# New to pigs, geting Guinea hogs!



## critterluv (Jan 17, 2008)

Ok I am officialy on the list for a pair of guinea hogs, hopefully my name will come up this year but I might have to wait till next year. I am totaly new to pigs, these will be my first. I need to know housing for them as babys and then as adults, can a pair live together? do they need seperet pens? Whats best to feed these little guys? Any advise for a complete pig nubie would be apreciated. Oh and im in KS what kind of shelter? a full stall in a barn or a run in shelter bedded with straw?


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## Levonsa (Dec 17, 2008)

You will really enjoy these pigs. We feed ours very little feed, extra milk, eggs and garden extras. They graze the pasture with the cows and horses during the day. We feed them in a smaller pen and leave them penned up at night just to keep them closer to the house since we have a few coyotes around. We bought a small used porta hut and it is working great for ours. As babies, a dog house will work for them. They are very friendly and much smarter than I would have ever guessed. I hope that we have our first litter next month. Good luck.


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## blu_redneck (Dec 26, 2007)

Hello to all!
I too have guinea hogs in Okla. Got mine at Skyfire in Kansas as piglets, August a year ago. They are such a joy to be around and yes, very intelligent, gentle, and love a good belly rub. Yes, the pair can be housed together. Mine were right up until the first litter arrived on July 16. The boar was mildly interested in the piglets, gave them a sniff and went on back to his wallow. The birth snuck up on me because they were "romantic" Feb., March, and April. I was thinking I had another month before Clara needed to be moved to the nursery! Well, she had other plans. Anyway, we moved her and the litter down the hill to the nursery with little to no problems. She wasn't aggressive at all as the piglets were moved away from her, although we took great precautions. The boar, Hamhock stayed out of the way while all the moving was going on and only came over once curious as what was going on. Now Momma and piggies live in the nursery and poor Hamhock is in the bachelor quarters.

Due to lack of fence I have my hogs in large pens made from cattle panels as that is what I had. They get alfalfa pellets, hog pellets, and rolled oats for feed twice a day.(about 1 cup ea. of the above/pig) Even the piglets are starting to eat a little more of this each day. They also get kitchen scraps(lettuce leafs, tomatoes, potatoe peels, salad mix, any veggie scraps, etc.) from the cafe where I work and from home. And all the hay they want, free choice.....which is ususally about 3 flakes/week from square bales. Plus any garden scraps and of course hog weeds. When we move their pen to a new area, they get to forage the new area. I'm fencing in a garden area this fall and guess who will be doing the tilling?

Any roofed shelter will work. My guineas have a three sided shelter that i rotate with the season....ie. back to the North in the winter and front facing of course south to catch the warming sun. I pile it deep in the winter with hay. I've never had to clean it out, they go out to potty and they eat the bedding. So I just have to keep an eye on it to resupply.

If I didn't have folks around me that have a "let's shoot everything" mentality, I'd love to let my hogs go out during the day to forage as they should be able to. Until then this is what works for us.

Have fun with your piggies! Hope this gives you a few pointers.
Anna <('(..)')>


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## Menglish (May 7, 2009)

Well, since this post was started I've done a ton of reading on Guinea Hogs and I think I want some. Do these hogs root under a fence as others would? IE does the fence need to be buried? If they are pastured does anyone know how much pasture 2-3 hogs would need? IE would 1 acre of pasture be enough for 3 hogs or would they need more? 

I know I will think of more questions but I'll ask more later! LOL

Mike


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## blu_redneck (Dec 26, 2007)

Hi All!
Sorry to take so long to reply! Anyone interested in Guinea Hogs should visit http://www.americanguineahogassociation.org. lots of good info there as well as a breeders list. Also http://www.albc-usa.org, also lots of good info on Guinea Hogs as well as other endangerd animals. Plus, these folks also have info on where some of the breeds are as well as breeders, and are very helpful to do so with just an e-mail. If you would like to join the Guinea Hog group go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/guineahogs. They all love to talk about their Guinea Hogs, as well as answer questions regarding care, fencing, feeding, or about any question related to Guinea hogs.

In answer to your question Mike, yes Guinea hogs will root under a fence. They are just like any other hog in most respects, except they are a lot more docile, love a good belly rub, a very social with each other and you, come in a smaller package for meat on the hoof, forage well if pastured, and will steal your heart as they have stolen mine.

As for an acre being enough pasture for two-three Guinea Hogs, I'm sure there are much more experienced folks on the group that could answer that. I'm a first year greenhorn myself. Learning as I go. So far, one pair of Guineas and the first litter was July 16...so I'm new to them too. IMO however, If one acre is all you have....section it so you can rotate the pigs. Whenever I move mine to a new pen area and these are not small pens (probably 40x30) everything is nice and green...very pretty picture. In as little as 14 hours they have completely rooted the area up. I guess I could ring their noses, but that's just what pigs do and I can live with it. And no my fence is not buried, it's full cattle panels....picked the most level places and built a pen.

