[SuzyJ]

Having kept pigs for a couple of years now and knowing how they do love to play with anything in their pen can you recommend anything suitable for feed and water that they can't tip/trash or flatten within weeks?

Our sow is good with her feed bowls etc but the youngsters are total hooligans lol last month they managed to demolish a partition wall and decided to move into the stable block which the horses weren't too happy about. We've rebuilt it now but still need to try and find feed/water containers that are pig proof for them as they trash everything usually. Most feeders last a month or so then are found in bits.

Did think about using cast concrete that we can make ourselves but I'm not sure about the ease of cleaning them after muddy trotters have been around!

what would you suggest? bearing in mind we are in Bulgaria.

[AWP]

Hi, I use cast iron sinks or belfast sinks very heavy never had any probs, easy enough to clean, just slosh a bucket of water in and then bail it out.

[JulieS]

I don't feed mine in troughs.  I put the sow nuts on the floor, and in the winter when it's muddy I put boards down where I feed them to stop the food from getting lost in the mud.

I've given up trying to find a water container that they can't tip over, but is easy to clean.  I now use the black tough trugs, made from old tyres I think,  from the agri merchants.  Even my pigs haven't managed to destroy them, and they are easy to clean out.......Doesn't stop them turning them over though!  

Quite a while ago now someone put some pictures on here of their water containers that self filled....Might be worth looking back through the old posts.

[Farm and country]

Hi there, I work for an Agri merchants in Essex and we've been asked that quite a lot. We supply big galvanised troughs and feeders to farmers and the supplier that does them also do pig size ones. they are quite heavy and are farm quality so are very robust, although probably still no match for a large determined sow to have over!
We also do a trough which is aimed at the horsey market which is a heavy duty plastic trough which is a sort of pyramid shape. It is double skinned (like a garden umbrella holder) so you can fill it with water to make it heavy, that and the shape of it does make it difficult to turn over.
Finally, I have seen on the market a "pig nose drinker" its like a metal tube a few inches long which you connect to mains water supply. When they want to drink they have to push it with their nose to get it out! This I think is a great idea as it means they have to use their brain to get the water and with pigs being so intelligent, that can't be a bad thing!
Hope that helps!
www.farmandcountrysupplies.co.uk

[Samantha]

This is the new pig trough we have on the little community farm I am a member of. It was made by one of the guys and is working out quite well

[Hilarysmum]

Wow thats some pig trough. 

We use the heavy recycled rubber plasterers troughs available from diy stores.  even so Hilary has taken to using hers to bash the poor boar on the head with.  Fortunately although heavy its reasonably flexible so doesnt break.  (Boar may well be suffering with a headache though).

[Samantha]

LOL poor Boar!

Yeah we were finding that the pigs were moving their trough all over the pen and uptipping it and various other antics ... one of the guys made it from some wood and a large plastic barrel cut in half .. not sure how he sealed the two halves together .. but it seems to be working

Sam

[waterboy]

Hi guys
Our MW's tend to eat off the floor and the water trough is a galvanised one that we have part sunken, our Berk's have an old bath that we've also part sunken altho they tend to bathe in there more often that drink from it lol. So far we've had no trouble with the part sunken route tho.

Manda

[supplies for smallholders]

Hi,

Have a look at :

https://www.suppliesforsmallholders.co.uk/fisher-alvin-litre-auto-drinker-p-37.html

and:

https://www.suppliesforsmallholders.co.uk/fisher-alvin-12l-pig-feed-trough-p-52.html

We have found with pigs that whatever you use, if it is not fastened very securely to a wall or post they will tip it over or move it to where they want it.

Thanks

[Hilarysmum]

LOL poor Boar!


Sam

He's ok, we keep a large stock of Anadin in the medicine cabinet 

[SuzyJ]

Thanks for the replies. We've tried some of the things mentioned unsuccessfully but there are some we may yet try. I've seen automatic waterers here and looked into installing them but thought the pigs would just end up playing with them and making a mess. Plus they'd have to be removed in the winter as it does get extremely cold here.

Belfast sinks would be ideal but not seen anything like that here - I left 4 in the UK when we moved! Might have to resort to cast concrete in the end, but half buried is a good idea.

Ordering from an online site would be fantastic if the delivery charge to Bulgaria wasn't so high, plus our post does go missing quite regularly here.

Once again thanks all.

[Eve]

We use a cast iron trough that's about 1 meter long and 10 inches wide and high - the only thing they can't tip but it does break my back trying to move it! 

The pigsty has those waterpipes, the piggies figured out how they work in about a nanosecond.

There's also a large flat tank they use as a paddling pool, it has a ball valve like a toilet cistern. But as our pigs like to wee in standing water it usually has a layer of stinking mud at the bottom, so we need to clean it out every day - another back breaker!

Eve 

[Hilarysmum]

 But as our pigs like to wee in standing water it usually has a layer of stinking mud at the bottom, so we need to clean it out every day - another back breaker!  Eve 

Pigs you just have to love them