# POtbelly Pig with Tusks?



## jode (Oct 24, 2007)

Hey all, we have had a potbelly pig for about a year or so now. He has been cut, but is growing tusks which are probably 1.5" to 2" long at this point. My question; is this really a pot belly pig? Or did someone sell wild boar piglets as potbellies? Do potbellies normally develop tusks?


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## Gailann Schrader (May 10, 2002)

Yes! PotBellies have GLORIOUS tusks!!!

you gotta clip 'em just like you do with commercial hogs.



I'm gonna make a necklace from the barrow's tusks once they can be pried loose of his decapitated head...


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## jode (Oct 24, 2007)

Alright then, I guess "Piggy Smalls" is just a regular ol' potbelly - he sure is a ugly little sucker though. Looks more like the wild hogs we shoot out in the woods than a pet to me. I guess it won't matter much in a couple of days as he starts his journey towards Christmas dinner.


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## GrannyG (Mar 26, 2005)

I have a huge old potbelly, Jimbo, and he is cut, also has big, thick tusks. He is a sweetie, love to hear him making his pig noises, he is sooooo old, I am surprised he is still here. The female, Suzi, we have had for YEARS...her hide is all wrinkles and she has lost alot of weight, still waddles around though....


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## fixer1958 (Dec 12, 2005)

Yes they have tusks and I have the scars on my shins from the irritable turd when he wouldn't move when I politely asked him too.


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## MissyMoo (Jan 29, 2009)

I just picked up (for $10.) a solid black w/white bands on his front legs - potbelly boar about 6 years old named Jackson, that has big tusks. he has what look to be 2 tusks per side and I was told they had been kept clipped (so I guess they'd be worse if they hadnt). Poor guy got one of his tusks hooked on the cage he was being transported in and the guy was nice enough to use his pliers to pry Jackson's tooth off the cage wire. my other boar is much younger at only 5 or 6 months old, so his tusks are small and not showing out from under his lips yet. 

These potbelly male pigs look like warthogs to me, LOL, and/or wild hogs. really cool creatures actually.


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## Gailann Schrader (May 10, 2002)

Yes, as they grow older they DO look like warthogs - I've thought the same thing! Gorgeous things, really. 

My Juanpiggie has WHISKERS that ring his snout like rays of the sun. He's gorgeous.  Feelers, I suppose. He's lovely. Simply lovely...


Oh! MissyMoo! Congrats on the $10 for the boar! How big is he? Dang it on the tusks getting caught. I kept a skull from the gilt that had internal tumors (from not being bred or spayed) and her tusks were just little things. I imagine Juanpiggie's skull will be more impressive. The bone actually deforms out at a right angle to allow those pretty things space. Fascinating. I've not seen a double tusk yet. I bet it's stunning. Take some pics?


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## marvella (Oct 12, 2003)

if he's diiner this won't matter.

but just in case someone else is curious about it, on some pigs, badly bred pigs with flat faces especially, the tusks can grow long enough to grow into their face. it happened to mine. no one, or the vet, had any doable advice about how to trim them. he was on death row anyway.


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## MissyMoo (Jan 29, 2009)

Gailann, YES - Warthogs!  LOL
even without the tusks - the males have the warthog look, however with the tusks, WOW! totally cool. :banana02: 
its like having your own wild animal from a land far far away........ 
Yes, I will take photos of him and post them. It was dark out and rainy when I got him last nite, but he appeared to have the two nice pearly white tusks sticking out about a couple inches (after clipping) and it appeared that smaller ones were out just about a 1/2 inch? above the main tusks. you can see the slit that separates the two. really cool! 
Size-wise, Jackson is about the same size or a bit smaller than my silver colored boar name Maken (maken is only 6 mons old). so....I am assuming that Maken will be HUGE when grown and Jackson is naturally a small potbelly (since he is already full grown at 5-6 yrs old. the people had him since he was 6 weeks old. but they kept one of his daughters and dont want him breeding her.) 
weight-wise, I would say he is about 50-70 lbs (just guessing).
I think Jackson is thin and needs fattening up. his hip bones show as does his spine, other than that he has his jet black spiney long potbelly boar hair  He seemed to really appreciate the homecoming treats I gave him: whole wheat bread slices, a banana, part of a corn dog (LOL), also a bit of a breakfast burrito and a chunk of pure sugar cane (a brown - molasses flavored chunk of sugar). 
Jackson is such a calm pig. He never makes a sound and doesnt appear to be aggressive - yet. (of course he is still in the van in his cage as its early AM here and its still dark out, and I need daylight to see to put him in his pen.)
I will post pics soon as I can.


