A week ago today ( may21 ) , I bought two 50 pound feeder pigs .they are eating their regular pig feed just fine but will not touch any scraps that I put in there . Anyone know why or what I should do about it? What I've given them so far is watermelon rind , too ripe bananas , a few cucumbers , and some left over aspargas . I even tried to cut it up in smaller pieces with no luck . Could it be that try just aint hungry enough ? they are on a full feed . Any hints , as this is my first experince with pigs . Thanks
If they have been raised on feed alone until now, they may not have developed a taste for scraps. They will eat anything if they are hungry enough. The guy up the road said that his pigs wouldn't touch cucumbers, but mine love them. YMMV
At 50 pounds these pigs aren't the eating machines that they will be in a couple of months. Give them just the scraps for a day, clean up what they don't eat if anything is left. You don't want them to eat rancid food. My pigs eat about anything they can fit their mouths around. You don't need to cut it up for them. Have patience, use common sense, and observe your animals daily and you will be successfull. Good luck.
Give them time. Right now everything is still new to them. The first time we raised pigs we were looking forward to feeding them our excess milk and garden scraps. Up until we bought them they had been raised on concrete. Their new pen with fresh air, grass, and dirt was strange and new. The first time we put milk in for them they acted afraid of it. We had to dump it the next morning. Three days of this. Then the 4th day one little pig decided to get brave and try the milk. That's all it took. After that they were all 7 racing to the fence when ever they saw us with the scrap pail.
you have to take the feed out and make them get use to other types of feed.. they have preferences just like humans.. they get use to a diet and that time to change
