# feeding dog food to pigs



## Charleen

We have a galvanized trash can full of dry Pedigree dog food. The food is fresh but we found a few meal (sp?) worms in it so we don't wish to feed it to the dog. Is it okay to feed it to our pigs? 

We have 5 pigs almost 2 months old. 
They are being pasture raised, but we're also feeding them oats and wheat that have been soaking in fermented goat milk. I'm thinking that the dog food might be okay after it soaks up milk and becomes mush. But I wanted to hear it from others. Thanks.


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## momanto

If You Can Crush The Dry Food I Would Do So. We Once Had A Pig And Two Puppies About The Same Size. They All Ran Free In The Yard. I Would Fix Puppy Food And Pig Food And Set Them Out At The Same Time. They Eat And Bite Of Their Own Food Then Proceed To Eat The Other's Food. Finally, I Decided Dog Food Was Cheaper Than Pig And Just Fed Them All Dog Food. We Sold That Pig At 40 # Was Eating Us Out Of House And Home And Running Away. It Lived To Be About 400# Befroe Butchered.


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## bare

I donno, but I'm of the opinion that I'll be the one eating the pig, so I'd rather not feed it anything I wouldn't be willing to eat myself. 

I'm not too likely going to be eating the dog though, so feed it what you will.


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## Ronney

Hi Charleen,
Given that next to pigs, dogs are the biggest scavangers unhung, I doubt very much that a few weavils in the dog biscuits are going to hurt your dog. 

There is no reason why you can't feed them to your pigs either steeped in milk or as they are but make sure that either way, they have access to plenty of water - dry food of this type swells in the gut and absorbs fluid even after it has been steeped.

Cheers,
Ronnie


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## Misty

I don't think I would simply because of the wormy things. If it were goats etc...I would say no no no because of bloodmeal and ruminants. But I know we feed the show hogs blood meal with some other stuff in it for burning fat off unwanted places like the jowls.


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## ihedrick

I had a friend who feed her pigs soley dog food (trying to save money) and the meat tasted like crap! But if it is just to use up the dog food and then they go back to regular feed, it may be okay. Don't know about the worms in it though...I'd keep in mind that you'll be eating them and would watch what they eat. Got any chickens that can eat it? Mine will eat anything Idrop or they knock out of my hands :haha: they're bad...


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## GeorgeK

Its not a problem, pigs naturally eat worms and caterpillars and anything else they can chase down. What a pig eats will not taint the meat unless it is poisonous, and then you'd have a sick or dead pig. Bad tasting meat is also not the result of castrating or not castrating a pig, it is the result of improper handling of the meat during any of the butchering, storing or cooking phase. It the caterpillars bother you sprinkle a little diatomaceous earth in the feed and give it a god stir


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## Misty

GeorgeK said:


> Its not a problem, pigs naturally eat worms and caterpillars and anything else they can chase down. What a pig eats will not taint the meat unless it is poisonous, and then you'd have a sick or dead pig. Bad tasting meat is also not the result of castrating or not castrating a pig, it is the result of improper handling of the meat during any of the butchering, storing or cooking phase. It the caterpillars bother you sprinkle a little diatomaceous earth in the feed and give it a god stir


I disagree with the tasting of the meat part. I know of people who like to feed their goats peanuts at the end to add a nutty taste to the meat. There are wild turkeys in Mexico who eat these tiny little peppers the size of peas and their meat is HOT HOT! I prefer over corn fed beef over grass..I taste a difference....JMHO....


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## woolyfluff

several years ago we raise Pig on dog that the owner of the pig got from a dog kennel THAT was the worst tasting meat ALL IT SMELT LIKE WAS DOG FOOD EVEN WHILE IT WAS BEING COOKED thermis a lot of junk they put in the feed that is NOTeven good for the dog we feed all animals only natural feed a friend drop a road kill yesterday year old deer


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## Tango

buckshotboers said:


> There are wild turkeys in Mexico who eat these tiny little peppers the size of peas and their meat is HOT HOT!



Are you sure about that? My Cuban family fed hot peppers to all their poultry as a deworming agent. It didn't alter the taste of the meat- but they only did it once a month.