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## jode (Oct 24, 2007)

We've had this guy for about a year:


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## MissyMoo (Jan 29, 2009)

Gailann, here are photos of my new boy "Jackson" :bouncy: he is said to be 5-6 years old. He shows no interest in the ladies yet. hmmm..... anyway, I think he is sooo cute! 
(forgive me if he doesnt have a double tusk as I am an amateur, LOL). I still say he looks like a warthog. He's so ugly he is cute. 
Fantastic set of weapons those tusks are eh?


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Gailann Schrader said:


> Yes! PotBellies have GLORIOUS tusks!!! You gotta clip 'em just like you do with commercial hogs.


Or don't clip them! We don't and the boars grow grand tusks:

http://images.google.com/images?q=site:sugarmtnfarm.com+tusks










They are quite sharp. They break off and wear down and then they grow more. The one in the photo above was only protruding about an inch and a half(?) or so from his mouth. Most is in the root on his. On other boars they're 6" long or so outside the mouth.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
Save 30% off Pastured Pork with free processing: http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project: http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop


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## MissyMoo (Jan 29, 2009)

OOOoooo!!! Highlands! Would you ever sell any of those beautiful tusks via mail/post? 
Very nice......very nice. 

Highlands, I noticed that your big gray boar with black spots looks almost identical to my young 3 1/2 month old poland-china/spot boar named Porky (whom I am keeping as my breeding boar). 

Porky


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

I've had several people ask about buying tusks. Problem is we only have four big boars and we don't exchange them fast. Occasionally they drop a tusk out in the field. I wish I could find those. A few months later they regrow the tusks. It would be cool if there were a way to sustainably harvest the tusks without culling the boars. They're nice boys but I don't think I want to try sawing off their tusks while their awake...


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## MissyMoo (Jan 29, 2009)

no Highlands, I dont think thats a good idea either (HAHA) 

yeah it would be nice to harvest them without culling the boars, but then I guess - the way it is now - it just makes the tusks you DO get - more special


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## jode (Oct 24, 2007)

My apologies to those of you on dial-up, but I think this one is worth it:










By the way, this is from this past spring before his tusks started coming in and he started in with his surly temper and territoriality.


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## MissyMoo (Jan 29, 2009)

awwww.....what a CUTE photo. He is almost as cute as the little girl


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## jode (Oct 24, 2007)

As I think I mentioned, Piggy Smalls has been getting teste lately and today we discovered why. While we had been informed by his previous owners that he "used to be" a boar, we found today during the butchering process that he was still half a boar. Apparently one of his testes had not dropped down and was not removed during his neutering procedure. That may account for his boarish appearance (big 'mantle' above his head, etc) and nasty temperament. 

Piggy Smalls last moments:









Note that the reason we shot him this way (instead of in the forehead) was so that we can preserve his skull. We shot him with an M1 full metal jacket to make sure there was no shards of lead in the meat. It did the trick nicely with the bullet going in right behind his ear and instantly shattering his vertebrae. I then jumped in and slit his throat to let the blood out. 

We had access to a hose, so we washed him off real good before we started cutting:









The kids came home from school in time for a quick anatomy lesson with specific attention to the inner workings of the heart:









And now we have a cooler full of meat on ice curing and a crockpot full of the backbone/pelvis to get the very last little bits off. His skull is in a bucket of bleach to keep the coyotes off and to get all the bits and pieces off. The meat should be good for a Christmas Eve feast.


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