Pigs

Root vegetables are great to produce to keep through winter months and cheap, making them potentially a great way to save on pig feed costs. But some root vegetables, like potatoes, are a nightshade vegetable, which means that they contain alkaloids. In this article I’m going to cover which root vegetables are healthy for pigs […]

Pigs have big appetites and effective digestive systems to cope with them. They are the opposite of picky eaters and will try almost any available food source, including tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, and peppers.   Can pigs eat nightshade plants? Pigs can only eat nightshade plants in certain instances as many nightshades are poisonous. Some nightshades,

Pigs will eat almost anything, including zucchini and pumpkins. Plus nearly all forms of squash are easy to grow and take little effort or cost in the garden. Lets dive in to see if zucchini, winter squash, or pumpkins good for pigs to eat. If you are looking for a complete list of what pigs

Leafy greens are often some of the earliest garden vegetables, but it got me wondering if they can be used to supplement a pigs diet. Hogs have different needs than people because they often are being raised to gain weight and go to the market. While people often want to stay thin- skinniness is not

We were so excited when we added pigs to our homestead, and the children thoroughly enjoyed looking after the little piglets and adult pigs. One night my husband and I sat at the table eating delicious pasta with truffle shavings when we had a brilliant idea.  Why not train one or two of our pigs

The other day I ran across an interesting statement on a Snapple “fact”. It said that pigs can’t look up into the sky and that as a result, pigs have no appreciation of the sky. That seemed a little odd to me so I decided to research it and find the truth. Can pigs look

What is Pseudorabies? Pseudorabies is a disease that literally drives swine mad with scratching. It’s also known as “Mad Itch”  and Aujeszky’s disease (named after the founder Aladar Aujesky). It’s is a strain of the DNA herpes virus that attacks your pig’s immune system. Unfortunately, as a result, because of their weakened body’s inability to

Gus is my adorable mini pig; he lives mainly indoors with my family when we are home. He is quite a spoiled little piggy and has his own room just outside our kitchen, where he sleeps at night. About four nights ago, I noticed that Gus had sniffles and was frequently scratching. Shortly after that,

As summer approaches, you’ll want to make sure that your pigs are protected from the hot summer sun or they may get sunburns. Pig sunburns can be painful and scary to deal with.  I wanted to find out how to best protect pigs’ skin from the sun so I called up one of my friends

Dealing with 650 lb of an angry pig is no joke. It compromises the welfare of other pigs within the herd and endangers anyone involved in handling those animals.  Our first boar was so aggressive that we slaughtered him when he reached market weight. Before that, he bit several people, including myself.  In contrast, our