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## GeorgeK

I have tried the "stories" about meat and found them ALL to be myths. The only thing I have found that taints the pork is if the pig is butchered without having been bled. Toughness is a matter of not properly aging the meat. Think about it, do you know anything about the biology of digestion? anything you, or a pig or an earthworm or sardine or whatever eats either passes through the gut and never becomes part of the organism, or is broken down at the molecular level and recycled into the new organism's proteins. You are propagating myths.





buckshotboers said:


> I disagree with the tasting of the meat part. I know of people who like to feed their goats peanuts at the end to add a nutty taste to the meat. There are wild turkeys in Mexico who eat these tiny little peppers the size of peas and their meat is HOT HOT! I prefer over corn fed beef over grass..I taste a difference....JMHO....


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## Misty

Sorry George......you will NEVER convince me that certain things do not make a difference in meat taste. I have had grass fed beef, no thanks. I have had beef fed just silage, protien cake/some corn...pretty good. And I have meat from steers fed good show feed....wayyyy good!! Pork, same thing. I had people buy hogs for butcher from a friend who fed only groceries, i.e...milk, bread etc......they came to us becaust that meat was terrible. They like our hogs and the meat. I grew up "eating our own" and had only a short time in my adult life where I didn't have home grown meat. I stopped eating meat really.


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## RedneckPete

I've fed my pigs a pails of slop full of magots.

A few worms won't hurt your pigs.

Pete


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## Tango

RedneckPete said:


> I've fed my pigs a pails of slop full of magots.
> 
> Pete


That's gross. Must be hell being a pig at your place.


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## Paula

Tango, pigs seek out worms and grubs to eat. They love them, and it's great protein for them.

For whoever wouldn't feed their dog food with worms in it - dogs are scavengers  . They eat dead things (their favorite food btw, the stinkier the better - I have a dog who is right now toting around a half-eaten groundhog he killed 2 days ago) dog food with a few worms in it won't hurt them. Probably be better for them. They are meant to have more protein than most commercial dog food provides.

Animals are not human children. Try to remember how they survived - and thrived - before we domesticated them. Think about what some of their natural foods would be if they had a choice. 

Please don't anyone try to turn this into a debate about animal care. We take care of our animals. They get daily attention. They get vet care. They have no parasites, internal or external. They have shelter if they so desire. I am only commenting about the food thing.

George, I've eaten pork raised lots of different ways. I can tell you with certainty that there is at least one thing that leaves a taste in pig meat. GOAT MILK! Ugh. We bought pork for 2 years from a lady who raised her pigs on lots of goat milk. Won't do that again.


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## Tango

Paula said:


> Tango, pigs seek out worms and grubs to eat. They love them, and it's great protein for them.


The man said "slop with maggots" Paula. This wasn't about what pigs would find and eat in the wild, which btw, has nothing to do with captive husbandry. Wild animals have unremarkably short lifespans, greatly due to their diets- even shorter when hunting is factored in. 



> For whoever wouldn't feed their dog food with worms in it - dogs are scavengers  . They eat dead things (their favorite food btw, the stinkier the better -


Yes, they might eat rotting things but dogs aren't scavengers; they're predators and opportunists. A vulture's digestive sytsem is better suited to do the job you're describing. For dogs, my vet calls it "dietary indiscretion." The cure is a round of antibiotics or meds for protozoal infection. 




> Please don't anyone try to turn this into a debate about animal care. We take care of our animals. They get daily attention. They get vet care. They have no parasites, internal or external. They have shelter if they so desire. I am only commenting about the food thing.


The thread _is _ about animal care; not necessarily yours however. I don't find anything wrong with feeding pigs worms, but rotten slop with maggots? It isn't an animal issue. Like so many other things it is a human issue. Why spend money on feed when one has access to free rotting garbage? Given no choice , a pig will eat it. Given no choice a pig will cool off in its urine. Given no choice a pig will eat its feces. Given no outlet, pigs will do a lot of things for which they've earned the distinctions their names recall. My pigs are incredibly cleaner than my goats have ever been. Pigs are clean, intelligent animals who will root for nourishment and diversion, not to find rotten garbage. I'm sure someone is going to jump in here and say something like "let's agree to disagree." I feel sorry for the pigs in the care of those who think feeding garbage is good for pigs and great for the homesteader's pocket.


