# Do Pigs eat Goats??



## VFulton (Jan 26, 2009)

I'm new here and yes I noticed there's already a "chickenista" (Sorry girl.) I have a question. My goat was soppose to kid like this week but last week we noticed some of her baby bump gone. It's her first kidding and we had her with pigs(her friends) until she was soppose to go to her own area this week. No trace of a kid anywhere, could the pigs of eaten it??? :Bawling: Please help should I separate her??


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## ajharris (Jan 26, 2006)

Yes, separate her. Pigs will eat goats. Pigs like to eat most anything. The smell of the blood would have set them off.


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## myheaven (Apr 14, 2006)

I fully agree with amanda. My pig (boar) ate my broody turkey alive cuz she found him attractive. aka went into position for him. So he grabbed her tale tasted blood and ate the rest It was a hard thing to see. Exp with her being our turkey for turkeyday and weighing over 30 lb.


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## beccachow (Nov 8, 2008)

I googled this (love google) and was quite disturbed at my findings. There were reports of eating everyting from other pigs/piglets, chickens, ducks, to, yes, baby goats. They are omnivorous, it turns out. I'd move your doe ASAP.


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## barelahh (Apr 13, 2007)

Some folks even dispose of bodies by feeding them to pigs. they get rid of the evidence including the bones


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## Dodgegal79 (Aug 29, 2008)

Thats what Willy Pickton did here in Vancouver. Pig will eat anything, I hope they didn;t eat your baby goat. Does she have any milk?? That might tell you if she kid.


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## timber runner (Jan 31, 2009)

barelahh said:


> Some folks even dispose of bodies by feeding them to pigs. they get rid of the evidence including the bones


there is a local man here that convicted of disposeing of two wives by feeding them to pigs. so dont run anything with pigs


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## Ronney (Nov 26, 2004)

Welcome to the site 

Now let's get back to reality. Pigs will eat anything - under the right circumstances. They are omnivores and opportunists so if people persist in putting temptation in their way, they will take it.

Under no circumstances should cows, sheep, goats etc. that are close to giving birth, be left in the same paddock as a pig, any pig, no matter how nice a pig it is. They are attracted to the warm, fresh smell of blood and birthing fluids and that's the end of the calf, lamb, kid - and sometimes the mother as well.

If the goat has a well developed udder and you feel that she had kidded, the chances are that piggy has had a free feed. Write it off to experience and use it as a learning curve. Not a good way to learn I must admit but many of us here have learnt the hard way. 

Cheers,
Ronnie


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## 4h farmer (Jan 21, 2009)

does she show any milk and does is she runnin around like she is missing something she would tell you if something is wrong she would be acted different


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## beccachow (Nov 8, 2008)

barelahh said:


> Some folks even dispose of bodies by feeding them to pigs. they get rid of the evidence including the bones


Remember the HBO series Deadwood? They always threw dead bodies into the pig pens!!!! I thought it was odd, until this thread made me do research...goodness, who woulda thought old Porky could be so gruesome?!


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## Dodgegal79 (Aug 29, 2008)

LOL, I love Deadwood


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## Amylb999 (Jan 28, 2007)

This may be a silly question but are you sure she kidded? Is there blood/ amniotic fluid on her rear? Maybe her baby shifted it's position making her belly look different. Just a thought, I would still separate her from the pigs.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

regardless of if she has kidded or not female goats sheep and cattle should NEVER EVER be kept with pigs, pigs will even use their tusks to gouge out the vulva of a female in heat or giveing birth, they can easily kill and eat a new born and bleed out the adult female in heat, 

some pigs will leave a chicken alone but that is risky too, small animals are fair game, pigs should be kept with pigs and nothing else if you want to keep your other livestock safe


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## Laura Workman (May 10, 2002)

Hmmm. Another argument for potbellies as meat pigs. 

About your goat, though, the babies will kind of "drop" a bit before kidding, leaving hollows in the flanks where there were none before. Maybe that is what you were seeing. If she isn't overfull with milk and leaking fluids, I'd guess she hasn't kidded yet.


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## Janis Sauncy (Apr 11, 2006)

beccachow said:


> Remember the HBO series Deadwood? They always threw dead bodies into the pig pens!!!! I thought it was odd, until this thread made me do research...goodness, who woulda thought old Porky could be so gruesome?!


