Pig Tales Update

Well, well, well. We weren’t the only ones who lost those pigs! This morning I got to speak with some friends who also bought two pigs. Their two are now on ice, having been shot after eluding capture for, what, about two weeks? And she said everyone she knew who had gotten pigs from that litter had had them escape. I’m not sure how many have been caught. They escaped from pens of all varieties and descriptions. Having heard these tales, having experienced our two sets of pigs, I wouldn’t start new pigs out in less than pig panels (which is what we had and they still escaped, but hey).

And we know this now too -- don’t buy just weaned pigs. They need to be taken off their momma and put in a pen or stall or something and fed for AT LEAST a week before they are further separated. They need to know that food comes from somewhere besides momma. What we call bucket trained.

Ah, but having heard about those two pigs on ice is actually encouraging. See, we’ve still only captured the one. We haven’t seen the other since the day after. We haven’t smelled anything either which is good, but we were wondering if a pig just off his momma would be able to fend for himself and survive or not. My friend didn’t see her pigs for 5 days at all, then they found the chicken food and came around, but they still couldn’t capture them. So our baby may be a wild boar and raise himself on acorns and pig weed.

The one we have surely is growing well.

And we have another friend with a sow that she’s pretty sure is pregnant. If she’d have the darn things, we’d get two more.

After they’ve been bucket trained.