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## Paula

Dogs and pigs are scavengers first, predators only if necessary. They do not normally get sick from eating dead things. If they do get sick, it's likely that from inexperience (dogs) they ate too much hair. Then once they throw it up they're fine. They don't need antibotics if they eat something dead. If they are healthy with good immune systems protozoa are not a problem. Protozoal infection comes more from surface water contamination anyway. BTW, most dogs today aren't necessarily healthy with good immune systems because we feed them a totally unnatural diet. Corn based, cooked to death with no enzymes. 
I worked at a foxhunt years ago. I saw hounds thrive on animal carcasses. Dead cows and horses mostly. When an animal died in the area they were fed to the hounds. When the hounds were out hunting and came across a dead animal they ate and literally rolled in the carcass. They were the most fit, tough, healthy bunch of dogs I've ever seen. 
Dietary indescretion or healthy food nature created them to eat? Depends on how citified your views of nature are.


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## Paula

And guess what? If you put a bucket of rotten slop with maggots next to a bucket of corn a pig will pick the maggoty slop every time.


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## Tango

Paula, I won't argue with your way of raising pigs. I don't even know you. Your comparison of eating grubs in the wild vs feeding rotten garbage teeming with maggots, and fresh carcass vs rotting flesh needs some additional thought on your end but if you think they are the same, fine with me. We're not in a classroom. But pigs are omnivores. Dogs are predators; they are both opportunists, not scavengers. I see wild pig sounders all the time where I live and they are rooting up fields (which some people on this forum will keep them from doing as well), not munching rotting flesh. As for the bucket of rotting slop with maggots vs, the bucket of corn, well my pigs would have passed on both. I guarantee it. They knew there was better. But they will not starve themselves to death. It is only with a limited selection that pigs make the choices you're giving them. Cows will eat chicken litter when given no choice. Just look at all the problems in our food chain because we look for -literally- ***** to feed to save money or make money. That is after all why I raise my own for the table- to avoid the health problems and to honor the animals my way. Perhaps that is citified to you and others. It doesn't matter to me in the least; its kind of funny that you say it at all. BTW, my Catahoula kills and eats opossums. She's gorgeous. And she stays out of garbage


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## Paula

We aren't arguing about my method of raising pigs. I haven't stated my method of raising pigs. I don't recall ever feeding them "garbage" though.
I know better than to get into these discussions, but the original post about not wanting to feed dog food with worms in it to dogs, then your comment to the person who fed their pigs maggots just amazed me.


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## Tango

Paula said:


> We aren't arguing about my method of raising pigs. I haven't stated my method of raising pigs. I don't recall ever feeding them "garbage" though.
> I know better than to get into these discussions, but the original post about not wanting to feed dog food with worms in it to dogs, then your comment to the person who fed their pigs maggots just amazed me.


Maybe its just me- LOL-but i still don't see that you've recognized the point in my posts. It is the only reason I reply to you. Paula, forgive me if I think you don't understand, especially since you say you don't feed garbage. Never said anything about how you raise pigs, read my post immediately above. Personally I think feeding the food with the few mealworms would have been fine for the dogs as well. Nothing wrong with feeding grubs or maggots; people eat them and are fine. My pigs root up pasture and probably find them very tasty. My only point was feeding garbage (rotting slop) with maggots. Not the maggots, but the fact that this slop was nothing more than festering garbage; unless ******* Pete put fresh leftovers in a pail and went out and added a shovelful of maggots in to the pail. Never said you feed garbage and it wasn't your post I originally responded to. It isn't the maggots, it is the rotting slop where the maggots were born, which by that time I don't consider fit for consumption for anyone. The difference between a carcass and a rotting carcass has been a point for me that you've not recognized- the difference between maggots/grub/bugs and rotting infested feed, between an omnivore and a scavenger, a predator and an opportunist... . Or perhaps you've read my points and see no distinction, in which case I've wasted my time trying to clarify. It is interesting that everyone else has taken a back seat in this thread.


