questions

[happy acres]

Seems like all I do is ask questions anymore! Here goes :
1. What are shorts?
2. We caught a wild hog, will it grow out like a regular one?
3. What are the best feeds for it?
4. If it's a female, is it worthwhile to breed it?
5. It's quite young, will it get tamer, or will it retain it's wildness?
6. When we butcher it (we're going to let it grow some first) will it be "gamey "?

 

[elbesta]

If its a boar you need to castrate him as soon as possible. I would feed grain and it should not be gamey. I would make sure its in a hot wire fence.

 

[TigerLilly]

I can only answer #5, as I have 2 wild piglets. "Bacon" was tame enough after the first week that she will lay down if I start rubbing her belly. "Porkchop" has not been given the same kind of attention, but is still tame enough to let me pet her. I've had the first one since February & would guess she was about 2-3 months when I got her. The second one I've only had for just over a month & was also about 2-3 months when I got her. Both are scheduled to be butchered around October, at the latest.

 

[M.L. McKnight]

Seems like all I do is ask questions anymore! Here goes :
1. What are shorts?
2. We caught a wild hog, will it grow out like a regular one?
3. What are the best feeds for it?
4. If it's a female, is it worthwhile to breed it?
5. It's quite young, will it get tamer, or will it retain it's wildness?
6. When we butcher it (we're going to let it grow some first) will it be "gamey "?

1. Shorts? There is a type of pelleted feed called wheat shorts. Or did you mean shoats? Shoats are growing pigs around 100 or so pounds until they begin to reach mature weights of 200+. Think of them a teenage pigs.

2. That wild hog will grow like a regular one but generally their hams aren't quite as pronounced.

3. Feed milk, tankage, cracked corn, wheat mids (shorts), ddg, pig 16, all stock...etc. I won't feed anything that I wouldn't eat. Just be sure to include something with vitamin A and some eggs in their rations.

4. I wouldn't breed them. People aren't as apt to buy wild stock but that is a personal choice.

5. Any pig can be tamed down a bit it just depends on the amount of time you spend with them. Remember that it's a HOG and HOGS can hurt you, even Babe and Wilbur can put a hurtin' on you if they take the mind to. I have spoiled my breeding stock rotten so I can do whatever I want to them- but I never forget what they COULD do.

6. You've heard the expression "You ARE what you eat", the same is true for hogs. That gamey flavor won't be present in anything that you have fed for a month or more. *IF you want a bit of that rich earthy flavor, feed some acorns in your ration, about 1lb per hog a day will do it.