Help! Pig always seems crazy hungry!!!!

Newchick7

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Long story. Will try to make it short. Lol. We rescued a piglet who is now about 8 months old. When we got her she was malnourished, underweight, and half dead. We let her live in our garage under a heat lamp, fed her food we Vitamixed for her, gave her antibiotics for her respiratory infection and after about three months of nursing her back to health she finally started to come alive. So with all of that said she is our pet. She now weighs 200+ pounds. She prefers dogs over other pigs.
So here's my question. She seems hungry all the time...like ALL the time. We feed her a quart of pig food mixed with oats in the morning and few pieces of sliced bread. Then at 12 she gets fed about 2 cups and some bread. The at night she gets a quart again and some bread or veggies from our garden. But she gets crazy. Even after we just fed her! Like screaming at us like we are killing her!! She'll come up to us and push us hard with her snout and sometimes even try to nip us. She'll even put her front legs up on the table outside where we keep her food in a bin and try to get that. But she is always screaming at us. She is let out all the time on our five acres so so get pasture to eat. I have dewormed her with safeguard twice and and just yesterday Ivermectin. We are curious if anyone has any ideas as to why she is acting so crazy hungry all the time. She get plenty to eat. We have had feeder pigs before and NONE of them acted like this. Our son even did a market hog for four-h and we even had to restrict that hogs food a little bit and he never screamed or acted crazy like our rescue pigs does. Thanks for any insight.

I forgot to add that she is extremely sweet and a loveable creature.
 

mysunwolf

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Well, I hate to tell you this, but... she sounds like a pig :) Some pigs are just louder about their feed than others. If she was really 200lbs at 8 months and not overweight, she sounds like a full-sized hog who may get to be 600lbs. What I do for my screamers is give them free-choice feed (oats is a good choice). However, if you plan to keep her as a pet, she does need to be kept on a diet long-term as most pigs can't self regulate feed. You may want to build her a special area where she doesn't have to interact with you unless you let her out--that will take care of the jumping, nipping, chasing (but not the screaming of course). Then give her some time, many of my young pigs were screamers but grew out of it as they got older. Of course, if they're hungry, and it's meal time, even the quiet ones will start "the scream of death" :eek: because that's just what pigs do! Good luck ;)
 

Newchick7

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Holy moly! I'm glad to hear your guys pigs do the screaming too! Mysunwolf thank you for your info! We have just never I guess have had a pig who screams like this. But she screams even if it's not feeding time. Or when we let her roam around with us she tries to break down the garage man door of the house because she knows that is where the extra bread is kept and this is after we just fed her! we are just hoping there is nothing wrong with her. You know, Like some dogs will always feel hungry and they could eat so much they could die. We are even thinking she has a thyroid problem. Lmao. I know. You all think we are crazy. Lol!!
 

Newchick7

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Another questions IS how much do you feed a 200 pound pig a day? And here she is with my seven year old. She is defiantly not over weight.
 

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mysunwolf

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She's adorable! She could probably gain some weight without a problem. At that size, we feed 5lbs of complete pig feed per day.

I've got to tell you, I've never had a pig eat so much that they explode or bloat like other animals. I have seen potbellies get morbidly obese from free choice feed, but not so much with other breeds. I think you're safe from overfeeding for now. She probably doesn't have a health issue, she just has a high metabolism because of her breed (Hampshire cross?). Her other destructive behaviors, well, I'd blame that on being a pig as well!
 

secuono

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I didn't feed mine while they screamed, I waited them out. Some caught on quick, others took a year. Ugh. They got nothing if they were nasty with me, I'd come back later and try again.
Heat can also make the females stupid and annoying.
Pig looks in good weight and like it will grow huge!

Also, pigs are hogs. Pretending to be hungry all the time is kinda what they're known for.
 

Newchick7

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I didn't feed mine while they screamed, I waited them out. Some caught on quick, others took a year. Ugh. They got nothing if they were nasty with me, I'd come back later and try again.
Heat can also make the females stupid and annoying.
Pig looks in good weight and like it will grow huge!


Also, pigs are hogs. Pretending to be hungry all the time is kinda what they're known for.

I've got to get my dad on board. Lol. He gives in when she starts screaming. And me on the other hand....I wait her out and refuse to feed her when she screaming at me when I know she's not hungry. They are kind of like toddlers!! Lmao
 

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