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## Misty

Please don't anyone try to turn this into a debate about animal care.(paula's post)

I agree with Tango, it is about animal care. The origional post is about animal care. More later, I am off to work.
www.geocities.com/gonzalesshowpigs
www.geocities.com/buckshotboers2003


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## Paula

Tango, rotten stuff is only an issue for us mentally, not for dogs or pigs. 20 years ago I would have absolutely agreed with you, but my opinion now comes from years of watching animals that are allowed to live closer to nature than most. We can't eat rotten stuff, lots of animals won't (unless you consider silage.) Dogs and pigs will, even if given a choice, and relish it. Chickens too. And it doesn't make them sick. The issue I have with all this is that we tend to humanize animals. I guess it's our modern culture. Most people are so far from the land these days that they have no realistic understanding of how nature works. The extreme example of this are the animal rights organizations, founded and populated by city people. 
My only purpose in posting on this was to try to get people to think. Animals are not little humans, so shouldn't be held to human standards. Each species is different, created by nature to fill a different niche.


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## RedneckPete

I feed my pigs slop from a local resteraunt.

I know that in some poeple's mind this makes me one step below the pigs I eat, but I choose to ignore these silly comments.

Pigs will eat maggots, it does them no harm. If you care to tell me your pig, upon finding a three day dead groundhog would not eat it, I simply don't believe you.

My pigs are happy, have more room to root and run they any pig could ask for. They have a wallow that would make a whale jealous and all the food they could ask for. Trust me, a few maggots is only an issue to you.

Long live the bacon!

Pete


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## stanb999

First the fact that dog will eat things that are really gross to us is without question. Example is our little lab/husky mix has brought the legs of a winter kill deer into the yard to chew on. She only gets good feed in the house because I feel that if I eat quility food she should too. But she really likes that discusting stuff.

As for the cost of feed dog VS pig. I can't believe you can get Dog food cheaper than Pig feed. For example 50 lbs of wally world "old roy" is 10 bucks. I can get 75 lbs of "balanced" hog ration at the feed mill for 7.50 . 

With this I'd feed the "tainted" feed to which ever animal you wish. But remember that dog feed is more than Pig feed.


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## stellie

buckshotboers said:


> Pork, same thing. I had people buy hogs for butcher from a friend who fed only groceries, i.e...milk, bread etc......they came to us becaust that meat was terrible. They like our hogs and the meat. .


It wasn't from what they were eating, I can assure you! We feed dairy waste and bakery leavings and our hogs are prized by all that buy from us because they are TASTY! It's primarily in fat content that you find a great deal of nastiness -- running a hog, letting it run around, having it free-range; that is *the* best meat. Lean, long and free.

Our milk/bread fed beasts gain many full bellies after the local firemen's barbeque each year and people from all over come back for more in the years after.


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## RedneckPete

The following is my experience.

When people do a lot of physical work, they can eat a lot of high fat low nutitional value food, and they do not get fat.

Pigs, given lots of excersice can do the same. If a pig is given lots of room to run and root, they will spend most of the day doing that. This is prime pig exercise. For anyone who thinks a rooting pig is not excercising, I would challange you to push your fist through the earth for hours on end.

While a ballanced, low fat diet may be better for a confined, barn raised pig, the slop, high fat diet does a pasture raised pig no harm. It imparts no bad flavours in the meat, and does not result in a fatty amimal.

It MAY be that if a confined pig is fed the same diet it would cause problems. I won't comment on that as I don't have experiece raising pigs that way.

Pete


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## Charleen

I posted the original question and wish to thank all for their views.

We did not have much dog food to feed, only about a 20# bag. We soaked about 2# per day in goat milk and fed it out. Pigs loved it. It would not have bothered me to feed this to the dog as originally intended, but I was veto-ed. So, by general agreement, it went to the pigs.

I agree that people tend to humanize their animals. Just walk into a pet store and view all the different tastes of animal foods. Why doesn't someone invent mouse-flavored cat food? Because it wouldn't appeal to humans.

Last year, we fed our pigs whole wheat and oats that we sprouted in goat milk along with EVERYTHING from our garden. Corn stalks, Pea vines, brussel sprouts, bolted spinach, cukes & zukes, duck eggs, even some burned chocolate chip cookies. Hanging weights were 200 & 250# at 5 months of age. We were very pleased with our meat and increased our pigs up to 5, already have 4 sold. 

Thanks again for all your insights.


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