Q: Temper Tantrums??
I could use some help. The family went to a barbecue yesterday...gone all day. This is not normal for our family. Someone is ALWAYS home. Well, Frenzy was left home by herself...first time ever!! When we got home...we found kitchen chairs tipped over...a pair of curtains which were folded neatly, were wadded up on the floor...the baby gate to the upstairs was wide open...and Frenzy was upstairs in my granddaughters room.
Since then, her attitude has been terrible. She nips every time someone walks past her and when I try to pet her and talk with her, she walks the other way!! It's obvious that she's mad at me... so what do I do to get her back on my "good side"! I don't want to reward her for her temper tantrum, but I don't want her to be upset with me either. Any ideas??
A: You are in the proverbial "poop house" with Frenzy. When they get mad they are mad...they have a memory like an elephant and can seem to be very unforgiving.
What I do is talk nice, but ignore them completely. I don't ask for a kiss nor do I pet them. Usually they will decide that they don't like being on the outs with mom and will go back to their nice selves again. You have the same problem that I have...home all the time...so it's a big deal when there is no one around all of a sudden.
When I leave I explain that I am going and give them something that is above what they always get when I'm home, whether it's a treat that's special or a plaything that is new. The Busy Balls we sell are great for those special times (although they can wreck a house trying to get the ball when it gets stuck under the furniture) and I confine them to one room if possible.
They know when they go to that room that mom is going to leave and they have their bed and play things and an extra good treat. When you come home...if all is well than you give another extra good treat and tell them how much you missed them.
Q: OK everyone, here is a question. Harley sleeps under our bed, well not for much longer as she gets bigger. Plus she has a bundle of blankets on the floor at the end of our bed. BUT I am going on a girls 4 day trip to Vegas and to see CHER so she is going to stay home with my husband.
If Harley gets up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom I hear her and take her right out but I know my husband will not hear her nor feel her getting out from under the bed.
So my thought was maybe I should get her a nice size crate for her to sleep in that way when my husband gets up to get ready for work he can just let her out and take her outside. She will spend the day outside with the dogs while he is at work then when our son gets home from work he will let her back in the house. Where do your indoor pigs sleep? Erika
A: Erika, what kind of dogs do you have. The reason someone ask about the dogs is that at least four times every year we get the terrible stories of dogs tearing up a pig and the end result is pretty bloody. The famous last words of most of these heartsick people is "they were raised together and never saw a problem". Small dogs are better than medium or large dogs, but even small dogs if they work together can do a pig a job.
It is usually the pigs fault that it gets started and granted it usually happens after the pig is grown, but even a young pig, if something scares it and makes it scream...that's the turn on for the dogs. Most of us have dogs too, but we don't leave them alone unsupervised with the pigs because nature is funny in it usually shows itself.
Dogs are predators and pigs are prey and a pig doesn't really have a chance with them if there should be something that upsets them. The last story was a good friend of some of us on the list that left her two Jack Russel's with the pigs...they killed two of her oldest pigs. It does happen and it happens often because the pigs wont back off when they should. (Kind of pig headed) and they are the losers in the end.
Q: Why has my potbelly pig started eating her feces? Is it a vitamin or mineral deficiency? Any suggestions? She is kept outdoors in a pen and has shelter. Thanks, Sheryl
A: First off I would like to know how old this pig is, what part of the country does she live in and what diet is she eating right now. Being outside in a pen....is there any grass available or is it a small pen that has nothing for her to do in it? They usually only do this if there is a problem with AMOUNT or QUALITY of the food they are getting.
Pigs that are bored have been known to do this also. My first thought would be that she isn't getting adequate nutrition from whatever she is eating that's why I would like to know what she is being fed. I also would put her on vitamins. Children's chew-able ones no matter what she is getting in the way of foods. A pig on a well balanced pig chow should not have this problem. There are cases of pigs that have internal problems doing this, but I need more info before I can help much.