Have fun with them when you finally get Guinea Hogs! They are very forgiving as far as learning as you go. Afterall they (if you start with piglets) are learning too.
Regards, Anna


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## twohunnyz (Apr 27, 2006)

How exciting for you! Enjoy and please keep us updated, other newbies (like me) want to learn from you! Some things one simply cannot learn from a book or website. 

Speaking of learning, what is the growth rate of guineas? What is the average time to they reach market weight, and what is their typical market weight? By market I mean for the small ranch/farm.

It was mentioned that someone pastures theirs in with cattle, their diminutive size doesn't cause any problems with larger livestock? What about with sheep? And, lastly for now, how are they around dogs?

Krystal


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## Levonsa (Dec 17, 2008)

I guess that I should be more clear about my guineas grazing with the cows and horses, all my animals are miniatures. We also have a miniature Australian Sheperd and the pigs aren't bothered by him at all. So far ours have only rooted up the worst parts of the pasture. By dragging and reseeding the portions they have rooted up, we are making some headway on renovating the pastures. I am very excited to have our first litter soon.


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## blu_redneck (Dec 26, 2007)

Guinea hogs growth rate....hmmm. Well, my babies are about 5-7 pounds each, depending on which one you get,ie the runt or the biggest one at 3 1/2 weeks. They are about 6 inches tall and roughly 10-12 inches long. Now the Momma is about knee high on me, about 16 inches tall. She is in full bag being she is nursing and probably weighs at least 175 pds. Guess I really should measure her to find out her rough weight. She is about 3 ft long, snout to tail. Papa is about 20 inches tall, 225-250 pds.,maybe 3 1/2 ft. long. They are both a little over 14 months old. As for when they could reach butcher weight...IMO, about 8 to ten months. Of course I would very careful not to feed them like a regular pig as this would only add fat. Unless of course you have use for lots more lard than meat....I will shoot for a good marbling and just enough fat for good flavor. Next, I would reserve this privilidge for culls...a cantancerious or hateful pig is the first to go! I don't want that trait passed on to my herd...so it will be supper!

I should also add here that I've been feeding the piglets for the better part of 2 weeks. They eat same feed as Momma. Sometimes I mix milk or water with it to make it soft, but they like it just as well solid.

As for larger animals with the pigs....I think they could hold their own. Pecking order just like with chickens....everyone will need to sort out their place. A piglet could get stepped on if it wandered under a cow just like a regular pig. I'm sure they could roam with sheep, goats, cattle, whatever just fine. The fence would be the real problem....little pigs and usually big holes. (Electric fence/perimeter fence) I couldn't really answer about dogs, don't have any...unless the dog was trying to get a piglet all would be well. The only thing I could really tell ya about first hand is chickens and pigs...and the chickens walk in and out of the hog pens daily to gather missed feed/no problems.

Hope this helps! Enjoyed sharing!
TTYL....Anna


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## Mare Owner (Feb 20, 2008)

Glad to see some Guinea Hog discussion here! I have a gilt due to farrow any day now, our second litter, and I'm so excited to see what she will have.

We raise ours in large dirt pens that run up under a lean-to off the east side of one of our barns. We bed deep with straw and hay in winter, in summer they have mud wallows in their same pens. We feed whole oats or corn, depending on what we have, plus kitchen and garden scraps, grass and weeds picked for them, and hay all year round.

They did root up the yard when allowed to wander, though our newest gilt is out wandering daily and doesn't do much rooting at all, prefers to eat greens. The older hogs we haven't had a chance to pasture yet, haven't had time to fence off any pasture.

We also raise beef cattle and horses and I tried once to allow one of the adults out to graze for the day, but the cattle went after the sow and rolled her. She was unhurt, but we didn't do that again!

We'll be butchering our first Guineas this fall, probably end of Sept or first of Oct when they are about 8 months old. We're planning to do one boar (uncut) and one gilt and serve meat from both during our fall cattle drive to get several opinions on the meat.

What I really like about these hogs are their docile nature, smaller size, and their ability to thrive on small amounts of feed. My website is in dire need of an update, but you can see some of our hogs and how we raise them at http://www.sugarstonefarm.com.


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## twohunnyz (Apr 27, 2006)

They sound terrific! This is exciting, I think they may be the breed for us! We are very involved in heritage breeds- rabbits, chickens and dogs- so they fit right into our breed conservation philosophy. :sing:

Thank you for the replies! And your website is full of fantastic information, just what I like. 

So, do any of you practice rotational pasture grazing? If it may not be the best idea to have a small breed of pig in with a large breed of cattle, perhaps have the pigs follow in the paddock rotation behind the cattle? And in with sheep, will they do okay with sheep? Sounds like for sows with litters they need a separate paddock altogether?

Krystal


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