[Gpdd] [CARE]--Diet and Bonding .Proper diet for Rachel's rescue pig and introducing Charlene's three sows

warmbreath imwarmbreath at netscape.com
Wed Oct 11 02:49:28 EDT 2006


Rachel, The diet you are giving your little rescue pig is just fine. I would only give you 2 cautions, Some vegetables contain high levels of calcium and or oxalates. Those veggies should be given with a little caution and mixed well with other veggies. The key is to use a large variety of veggies not emphasizing one too much, for instance carrots should be limited to one the size of a baby carrot, or 1 inch.  One other is that apples sometimes will cause sores on the mouth or lips, so give apples in small amounts and discontinue if sores show up, they will disappear. Avoid allot of sugary fruits and tomatoes as well as piggies can get diabetes easily. You can find a list of veggies and the oxalate contents here in the archives somewhere or check www.guinealynx.com. If your little piggy gets too rotund I would cut back to all timmy pellets, nice svelte piggies are great if they are that way from getting allot of exercise, otherwise some would argue that a little extra weight on piggie is good in case they get sick they have some backup, weight wise.

Charlene As for those 3 little piggies that can't quite make the leap to bonded, one trick is to withhold food for a couple hours, and then serve them a huge mixed salad in a neutral place, piggies are after all, piggies and would usually rather eat than fight. At the end of the feast they will probably fall over into a well earned nap, together.  But you will still have to expect them to jockey for supremacy, let it happen, but cut it off if it looks like somebody will really get injured, have a towel handy to throw over them.

Here's a great story;  I had 3 boars, two that were unusually tightly bonded on 1 side of the C&C divider, and a lonely boar on the other. Peter, the very dominant boss boar in the twosome loved his little partner Moe to distraction, and one time when I picked up Moe for a bath, Peter looked absolutely stricken and broke out into piggy singing.  Well any way, I had a hard time getting Peter to accept the third little piggie until I put the divider down with Moe on the side of the third piggy. Peter whipped his head around to me with a look of pure understanding of what had happened, he had to accept another pig or loose his baby Moe. So I said to Peter, Ok, I see you understand, I lifted the barrier, and all of a sudden we had 3 happy piggies and a very relieved Peter. This incident happened in a flash and is just one more proof of how intelligent out little furbabies are, I was dumbfounded and thrilled. 

Sandy, wishing Rosie a happy adoption day, and mourning Mr. Cooders, the last of Alge's 3 Jolly Rodents to travel to the bridge.


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