thing i do know is mine do not like a soiled floor in there ark. :pig:
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That was exactly what I was thinking - remove the floor of the ark and put the ark over the hollow. Is this feasible?
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Hi there, we had the same problem with ours not using their lovingly built ark and after 3 days decided to take off the back panel so they could see right through, worked a treat they were straight in and the next day we put it back on with very happy Piggy's inside
Ginny
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Moving it has worked a treat and they slept happily there overnight....luckily as the wind would blow a dog off its chain and it was 7 degrees even without the wind chill!