boothcreek
Loving the herd life
Hi everyone,
first time Pig keeper here and I have a question and want to check if everything I'm doing so far is A-OK.
Yesterday I brought home, what I have been told, are two - 5 month old - DurocX pigs(they gave me a birth date so from that the math is sound).
Now, for a 5 month old pig they don't look very big to me. I haven't raised any pigs before(other than maybe a week or so before we processed them), had friends that did and I work at a small abattoir where I see all sizes/ages go through, so I think I have a somewhat in-line Idea of what they "should" be like....; They are both Barrows, the big one I am guessing around 80 lbs and the smaller around 65-70 lbs .
Does that sound right? Too small?
The Lady I bought them from was getting rid of them cause she didn't want to feed them thru the winter, but she said they have been fed "Organic" but couldn't elaborate on what that exactly was.... me thinks table scraps and whatever they could scrounge in their pen, but what do I know.... Just kind of iffy to me when they cannot tell me exactly what food they are use to or show me a scoop-full of it to get an Idea.
They were eating like starving last night when I brought them home, today they are eating much more leisurely(ok, I have a big assortment of feed more or less free-choice right now: hog-grower, rolled oats, rolled corn. Mixed some raw eggs, apple chunks and left-over pumpkin in too). Big Kiddie pool of water so they can't dump it right from the get-go, their stall has a whole bale of straw in the corner so they can go hide from the cold weather and in their outside run they too have some straw and alfalfa hay scattered around.
Very alert piggies. Nosy too, already met both our LGDs. Greet me at the door grunting and snuffling about.
Its pretty darn CUTE!
Once they are settled in I will put them on a course of dewormer in their water for a few days. I figure their system is pretty stressed right now so I will hold off on that for the next week.
What do you guys think?
Cheers,
Anna
first time Pig keeper here and I have a question and want to check if everything I'm doing so far is A-OK.
Yesterday I brought home, what I have been told, are two - 5 month old - DurocX pigs(they gave me a birth date so from that the math is sound).
Now, for a 5 month old pig they don't look very big to me. I haven't raised any pigs before(other than maybe a week or so before we processed them), had friends that did and I work at a small abattoir where I see all sizes/ages go through, so I think I have a somewhat in-line Idea of what they "should" be like....; They are both Barrows, the big one I am guessing around 80 lbs and the smaller around 65-70 lbs .
Does that sound right? Too small?
The Lady I bought them from was getting rid of them cause she didn't want to feed them thru the winter, but she said they have been fed "Organic" but couldn't elaborate on what that exactly was.... me thinks table scraps and whatever they could scrounge in their pen, but what do I know.... Just kind of iffy to me when they cannot tell me exactly what food they are use to or show me a scoop-full of it to get an Idea.
They were eating like starving last night when I brought them home, today they are eating much more leisurely(ok, I have a big assortment of feed more or less free-choice right now: hog-grower, rolled oats, rolled corn. Mixed some raw eggs, apple chunks and left-over pumpkin in too). Big Kiddie pool of water so they can't dump it right from the get-go, their stall has a whole bale of straw in the corner so they can go hide from the cold weather and in their outside run they too have some straw and alfalfa hay scattered around.
Very alert piggies. Nosy too, already met both our LGDs. Greet me at the door grunting and snuffling about.
Its pretty darn CUTE!
Once they are settled in I will put them on a course of dewormer in their water for a few days. I figure their system is pretty stressed right now so I will hold off on that for the next week.
What do you guys think?
Cheers,
Anna