# What shouldn't they eat?



## kesoaps (Dec 18, 2004)

We just got a piggie :1pig: I've been wanting one, but City Boy...well, he's finally come around and agreed that I'm right to get a pig  

Anyway, in terms of food scraps (slop, such an icky word), are there any must nots? As I recall, they don't particularly like citrus, but is there anything that would be harmful?


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## Up North (Nov 29, 2005)

Plants of the nightshade family. Tomato plants, Potato plants, raw potatoes
are a no-no.


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## Ronney (Nov 26, 2004)

Look at what you eat and how you eat it, and you can fairly safely say your pig can eat it.

So things such as bones (and particularly fish bones), tea leaves and tea bags, coffee grounds, onion skins and citrus fruit - although some pigs will eat citrus but not many - are off the menu. Potatoes should always be cooked as should meat, processed meats and meat by-products.

It really comes down to common sense and most of what comes out of your kitchen will be fine for the pig.

Cheers,
Ronnie


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## Paula (Jun 3, 2002)

Agree with Up North about the Nightshades.
You would be surprised what pigs will eat and thrive on. City Boy prob. couldn't handle it though, lol.
They're omnivores and also scavengers. 
We had a heated discussion on this board a while back about an article someone read where the guy rotationally grazed and followed the cows with pigs. He claimed the pigs got a substantial part of their diet from cow manure. Some here were outraged - forcing those poor pigs to eat cow manure, how cruel! As an owner of free-range pigs I of course piped up and said that pigs eat cow manure voluntarily, we see it all the time. One of the biggest objectors came back a few months and said "Wow, guess what? I turned my pigs out to free-range and they DO eat cow manure."
They'll eat animals - alive, just killed, or old and rotty, and relish it (pigs will not get sick from rotten food) bones, feathers, hide, skulls... every bit. It isn't unhealthy for them. We tend to anthropomorphize animals. They most definately don't need their food cooked. Cooked bones aren't digestable, raw are.
In the old days they were even known to occasionally eat small children if they weren't kept out of the pen.
Remember that guy in england recently who was killing women and feeding them to his hogs. No evidence. Somehow when they finally discovered him they genetically tested the pigs to get proof.
In the last few months our pigs have eaten tons of Jerusalem Artichokes, gobs of raw eggs, one buzzard my dh shot and it somehow got in with the boar, and many many freshly shot chickens. We're overrun with them and we need to move. Great pig feed. They also get a little corn and mineral. And whatever other grubs, worms, snakes or other stuff they can find rooting in the stalls, woods and fields.


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## kesoaps (Dec 18, 2004)

See, common sense wouldn't tell me a potato had to be cooked... City Boy threw a bunch out there for her, but she's been avoiding them for the most part. I thought I'd heard they shouldn't eat them, but I wasn't sure where or why. Now I know


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## SilverVista (Jan 12, 2005)

Just keep in mind that when you butcher, they will taste like whatever they've been eating. And sometimes the wrong combo of table scraps will contribute to soft, flabby flesh. Once you get an idea of the rate of gain on this one, you might want to plan to go over to hog finisher for the last month. Seems I remember the Highland Hog ration giving good results. 

And --- if you need or want to feed a treat, pigs LOVE kibbled dog food! When we used to have feeder pigs here, I'd always keep a handful of kibble in my pocket for them. 

DD2's BF grew 2 for me this winter, and we're just waiting on the hams to be done before I pick up the whole lot at the butcher next week. Home grown bacon..... good-bye diet! ;D


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## Rogo (Jan 1, 2006)

SilverVista, fat doesn't put weight on you, starch does. If I go over 26 grams of starch every day, I gain weight. A medium apple has 22 grams of starch. But I can eat a pound of bacon daily and not gain an ounce. I often cook up a pound and snack on it thru the night. Now if you put that bacon on bread, the equation changes! )

[email protected]


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## kesoaps (Dec 18, 2004)

> Just keep in mind that when you butcher, they will taste like whatever they've been eating.


Oh, well, in that case I'll be feeding her chocolates and potato chips!


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## Paula (Jun 3, 2002)

> Just keep in mind that when you butcher, they will taste like whatever they've been eating.


LOL, in some cases this is true. 
Ours don't taste like cow poop, dead chickens or jerusalem artichokes.
Now we did buy a pig from a lady once who has a small goat dairy and feeds her slaughter pigs tons of goat milk. I swear that meat had a goaty aftertaste.
I'd be afraid to feed them a bunch of fish too, but that comes from eating fishy tasting eggs from when the chickens were sneaking dog food. Ick.


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

Must have been some bad goat's milk. Ours get just about all the sweet jersey milk they can stand. Milk proteins produces a fine muscle!

congrats on your piggies!!

Ditto the nightshade family. We always pull our tomato plants before turning the pigs in to till up the rest of the garden for us in the fall.


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## Paula (Jun 3, 2002)

MullersLaneFarm said:


> Must have been some bad goat's milk. Ours get just about all the sweet jersey milk they can stand. Milk proteins produces a fine muscle!
> 
> congrats on your piggies!!
> 
> Ditto the nightshade family. We always pull our tomato plants before turning the pigs in to till up the rest of the garden for us in the fall.


I think she fed the pigs the milk that was just too goaty tasting for human consumption. Regardless of dairy goat people's arguments, some goats just make goaty milk. 
I'm not prejudice against goats, we have a Nubian who makes the best milk...better than our Jersey milk!


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Up North said:


> Plants of the nightshade family. Tomato plants, Potato plants, raw potatoes are a no-no.


I used to think this. Then some of our pigs got into a big pile of tomato and potato plants in the fall that I had pulled for composting. The three pigs ate the whole pile. I was sure they were goners. They were fine. Apparently potato and tomato plants don't have enough toxin in them to harm the pigs. It was several hundred pounds of plants and three ~350 lb sows. Their next litter was fine too.

When we first got pigs I read about all the deadly plants out in the pasture. We tried cutting them out. The pigs are better at it and never seem to get sick from it.

The one thing we don't feed the pigs is meat. They'll eat it but I would rather they don't get into the habit. Besides, our pack of livestock guardian dogs get the meat.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org


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## UncleD (Aug 29, 2006)

This was our first year with pigs. Not knowing what I was doing I suppose, but I fed them garden leftovers. Buckets and buckets of tomatoes and vines.
They loved them and I never had a problem.


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## BobK (Oct 28, 2004)

I glean the tomato field next to us after harvest and field wheelbarrows of tomatos to the pigs......they like them. I would avoid anything overtly rotten there can be some nasty mold toxins in rotten stuff that damage pig livers just as well as human livers....and definitely no moldy grains or feed!!!

For years I used to feed my pigs all the offal from chicken butchering but once, while helping a friend butcher rabbits, we threw some offal to his pigs.....one started choking on it and died..... it was instant butcher time for that pig...so now I play it safe and bury the offal.


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## Jcran (Jan 4, 2006)

SilverVista said:


> Just keep in mind that when you butcher, they will taste like whatever they've been eating. And sometimes the wrong combo of table scraps will contribute to soft, flabby flesh.


Interesting, I think I may be eating the wrong combo of table scraps myself


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