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Q: Just thought I would get back to you about Miss Piggy. I started her on vitamins today. To answer your question she wasn't eating the Mazuri food, but when I saw her eating her feces I thought maybe the pig chow wasn't giving her something she needed. I also stopped feeding her shelled corn.
She is still eating good except she didn't like the Brussel sprout leaves yesterday. She had Chinese cabbage today. We live in southern middle Tennessee. I would like to have her spayed, but don't know if any of the vets around here have ever spayed a pot and am afraid it might be too expensive. It might be too traumatic to load her up and take her to the vet. I did go to your website and saw the pictures last nite. I'll stay in touch.
A: I wouldn't think that Miss Piggy would like Brussel sprout leaves! My spoiled group won't eat anything like that. I'm talking about ten pigs, the outdoor pigs will eat anything I think. Let's see if the vitamins work or the putting her on Mazuri feed. Sometimes this can be a habit too. Not a very nice one that's for sure.
It sounds like you spend a lot of time with her so it shouldn't be that she is bored and does this just for something to do (that's why I ask about the size of her pen and stuff). A bored pig will do that too. Let's give the vitamins time to get in her system and see if it doesn't help her a little.
I agree with you on the spaying. If you don't have a male there then it isn't as necessary. The trauma is pretty bad and if it's a vet that doesn't know pots they give them injections to knock them out instead of the ISO Florine gas and the injectables are BAD news for pots. So until you find a vet that knows about pots than I would hold off.
We try to spay all females that come in because of the down the road problem that seems to come with some un-spayed females. Lots of tumors and cancers and Pyometrias (infection in the uterus) but this is by no means all un-spayed pigs...maybe one in a hundred.
As long as you keep an eye on her then not spaying her is an option for you. I would rather go that route. Now is the time to find a vet that you are comfortable with that does potbellied pigs. I will check our database and see if there are any vets listed for the TN area ...these are vets that do work on pots. I will send you the names and numbers if I can find any for you. Thanks for the update on miss Piggy and give her a belly rub for me.
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Q: I will try to answer your questions about what Miss Piggy is eating. We had been feeding her swine food. It was a maintenance food for pigs and then we finally located a place locally to get pot belly pig food. What they had was Mazuri Mini-Pig food, Youth. We got Miss Piggy from a woman who had bought her at a yard sale for her mother and she didn't want her and the daughter had already been abusive to her that afternoon. Miss Piggy was scared and it took a while to get her tamed.
We got her in July and we guess that she may have been 2 or 3 months old. I feed her a cup of food in the morning and another cup in the afternoon. We also have a garden and we raised broccoli, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, and Brussel sprouts this fall. I go out every day at lunch and pick the leaves and broccoli florets , usually a gallon bucket full and feed them to her. We had an Amish friend make her a hot pink harness and leash and I have got her used to it in her pen but she is still too wild to take out in the yard yet and now the weather is not cooperative.
She has also been eating persimmons because her pen is under 3 persimmon trees but they are about gone now. I would mix a handful of shelled corn in with her feed in the afternoon but Kathleen Myers said this might be part of the problem. She had mange mites a couple of months ago but we got medicine from a vet and it cleared up. Thanks for any help you can give. Sheryl
A: Sheryl, nothing wrong with feeding pig chow...we have 73 here that have had nothing but for the last 16 years since we started the sanctuary. I ask about what you were feeding cause there are some potbelly pig foods out there being sold that are not adequate in nutrition. These are companies owned by single individuals not the big ones like Purina.
I ask because I wanted to make sure she wasn't being fed one of those that might not have been giving her enough of what she needs but any commercial hog chow is complete in giving what a pot needs as well as the farm pigs. The Mazuri is good, but I can't say it's any better than the regular pig chow.
In any case diet does not seem to be the problem since it sounds like she gets a pretty well rounded diet. Most pigs that eat their own stool are pigs that have not had a good start in life. Sounds like she didn't have it too good till you got her. Some of these pigs do it because they are bored. Can't imagine that being under three persimmon trees!! Which leads me to another question:
What does she do with the seeds?? I ask because there have been several cases of pigs getting blocked intestines from the seeds in persimmons and peaches. Some pigs spit them out, some swallow them.