Haven't you ever heard the saying, "So-and-so went to take a 'pooh' and the hogs ate 'im?"

That saying probably came from _somewhere_......

Actually, I've had pigs. The last two I raised for meat I watched them catch a couple of baby chicks that had gotten into their pen, fight over them, and then the winner eat them alive.

I would suggest, if you think your goat needs company, to get another goat (that should be the case anyway).

Janis


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

beccachow said:


> Remember the HBO series Deadwood? They always threw dead bodies into the pig pens!!!! I thought it was odd, until this thread made me do research...goodness, who woulda thought old Porky could be so gruesome?!


there was a movie named "snatch" where a gangster used pigs to dispose or people. hideous, lol.


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## farmmaid (Jan 13, 2003)

1- Separate her NOW
2-If her udder is not tight or she is not dripping fluids/blood "trail" she has not kidded yet. How many days is she now being prego?


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

I would separate sheep and goats from pigs during birthing. The bloody newborn is just too tempting. Once the lambs (we have sheep not goats) are up and active they get along fine with the pigs. It is just when their newborn that it is an issue. Other than that, we pasture our sheep with our pigs and poultry. They co-graze great.

Cheers

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


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## Dodgegal79 (Aug 29, 2008)

Thats why they cut pigs tails short too, they will chew them off if kept in close quarters. I remember when we had our pigs they will eats each other back end when they are in heat, one had a prolapse, that was gross.


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## COSunflower (Dec 4, 2006)

I must have had some NICE pigs then!!! I had 2 big pot bellies who lived to be in their teens and they ranged with my goats and chickens and nothing ever came up missing! They had about a half acre though. The chickens would sleep on top of the pigs under the the old canopy at night. It was funny to watch one of them come out in the early morning for their feed with a hen riding on their back! LOL


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## woodsman (Dec 8, 2008)

From the script of the 2001 movie "The Snatch"



> BRICK TOP
> 
> And then I hear the best thing to do
> is feed 'em to pigs. You gotta starve
> ...


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## Anderson farms (Mar 26, 2007)

I started reading thread and was going to mention Deadwood myself. My dh and I love that show. We had a pig prolapse and it was pretty yucky what they had done to him. They do seem to go a little nutty at the smell of blood. Sorry if you lost your goat's baby.


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## Jackie (Jun 20, 2008)

A friend of mine had a sow give birth in the big community pen before he realized she was going to. He went out and found what was left of a litter of pigs. So ya, they will even eat each other if the opportunity presents itself.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Dodgegal79 said:


> Thats why they cut pigs tails short too, they will chew them off if kept in close quarters.


I have read the same thing, that it is a problem of confinement reared pigs. We leave our pigs tails long and don't have this problem, of tail biting, but they are all pastured so they have lots of space. I take that back, I've twice seen a bully pig tail bite but she was biting everything of the pig she was dominating. Moving her to a different group, of bigger growers, solved that issue - she went from Alpha to omega.

Interestingly, we have a clear genetic line of pig that are naturally short tailed. They are born with long tails but the tails die which fall off within the first week. At first I thought that this was from piglets in large litters accidentally suckling on each other's tails instead of teats. But then I saw it happen on some piglets that were isolated which we were hand rearing. I've also seen large litters that didn't have this happen at all. We have seen this in both warm and cold weather so its not frost bite or sunburn. The mothers who have short tails tend to have piglets with short tails. They also tend to have much larger litters which was what had originally confused me about the tail sucking. My guess is they are genetically predisposed to poor circulation in the tails. The only thing that's consistent is that the trait definitely follows one lineage in our herds.

Cheers

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


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## farmergirl (Aug 2, 2005)

barelahh said:


> Some folks even dispose of bodies by feeding them to pigs. they get rid of the evidence including the bones


That's what we've always done 

Kidding folks, kidding!


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## Feral Nature (Feb 21, 2007)

I once named a feral sow "Hannibella".


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## fixer1958 (Dec 12, 2005)

My dad always told me that hogs will eat anything that doesn't eat them first.
I am going to try and raise a couple this year.
Could be interesting..

We had a potbelly for 10 years. He lived in the garage and came and went as he pleased like the dogs. 
It could get ugly for scraps. The dogs have some scars from it.
I have a few shin scars because he didn't like me that much.
He liked my wife better than me.


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