[pikilily]

hiya,

What do you do to keep your pigs entertained. Del and Rodders are fed twice a day, they get groomed and scratched. We throw in lots of vegitation from the garden and veg patch. they have some very large logs to scratch against....  I have even given them my pillates ball to play football with, but i dont leave it with them unattended in case they do manage to burst it!  ( it is quite funny cos they jump on top of it too)

the problem is that they insist on removing all their straw from their stye. and tossing the stye around the pen. the stye is a plastic calf hutch, which i did have just sitting on a wooden sheet base. Up until now they seemed happy with the hutch, on the wood with the straw inside. Now each time i look the hutch is facing a different way, and there is no straw inside- i am worried that they are not going to be warm enough at night!
Suggestions please!
emma T

[oaklandspigs]

Emma,

First of all do not worry about your pigs being bored, they are not. You are already providing more than most people would, and much more than nature alone would - pigs in the wild don't get pilates balls to play with!

What they are displaying is very natural pig behavior, rooting around, spreading straw to find the heads and just being pigs. 

Moving the ark will be because they can get their noses under and root. Now they have found that they can do this, they will continue to do it until you make it impossible for them.  Many calf hutches have holes at the bottom and you should use these or drill some to then anchor to the ground using metal or wooden spikes. 

As for spreading straw, this is probably as a result of a) the ark moving and b) you giving them far too much straw. Once the ark is anchored down, put some straw inside - only a quarter of a small bale.  If still there in the morning add another handful. If they have moved some outside, then you gave them too much.  You idea of cosy for a pig is like putting you in a sauna.  Pigs need much less bedding then you would imagine, and are not polite - they just remove excess and dump it outside! Offer straw (put  some inside)  but don't be offended if refused (dumped outside).

Enjoy your pigs !



 

[pikilily]

LOL - love the way you put it!!! Pure genius.....Yeh just chill Emma!!! if they can carry the straw oot, they can put it back!!
thanks
Emma T

[manian]

i love watching them root around..... our girls also love playing football. We've gone through a few!

[Sylvia]

I had an idea of pinching a couple of Police cones, bolting them together, drilling pig-nut sized holes and putting the pigs grub in it. It never came to actually doing it but I reckon it would have kept them amused and tired them out trying to get the food out.

[benkt]

In a similar vein, ours had an old car tyre that I would leave some pig nuts in and they would enjoy rooting around it and pushing it about until the food fell out.

[HappyHippy]

Hi Emma,
You can get heavy duty balls called snack-a-balls for horses. I fill one with some pig nuts and chuck it in - they're (almost?) indestructable. I get the kids to go and hide carrotts for them too, but this is probably more to do with tiring the kids out than keeping the pigs amused 
Karen x

[darkbrowneggs]

Hi - What breed are they?  Some are much more lively than others, but I do wonder if you are feeding them enough.  I always found that a satisfied pig normally spends a lot of time sleeping.

Of course the modern idea is to have a "fat free" pig even to the extent of keeping them in heated boxes so they don't eat enough, but they don't say "fat as a pig for nothing"  Try increasing the starch content of the feed, or simply the bulk of the feed, and see if that calms them down

Lop eared rather than prick eared pigs are normally calmer to keep, and in my experience far less trouble.

All the best
sue
Dark Brown Eggs

[little blue]

Emma, it sounds like they're having a great time!
as already mentioned.... 1) they wont get cold!
2) they love nothing better than furtlling about, if stuff gets moved, that fine

when I've "mucked out" I leave all the bedding in a big pile.... its so funny to watch them make house!  I even give them folded up newspapers which they spread out and carry round to just where they want it.

so relax, and enjoy watching them 

[Rosemary]

We gave ours a snak-a-ball - it's a horse toy but was originally developed for pigs. Ours loved it. I used to put a proportion of their food in it and they'd spend ages pushing it around. There's some video on the TAS blog of them in action.

[pikilily]

Sue, they are Berkshires and the are getting 5lb/6lb feed each per day! they are nearly 5 months old.  they are solid but not fat, and they get what ever scraps they can have from the gerden...including apples from the orchard.

I forgot....I do have a horse-ball thing, so i'll give that a go.....i think i am prob being too anxious!!

Cheers Emma T

[darkbrowneggs]

Probably you will have to do what I always did with my pigs.  When they get to the stage they are just too much trouble - just eat them

I like Berkshires they are a friendly, easy breed.  I think Middlewhite probably have the edge when it comes to the plate, but for the nicest pigs to have around I think you cant beat Berkshires.  Just thinking of them makes me want to have some again.  And they are always so neat and smart looking too.

Don't get too attached it makes it hard come the fateful day, unless you are going to be keeping them for breeding of course

All the best
Sue
Dark Brown Eggs

[pikilily]

LOL Sue,

Its two boys...very deliberatly chosen so i cant keep for breeding. ....I dont think we will have any porcine miracles here in Kirkinch...no babies here!!

They are such fun....However for their own welfare, I will have no worries about sending them to the abbotoir, in about a months time. We dont have the land facilities for keeping pigs on a very long term. They have just about 'used' the ground they are on, which will then get rested until the next lot in 18mnths time!

Emma T

[OhLaLa]

I've used the horse ball option, they enjoyed the distraction. You could also pop a bale of straw/hay in from time to time. Just take the baler twine off and leave it in one piece, they will enjoy pulling it apart (even more than the horse ball).

    

[Eve]

Emma, your pigs are clearly having a ball! And they are being properly fed. They're not underfed or bored, they're just active!

We give them a bale of straw outside in their pen every now and then just to plunder and pull apart, and have the snack-a-ball but... we attached the ball with a rope to the top of their ark so that it wouldn't roll out of their pen (on a slope and with electric wire only). Their ark is a huge metal one, made of plates of corrugated iron. The ball is heavy, our boisterous boys played a lot with it and... the ark got pulled downwards to the extent that it now has a distinctive slope! Oh well, who cares, as long as they have a good time! 


Eve