Have you noticed any change in her behavior or her digging a lot? Some pigs will eat their own stool (and dirt) when they are in pain. If this pig is acting normal in all ways and anxious to eat like a healthy pig than you can rule pain out as a reason. If you can do that then you might want to start her on a one a day children's vitamin. We use the generic Flintstones ones that come in flavors and they will eat them from your hand.
Also would ask if she started this AFTER you switched her feed or was she doing it before? And what area of the country are you located. If she didn't do this on the pig chow and is doing it on the Mazuri than the answer would be that Mazuri doesn't have the selenium added and your farm pig chow does. If you are in a selenium deficient area that might be your reason. If it started before than that is not the case.
I would rule out habit since this has not always been a problem for her and I can see no reason why she would be hungry enough to do this with what you are giving her so if we rule out pain (which you would know by watching her and how willing she is to eat). That means it has to be a deficiency in something she needs. I would try the vitamins for a time and see if this helps but get back to me on the questions I ask OK?
Q: Hello, I have a 5 month old potbelly pig and I have had her since she was 3 days old. She was the runt and was not feeding on her mom. The people that had her gave her to me and she almost died. I had to inject fluids under her skin and she pulled threw. I had her spayed about 3 weeks ago.
Charlotte is attacking my Dobermans and they try to run from her but she chases them and they will bite her back. She used to play with them and since she's been spayed, she is twice as bad about attacking them. It's not play anymore! It's a good thing that my dogs are not nasty temper or they would of killed her by now.
She lives in the house and is house broke and sleeps in a crate at nite. She goes to work everyday since she was 3 days old. I wonder if she's spoiled! I called my vet and they said that it will take 2 to 3 months for her hormones to die. I hope she gets sweet with the dogs again.
When will I know how big she will get? She is 5 months old and is around 23 pounds. Other then my problem with the dogs, she is a great buddy and I love her so much. She sets on my lap and rolls over for me to rub her belly. She sits on command and has not pottied in the house or shop since she was about 2 to 3 months old. She goes out the door on her own and comes up the stairs by her self. Please help me about the dogs. Cindy
A: Cindy, your dogs and pig are an accident waiting to happen! I can't stress enough the importance of keeping them separate. Dogs are predators by nature...pigs are prey. Large dogs and pigs don't mix. The pig will instigate the problem because they don't back off like another dog would do and it's just a matter of time till your dogs turn on her, not because the are mean, but out of self defense. Wish I had a dime for every email received about pigs raised with a dog for months who got along well together and one day the dog killed the pig! We also have large dogs here but NEVER are they left alone with our pigs.
Please make some kind of adjustment where you can make sure that you don't come home some day from shopping to a terrible scene. Pigs reach an age where they are territorial and your girl will probably never be friendly with the dogs again....they also should never be fed in the same room with dogs. With certain precautions you can avoid trouble but you need to start now. It's just a matter of being careful and never feeding dogs in front of the pig or vice versa and making sure that they can't get to each other if you are not there to keep an eye on them.
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Q: Thank you for the info. I don't ever leave her alone in the room with the dogs. My dogs would never hurt her if she wasn't going after them. I started letting her out by herself in the house when they are outside and at work they take turns running the shop. How big do you think she mite get? She is 5 months old and is 23 pounds. I still hold her in my lap every night. She's a great little piglet and we all love her. Thanks. Cindy
A: It's hard to answer that one since they can grow till they are three years. Just don't underfeed her to try and keep her small cause that ends up with lots of health problems down the road. She is no different than any other baby animal and needs good feed to grow bone and a good immune system. She will grow to her genetic size no matter what, but she can do it healthy or not healthy depending on you. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that she probably won't be one of the larger pigs....do you know who mom and dad are and did you see them as grown pig? Chances are if she is 25 lbs at 5 months she is not going to go over the 80 lb range when grown...but that's not written in stone. It all depends on her genetics.
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